Short answer: a metered taxi can be cheaper on a short, clear, daytime run, but a fixed fare usually costs less, or at least never costs more than you expected, on anything longer, slower, later or busier. The meter charges for distance and for time; a fixed price is set before you travel and stays put. Below we work through a real council meter tariff so you can see exactly where the tipping point sits, and list the questions that make a fixed quote worth trusting.
- A meter is only cheaper when the road is clear, the hour is sociable and the journey is short; traffic, night tariffs and larger groups all push it up.
- In Buckinghamshire the council sets maximum meter rates for hackney carriages, including higher tariffs after 11pm, on Sundays and for five or more passengers.
- Private hire fares are not set by the council, so a fixed quote is only as good as what it includes: waiting, stops, drop-off charges and luggage.
What does metered fare mean?
A metered fare is a taxi price worked out by a taximeter while the journey happens, rather than agreed before you set off. The meter adds a starting charge, a charge for each unit of distance and a charge for time spent waiting or crawling in traffic, using a published table of rates. In England the local council sets the maximum rates for hackney carriages, the taxis you can hail in the street or pick up at a rank, so the same trip can cost more at night, on a Sunday or in heavy traffic. A pre-booked private hire car usually quotes the price when you book instead, which is the fixed-fare model GX Executive uses.
How does a taxi meter calculate the fare?
A meter adds up a starting charge, a distance charge and a waiting charge, using a table of rates. For hackney carriages (the taxis you can hail or find at a rank), those rates are set by the local council under section 65 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, which lets a district council fix fares "as well for time as distance".
Buckinghamshire Council publishes its maximum taxi fares (shown as correct from 5 August 2024). They work like this:
- Tariff 1 (6am to 11pm, Monday to Saturday): £5 for the first 880 yards, then 20p for every further 176 yards, and 20p for every 40 seconds of waiting.
- Tariff 2 (11pm to 6am Monday to Saturday, all day Sunday, bank holidays, and 4pm to midnight on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve): £7.50 to start, then 30p per 176 yards and 30p per 40 seconds of waiting. It also applies in daytime hours when five or more passengers are on board.
- Tariff 3 (Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, or Tariff 2 periods with five or more passengers): £10 to start, then 40p per 176 yards and 40p per 40 seconds of waiting.
There is also a £1 extra when the hiring starts away from a rank. These are ceilings: a taxi cannot charge more than the meter shows for a journey inside the council area.
What does that tariff cost per mile and per hour?
Translate the table and the pattern is easy to see. There are 1,760 yards in a mile, so 176 yards is a tenth of a mile.
| Buckinghamshire tariff | First half mile | Each mile after | Waiting, per hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tariff 1 (daytime) | £5.00 | £2.00 | £18.00 |
| Tariff 2 (night, Sunday, 5+ passengers) | £7.50 | £3.00 | £27.00 |
| Tariff 3 (Christmas, New Year's Day) | £10.00 | £4.00 | £36.00 |
Worked example, using the council maximums: a five-mile trip on Tariff 1 comes to £5 plus 4.5 miles at £2, which is £14.00 before any waiting. Add ten minutes queuing at a junction and the waiting charge (20p every 40 seconds) adds another £3.00. The same five miles on a Sunday or after 11pm starts at £7.50 plus 4.5 miles at £3, or £21.00, and ten minutes of waiting at night adds £4.50. Nothing about the route changed; only the clock did.
These figures are the council's upper limits for Buckinghamshire-licensed hackney carriages, not a price from us. We do not publish fares, and every GX journey is quoted individually.
So when is a metered taxi cheaper?
The meter tends to win in a narrow set of conditions: a short hop, a clear road, daytime on a weekday, one or two passengers, and a taxi already waiting at a rank so there is no pickup extra. Think a mile across town at 2pm on a Tuesday. A fixed-price firm has to price in the drive to reach you and the risk of delays, so on a very short trip that margin can make the quote a little higher than the meter would have been.
When does a fixed fare save money?
A fixed fare earns its keep as soon as uncertainty enters the journey. The usual culprits:
- Traffic you cannot predict. Every stationary minute on a meter is billed. With a fixed quote, the jam is the operator's problem, not yours.
- Night, Sunday and bank holiday travel. A meter moves up a tariff; a firm that fixes fares without a time-of-day loading does not. Our fares carry no night, weekend or bank holiday surcharge.
- Groups of five or more. On the Buckinghamshire table, five passengers push a daytime meter onto the night rate. A fixed quote is priced on the vehicle and the route.
- Long journeys and airport runs. The further you go, the more exposure you have to roadworks and queues. Heathrow is typically 20–35 minutes from Gerrards Cross, but that range exists precisely because the M25 varies.
- App surge pricing. Ride-hailing apps can raise prices when demand spikes, which is exactly when you most need a car: closing time, rain, strikes, early-morning flights.
What about journeys that leave the council area?
This is where many people get caught out. Under section 66 of the 1976 Act, a hackney carriage on a journey ending outside its district cannot charge more than the meter unless a higher fare was agreed before the journey began. Buckinghamshire Council's passenger guidance says the same: the only exception to the meter cap is a journey finishing outside the council area where you agreed the fare beforehand. So for a trip from Buckinghamshire to Heathrow, which is in the London Borough of Hillingdon, a taxi driver can legitimately ask you to agree a price up front. At that point you are comparing two fixed prices anyway, and it pays to get a private hire quote as well.
How does private hire pricing work?
Private hire vehicles, the pre-booked cars most people call minicabs, are not bound by the council's meter table. Buckinghamshire Council states plainly that it does not set private hire fares and that you should agree the fare with the operator before the journey. Its driver licence conditions then stop a private hire driver from charging more than the fare agreed with the operator. That is the legal backbone of a fixed price: once it is agreed, the driver cannot add to it at the kerb.
At GX Executive And Taxi every journey is quoted this way. There is no meter in our cars and no surge; you get one figure by phone, WhatsApp or the online form before anything is confirmed. Our fixed-price taxi page sets out exactly what the figure covers.
5 questions to ask before you accept a fixed quote
A fixed fare only protects you if you know what it includes. Ask these and you will not be surprised:
- Does it include airport drop-off or parking charges? Heathrow's terminal drop-off charge is £7 per visit. Our quotes include terminal drop-off fees rather than adding them afterwards.
- How much free waiting is included? Our terms include a short free wait on local pickups and a reasonable free period for international arrivals; waiting you ask for beyond that may be charged at a rate we tell you in advance.
- What happens if I add a stop? Extra stops change the journey, so they can change the price. Say so when booking.
- Is the vehicle right for my passengers and bags? More people or luggage than booked can mean a bigger car. A Mercedes-Benz E-Class seats up to four; for five to eight you need a people carrier such as our SEAT Alhambra, V-Class or Ford Tourneo.
- Is the firm licensed? A fixed price from an unlicensed driver is worthless if the car is not insured for hire. Our guide to private hire vs hackney carriages explains how to tell.
Which should you choose?
Use a rank taxi on the meter for a short, spontaneous daytime hop where one is already waiting. Book a fixed fare for anything you can plan: airport transfers, the ride home after an evening out, early starts, Sundays, bank holidays and groups. The saving is not guaranteed on every single trip, but the downside is capped, and on the journeys where meters climb fastest the fixed price is usually the cheaper of the two. If you are weighing up the airport specifically, our comparison of airport parking against a taxi runs the other half of the sums.
For a quote from Gerrards Cross, Beaconsfield, the Chalfonts or anywhere nearby, see our Beaconsfield fixed-price taxis, Chalfont St Peter fixed fares or call 01753 858585 at any hour.