21/09/2026
NB taken from another post….
Least we have clear precise prising that doesn’t change depending on our moods.

Ever wonder why taxis on a Friday seem to have had random fees added? Well I emailed one and got a reply making it clear what we are actually paying for.
Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for contacting us regarding the additional £5.00 charge applied to your recent journey.
We completely understand your confusion and are therefore pleased to explain that this charge was actually applied for your benefit.
As a gesture of goodwill, our driver exercised their discretion under our Customer Assistance & Vehicle Preservation Initiative, whereby passengers may be charged a small additional amount to help prevent them from being exposed to significantly higher costs later in the journey.
In your particular case, the £5.00 charge represented an exceptionally generous discount on the actual cost of accommodating the additional passenger weight.
Our calculations indicate that transporting you placed additional strain on several important vehicle components, including the rear suspension, auxiliary axle compensator, passenger-load balancing unit, gearbox stabilisation assembly and the increasingly rare electronic bonnet torque regulator.
Had we charged the full amount, the fee could have been considerably higher.
Instead, our driver kindly capped the charge at just £5.00, effectively absorbing the remaining costs themselves. We therefore consider this to have been a substantial saving for you.
For transparency, our policy allows this charge to be applied every 10 minutes without prior warning. This is designed to ensure that customers receive the benefit of the charge without the unnecessary stress of knowing when it is going to happen.
We also appreciate that you may wonder why passengers should contribute towards vehicle wear and tear when carrying passengers is, traditionally, what taxis are designed to do.
Unfortunately, modern passengers are considerably heavier than passengers were in the past, and therefore place increased pressure on components such as the passenger-side differential, rear-seat turbocharger and internal wheel bearings.
It is worth noting that the £5.00 charge also helps maintain these components, even though two of them don’t actually exist and one is normally found on a forklift truck.
We hope you can therefore see that the charge was not an attempt to take additional money from you, but rather a thoughtful financial intervention designed to save you money in the long term.
In fact, had our driver not applied the £5.00 charge, you could potentially have been liable for a much larger Emergency Passenger Mass Stabilisation Fee, estimated at approximately £47.60.
We trust this clarifies the situation and hope you appreciate the considerable financial favour our driver performed on your behalf.
Kind regards,
Customer Care & Passenger Financial Assistance Department
Helping customers save money by charging them money.
Please note: All charges are subject to change without notice, explanation, justification or mathematical consistency.
