Fixed price vs metered taxis: what's the real difference?
A meter charges for time and distance as the journey happens. A fixed fare is agreed before you get in. Both are legitimate ways to price a taxi ride, but they carry the risk differently, and that's the part most people don't think about until they're standing at the kerb wondering what the final number is going to be.
Who carries the risk
With a meter, if the M4 is standing still at Junction 6, that delay is your cost — you're paying for the time spent not moving. With a fixed fare, that risk sits with us, not you. Slough to Heathrow is £18 in a saloon whether the run takes 15 minutes at 2am or 35 minutes in Friday rush hour. We quote the fare knowing traffic happens; you don't need to.
Where a meter can still make sense
A short, unpredictable local hop with no fixed route — nipping between two addresses in the same town with no clear best way to go — is one of the few cases where a meter isn't obviously worse. If the journey is genuinely short and traffic-light, the difference between the two pricing models barely matters.
Where fixed price clearly wins
- Airport runs, where a missed connection or a long queue at the drop-off has real consequences and the last thing you want is the fare climbing while you're stuck
- Longer journeys — Marlow to Heathrow, say, at a fixed £30 saloon fare — where thirty minutes of variance in journey time would swing a metered fare by a noticeable amount
- Anything booked in advance, since you can compare the fixed number against the value of the trip before you commit to it
- Group travel, where the fare is being split and everyone wants to know their share before setting off, not after
The trust question
A fixed fare only works if the number quoted is the number charged — no surcharge sprung on at the destination, no "that was heavier traffic than usual" excuse. Every fare we quote, from a £10 Burnham-to-Slough hop to a £75 executive run to Gatwick, is the number you pay, confirmed at booking and unaffected by which route the driver takes to get you there. If a fixed fare can move once you're in the car, it isn't really a fixed fare — it's a meter with extra steps.
Ask for the price before you book, whichever operator you're calling. If they can't give you a number until the meter starts running, that tells you something about how the risk in that journey is being shared.