At least in SF, I'm pretty sure the standard deal is that the drivers pay for the cab regardless of what they get in fares. Cabs were a cash business for a hundred years, after all.
I think the deal with credit card machines in the cabs is that the cab companies see it as a revenue source. I know cab drivers grumble about the cost of using them. It makes sense to me that Stripe is cheaper for the cab drivers.
Never give your actual address. Pick a house number a few down. Especially if getting picked up to go to the airport. Some rogue/criminal taxi/uber/lyft drivers will ask questions about your trip to determine if your home will be vacant and for how long to pass the info onto someone else who will come by to burglarize your house.
A cab driver using a much cheaper service vs. the rent-seeking credit card processing they are mandated by law to use? That's a morally correct action. The immoral action (imo) is to continue to feed into the fraud that you yourself identified earlier in the thread.
I have very little problem with a cab driver doing this, just as I have very little problem with you reporting it for the reasons you mention.
And having a rather interesting early start to my career - I assure you "native" citizens get away with this kind of crap all the time.
What percentage of the population do you think scrutinizes every credit card statement line-by-line? Many people would not notice an unauthorized charge on their card. It's merely a matter of scale: some people will notice a single unauthorized charge for $5, while others won't even notice $500. Credit card fraud is rampant, and any company that willingly allows its employees to get away with it should be shut down. My experience shows that my city's taxi companies consider credit card fraud as something that doesn't even register on their radar. Drivers that operate in this manner should be criminally charged. It's not just fraud to the taxi company - it is a criminal act of theft for the customers.
You think the company doesn't have access to the meter records for fares if keeping a percentage is part of the deal? If the driver keeps 100% of the cash, why pay 7% for a credit card?
I know in Chicago most of the drivers who rent their cab by the hour/day/week prefer to use square because the fees are lower and they get paid in a week or less, not the couple months the cab company takes to pay them, if they ever do.
That seems entirely reasonable. If I were paying the bill in a restaurant and a member of staff insisted I paid using some personal transfer service, I'd probably refuse too unless I was able to confirm that it was legitimate.
you're also breaking the law if you walk out of a cab without paying.
Difficult to argue that's the case if no opportunity was offered to pay legitimately.
How funny, that as I leave such a taxi, not one of these drivers have risen their voice about my refusal to pay. One of them tried to retract by pulling out the official keypad, and by then I was already exiting the car as he shrugged his indignation. They are the ones in the legal wrong, and they know it.
I've refused to pay for, and reported to their company, 4 separate drivers in the past 2 years for this practice. I have to assume that the companies somehow don't care that their drivers are going rogue, or else this wouldn't be happening so frequently. Where is the threat of dismissal, or even better, prosecution? Same thing goes for unlicensed taxi drivers moonlighting with a friend's car - taxi drivers here are required to hang their licensed ID on the side window, and the frequency with which you find someone driving "off the books" is downright reprehensible.
The worst part is, I feel my personal safety is at risk every time I report these criminals. They are likely to know it was me, and they know where I live. It's irresponsible, potentially dangerous, and unacceptable to permit them to operate in this way.
Our taxi companies are hook, line, and sinker in the pockets of our government. We have a history of corruption here, and taxi companies are definitely part of the equation.