Mileage included in the minimum fare
Plenty of local rules set a minimum fare that buys something: not just a floor under short trips, but a fixed distance the passenger has already paid for.
Taximeter 55 handles this. You set the allowance on the fare rules screen, by choosing Minimum fare includes limited mileage and entering the distance.
What the meter shows while you drive through it
The interesting part is what happens on the road, because the meter has to show you a distance the passenger has already bought.
The trip starts at the minimum fare, and the charged distance is negative. That is the app telling you how much of the included allowance is still ahead of you. Nothing is being added on top yet, so the distance and time fares both read zero.
As you drive, that negative number counts up towards zero. When it reaches zero the allowance is used up, and the per-distance rate starts adding to the fare.
Now the charged distance is positive — the distance driven beyond the allowance — and the total has moved above the minimum fare by exactly that distance at the fare’s per-distance rate. The two screens above are the same trip, a minute apart.
A worked example
A British one, since these rules are common there. Northumberland’s Blyth zone charges £2.20 for the first 500 yards, then 20p every 225 yards.
- Minimum fare — 2.20.
- Included mileage — 500 yards is 0.284 miles.
- Fare per mile — 20p per 225 yards is about £1.56 per mile (0.20 ÷ 225 × 1760).
A trip that stops inside 500 yards costs £2.20. A one-mile trip charges 1 − 0.284 = 0.716 miles on top, so £2.20 + £1.12 = £3.32.
The same shape covers the other common British pattern — “£1.80 to start, which gets you 510 yards, then 10p per ⅕ of a mile”: 510 yards is 0.29 miles, and 10p per fifteenth of a mile is £1.50 per mile.
Time while the allowance is running
A passenger sitting in traffic inside the included mileage is a question every operator answers differently, so it is a setting of its own: add the time charge anyway, take it out of the remaining mileage, hold it back, or waive it. Idle time with a minimum mileage compares the four.
On Android
The same settings, and the same behaviour on the meter.
More on fares:
Fare rules ▪︎ Fare editor ▪︎ Time rules ▪︎ Idle time with a minimum mileage
