Good news for drunk taxi passengers (or just riders with bad math skills) is less good for taxi drivers. After this week the auto-suggested tips for rides under $15 in taxi cabs with VeriFone Taxi TVs will stop being $2, $3 and $4 options and instead resort to the standard 20, 25 and 30 percent defaults already available in the Creative Mobile Technologies Taxi TVs. Hurrah!
The change, which kicks in after this week, comes after a number of customers reportedly complained to the TLC that some riders were being offered default tips that can be half of the cost of a short trip. "Our job is to look out for the customer," TLC chair David Yassky said. "A default tip setting that can be 50 percent of the fare is just a little too high."
According to the city the average tip in taxi cabs is 18 percent but the majority of taxi riders who use credit cards prefer to use the preset tips rather than enter a number themselves and can get screwed for it—which is why the presets in VeriFone cabs are now being changed. Of course, not everyone is going to love the new presets, especially hacks. Drivers, who are already losing five percent of total fares to credit card fees, are now likely to make less on tips from lazy riders under the new system.
Meanwhile, in other taxi news, a preliminary plan for how the much-heralded new livery cab street hail system will go says that the new livery cabs—which will likely have fare rates matching existing yellow cabs—will not be required to have Taxi TVs in them (though they will have to take credit cards). Score one for those who hate noise pollution while trying to get places!
