That's not been the case for some time. All licensed cabs must have a working card reader. See https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/taxis-and-private-hire/accepting...

They can be sanctioned by TfL if they don't.

They just say the machine's broken!

You might say 'you don't have to pay if it's broken' or 'you can report them' but I don't want to have an argument with an aggressive cab driver! I just want to pay by card in the first place, which Uber lets me do 100% of the time without hassle.

Report them after your transaction is finished and do us all a favour.

I suppose that's what Uber and Lyft fixed. They made "reporting" bad drivers and credit card transactions mandatory so no one has to do anyone favours.

Exactly. What's bettter than a solution is not having a problem.

I guess the problem is that some charge a 10%+ fee for card usage. That shouldn't happen, honestly.

No, they can't do that either.

From the TfL link above

"Since 13 January 2018 it has been an offence for companies, including private hire operators, to charge their customers a surcharge, or extra, because they are paying by credit or debit card."

Or see this news story.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40648641

Seems to be quite a new rule. Last time I was in town was in December last year. Good improvement I’d say!

Honestly had no idea this was in place. Black cabs are back on the menu! As with OP I never used them due to the requirement to have cash on hand

I haven't seen a black cab for years in London that didn't have a card reader - its actually a safty advantage as cabbies no longer may have large amounts of cash.

This is a serious point as only a few years ago one of the local minicab drivers for the company I use got killed for his takings.

For years? That's very out of sync with my experiences. Yes, since 2012, it's generally been feasible to find a taxi that accepts cards, but far from the default experience.

I took a black cab from the rank at Paddington almost every week for 2017, and getting one that accepted card required asking the rank attendant and having him do a special wave to the waiting taxis to see who accepts cards. It was practically never the first one, although to be fair, I never had to wait long.

This, and the charging of absurd processing fees, continued right up to the January deadline. London cabbies did not want this, they were dragged into it, kicking and screaming.

> London cabbies did not want this, they were dragged into it, kicking and screaming.

I presume they don't want to start paying tax on their income.

"Bed and breakfast owners and taxi drivers are the British workers most likely to underpay their taxes when filing self-assessments, a new analysis shows." — https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/26/bb-owners-a...

Yes you know that includes all those minicab companies/drivers and gypsy cabs as well, not just licenced cabbies.

For non uk readers there are two types of taxis in the UK Full Taxis which can be hailed on the street and minicabs which have to be booked by phone - plus there where a lot of illegal cabs in places like London (presumably now gone legit with uber etc)

> I haven't seen a black cab for years in London that didn't have a card reader

Well I don't know what to say apart from that's not what I experience. I'd love to stand on the pavement with you now and hail three random taxis! I'd bet you £50 at least one of them doesn't take cards or 'it's broken mate'.

This may have been a problem in the past but I had multiple trips to London last year and paid for cabs exclusively by card.

Take a cab and if the driver says the machine is broken just say you can't pay then. This fixes most card machines, regardless of the fault.

Great so it's just like Uber apart from I also get to have an argument with an aggressive lying driver while captive in the back of his taxi!

Have you tried MyTaxi (formerly known as Hailo)?

Ages ago, I wanted to use Hailo/MyTaxi to take me to Heathrow – a trip I typically make once or twice a month. They quoted me some crazy amount, like more than double what my local preferred minicab firm or Uber would charge, whereas from my gf's flat around 1.5 miles away it was in roughly the same. Playing with it, I narrowed it down to a point roughly 200 yards from my flat where suddenly the price skyrocketed. I got in touch with them over email, their tech staff replicated and recognised the problem and assured me they'd look into it, seeing as it appeared to be a bug in their algorithm for how charging increases with distance but this step change was ludicrous.

Never heard anything back, even after I followed up months later. I checked repeatedly over time and never observed the problem to be fixed, so I gave up on them.