What kind of taxi-driver shenanigans did I participate in?

March 17, 2011 2:53 PM

What kind of taxi-driver shenanigans did I participate in?

Yesterday afternoon I was in Washington DC riding in a taxi cab. About a mile or so short of my destination, the cabbie turned off the meter and said "OK, that's enough" and then kept on driving.

I said "Um, but we're not actually there yet." and he just kept on driving and said "It's okay, it's okay" in a very friendly manner.

He took me to my requested destination, and the meter fare ended up $7.50 instead of the $10 that it should have been. I couldn't figure out what was going on and it all seemed odd, so I gave him $10 anyway and told him to keep the change.

What just happened there? He clearly wasn't scamming me -- he seems to have been trying to give me a discount. But what was he doing?

Was that an elaborate ruse to reflect lower cash intake on the meter recording in order to short the tax man, all the while relying on confusion/politeness of passengers to tip heavily in the face of unexpected generosity?

Or was the guy just nice and/or nuts?

Worth noting that he didn't give me any "hey baby" vibe or behavior that would suggest I was getting a "hot girl" discount. (Not that I'm saying I'm hot, but you know what I mean ...) And at no point did he take a circuitous route or do anything weird to drive the fare up. He was perfectly polite and professional.

I'm not complaining, I'm just curious about what that was.

posted by mccxxiii to Travel & Transportation (13 answers total)

How odd. Were you particularly friendly and chatty?
posted by BigCalm at 2:59 PM on March 17, 2011

It's possible that he assumed you would give him the difference between the metered fare and the actual fare, which means that he would get to keep all of the difference as a tip instead of having to turn the majority of it over to the cab company.
posted by decathecting at 2:59 PM on March 17, 2011

I gave him $10 anyway and told him to keep the change.

Pretty sure this is your answer right here.
posted by Aquaman at 3:01 PM on March 17, 2011 [7 favorites]

He's more than likely intending to short-change his boss rather than the tax-man. But, yes, more money in his pocket = quite obviously the reason, here.
posted by astrochimp at 3:23 PM on March 17, 2011

Yeah, tip.

I think this is smart on his part too. If it was around 10$ what would you have given him, if it is $9.50 he ends up risking getting 50 cents unless you dig out other bills for the tip. I think $7.50 is almost the perfect "keep the change" price.

In service industries things are often oddly priced to generate tips. In bars it is often $x.50 a beer to almost guarantee the bartender a 50 cent tip on a beer even though the bar needs to keep an insane amount of quarters on hand.
posted by Ad hominem at 3:30 PM on March 17, 2011

Really, sometimes cabbies just dole out some random niceness to people who seem nice.
posted by desuetude at 3:57 PM on March 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yup, desuetude has it right. I've had a couple cabbies turn off the meter early, usually on long rides.
posted by cozenedindigo at 4:41 PM on March 17, 2011

Thirding desuetude. As a lifelong taxi taker, sometimes someone is just being nice.
posted by msali at 7:23 PM on March 17, 2011

And here I am missing the zone system.
posted by stratastar at 7:27 PM on March 17, 2011

I don't think it's just being nice, although it might be. Some taxi drivers don't own their vehicles--they just rent them and have to pay a certain percentage of the fares back to the people/companies they work for. So, by only reporting that he was making $7.50, he gets to keep all of the extra dollars instead of giving a portion to the boss.
posted by p. kitty at 7:48 PM on March 17, 2011

i've had this happen fairly often in nyc, almost always when the cabbie realizes he's taken the long way by accident.
posted by qnarf at 10:31 PM on March 17, 2011

cheating the boss is probably at least part of it. also, if DC cabs get radio jobs over a dispatching system that ties to the meter status, then he was claiming to be "available" for a radio job even though he was still on his way to your destination... that way if he's lucky he can queue up his next fare before he's even dropped you off...
posted by russm at 6:29 AM on March 18, 2011

I've had what qnarf mentions happen to me in NYC, they sometimes turn off the meter if they've gone the wrong way. I've even had drivers turn off the meter if we get caught in heavy traffic.
posted by Jahaza at 6:42 AM on March 18, 2011