there's this weird myth that taxi drivers can bump up the meter and it's kind of true but not in the way that you might expect hello everyone my name is tom the taxi driver and welcome to my channel where i share a lot of insight from the london taxi trade if you enjoy what i do here consider hitting that subscribe button down below it doesn't matter where you're from people always have this notion that cab drivers will always go around the houses to bump up the meter and while yes that method does technically work the meter will go higher the only problem is is that it takes a lot of time time is my biggest enemy in the cab when i come out i can only work as hard as the meter i only have so many hours in the day to make that meter go as high as possible so the biggest secret to the taxi meter is not distance but it's actually efficiency or turning over multiple jobs and make sure you stay to the very end because i'll be sharing that one specific tool that london taxi drivers have to make their meter earnings go even further the modern taxi meter was actually invented towards the end of the NUMBER_TOKENth century NUMBER_TOKEN a german man called frederick gustaf wilhelm brun in berlin taxi meters were originally a mechanical device mounted to the outside of the cab and interestingly enough is actually from the word taxi meter that we get the terminology taxi i.e a vehicle fitted with a taxi meter is therefore a taxi it wasn't until the NUMBER_TOKENs where electronic meters were introduced so of course it makes the calibration process much much simpler i still have to get my meter assessed every single year as part of transport for london's overhaul surface my meter has to be certified to ensure that it is running at the current tariff which is stipulated by transport for london within my london taxi the meter is the only part of the vehicle that i do not own i have to rent that every single year and despite its technical looking appearance there's only one button i use on a daily basis on off start stop on off start stop that's it that's all i do with that meter now there is a button on my meter called extras and in decades gone by that might have been for extra passengers it might have been for extra luggage but the only reason you will see that being used today in london is if your journey starts at heathrow airport where the driver can add NUMBER_TOKEN pound NUMBER_TOKEN of extras to the meter and that is to reimburse the driver for their costs of going through the heathrow theatre park hedgrow feeder park is a giant taxi rank and the driver has to pay seven pounds to join that taxi rank that's the basic meter functions and even if i did somehow had a way of making the meter run faster that's technically fraud which is punishable by jail and i don't really want to go there so with meter manipulation off the table what other options do i have to get the most out of the taxi meter now i actually have historical evidence of taxi drivers wanting to be the most efficient to get the most out of their meters and it's a simple phrase which if you're a londoner or if you've got taxis in decades gone by you in doubt would have heard this at some point and
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