Simple answer to that -- fares should be FAIR and tips shouldn't be necessary.

Why tip a self-employed person anyway? What does that achieve?

Little taxis?

The markup is payed by the seller but as they so love to pass the buck you get the privlege of

paying it. I know this from experience. The banks around here tend to charge 4% for card payments.

So any time I see a discount of 4% cash-only it means the seller is passing the buck to me for other payment methods... Lucky for me I prefer cash only transfers...

Is it just me? I thought London already had a perfectly good contactless payment system? (Apart from the encryption on the chip being useless)

Surely TFL can extend the existing system to taxis rather than develop a whole new one?!

Didn't you know? Cash is so yesterday!

PayPass is the MasterCard trademark for its contactless payment system, TfL had bugger all to do with its development.

I think its mental that banks/card issuing finance firms can charge anyone an additional charge for using the facility, dont they make enough in interest?

fair enough, charge a montly fee for the the terminal but that should be it, gratuity should be outlawed too.

Don't imagine this system will be used that much, when I was in London a couple of years back, none of my fares was below a tenner and I paid in cash each time.

Ease off the black cabbies though, on quite a few occasions they knocked a few quid off because of the traffic, better than the theiving bastard private hire drivers up near me.

The whole point of tips is that they're not *necessary*, they are optional if you get a particularly good service and wish to thank the operator.

And I'm not sure why you're querying what the point of tipping a self-employed person is - would you rather send your tip to a profitable multinational company?

The recipe for no free taxis:

Ingredients:

1 taxi driver;

1 black cab;

1 Oyster-card hacker;

1 rolling-road;

Dutch-English dictionary (according to taste).

Method:

Roll;

Pay;

Re-charge / hack card;

Repeat until retiral.

A black cab journey from Heathrow to my place (approx 12 miles) costs 45 quid. A private hire costs 20. You do the maths!

And the black cabbie keeps grumbling throughout (he would rather go to Central London and earn even more money). If a private cabbie makes a reasonable living by charging 20 quid, then the 45 quid shoud keep the black cabbie happy enough for him to go where the customer demands!

And what is the tip for? It's not as if the black cabbie would ever get down and help with the luggage etc. Tips should be for people in the service industry, who earn low wages and can make up by getting 'tipped' for good service provided. Not for black cabbies who earn a decent amount anyway.

Also read about black cabbies who fleece tourists by deliberately NOT going into bus-lanes (which they are allowed to), during peak traffic hours, seems it is more profitable for them to prolong a journey rather than take on new passengers.

Maybe it is just my experience, but the only reason I would ever take a black cab is if I had no other option (and to be fair, also for security reasons late in the night).

is waving bye bye to your cash