An "agreed maximum"? What? Why not just ask for the price?
I could be wrong here, but this sounds a bit like those rare occasions when, in the early hours, after missing the last train home, a punter would say, "how much to wherever?"
I might say, "I'll do it on the the meter, or for X price, whichever is the least."
Has this been tested in court? I don't think it was one of the reasons used by TfL for withdrawing their licence.
I think that it was, a long time back, and the courts found in Uber's favour.
Pot calling the kettle black. Widespread under-declaring of income to evade income tax is no different.
True, but if H.M.R.C. suspected a black cab driver of evading tax, and mounted an in depth search into his finances, they'd win in 99.9% of cases.
"cash in hand" does not need to be literal, you can do the same thing while taking payments via credit cards or bank transfers etc...
My accountant told me that there was no way that I could under declare CC and account work, it was all open to an H.M.R.C. inspection via my bank's computerised record of statements.
If I wanted to massage my cash income, that was on me, but I had to sign to say that my accountant had advised me not to lie on my tax returns, and that if it was proved that I had, then it was without my accountant's knowledge.
of course they can, they can just do it in different ways - make up a different fixed price for a drunk customer etc.. if the money is handed direct to the drivers they can pretend they have no change etc.. or pretend that the fare is actually higher and unlike uber there isn't necessarily any audit trail of it the next day for the customer to check.
likewise a black cab can chose a longer route and again there is no record of it for the customer to refer to
Only a fool would deny that a black cab driver has never gone "the long way round", but speaking for myself, I NEVER, EVER did, the knowledge of the shortest way from A to B, was so ingrained, that I'd be hard pressed to think of a deviation.
In addition, while I was going the long way round to bump the meter up another couple of quid, I'd have been thinking, "If I'd have taken the correct route, and dropped the guy off, maybe I'd have driven round the corner, and picked up a job to Gatwick."
And to whoever asked, but I forgot to quote, yes Black Cab drivers still have to do the Knowledge.
