The White Falcon - 25.04.1980, Blaðsíða 5

April 25, 1980
The '.fhite Falcon
Pape 5
Taxis to begin using meters on agreed area
tant if you don't want to spend too
much, there is a charge for waiting.
Let's face it, time is money, and if
a driver has to hang around waiting
for his customer he could be losing
another trip.
The Price Commission has approved
a fee of Kr. 5,500 per hour (which
is broken down into minutes) so the
driver's meter will spell out a
charge for waiting for all time
spent at the customer's address.
All meters are adjusted to show
rises in units of Kr. 50, and the
following example has been drawn up
to give you an idea of what the
costs would be for a two kilometer
trip (Roughly, Human Relations in
building T-170 to a house in the
Coral Sea Area).
But now
base is
with the
starting
the near
Taxis in Iceland take you from
int A to point B. So what's so
special about that? Nothing. This
is exactly the kind of service you'd
expect. But there are differences
between Icelandic taxis and the ones
back home.
One of those differences is the
meter system for charging fares.
Everywhere in Iceland the system is
the same except for the NATO Base.
the method for charging on
being brought into line
rest of Iceland. The
date will be announced in
future on NBS's Channel
Five. Here are a few pointers to
help you understand how the ^stem
will work.
First of .all, taxis have three
rates of charges (all of which have
to be approved by Iceland's Price
Commission). The "Day Rate" is the
lowest. It is in effect from 8 a.m.
to 4:59 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The "Night Rate" is higher—but
only for charges for the distance
traveled (starting fees and waiting
charges do not change). The Night
Rate applies from 5 p.m. to 7:59
a.m. weekdays and all day Saturday
and Sunday. It also applies on Ice-
landic holidays.
The third scale is called the
"Major Holiday Rate". It is the
highest and applied on such major
celebrations as Christmas and Eas-
ter.
All charges in taxis can be bro-
ken down into three parts. First is
the initial "Start" fee (presently
set at Kr. 1,400 for Day and Night
Rates and at Kr. 1,900 for the Major
Holiday rate).
Next comes the charge for dis-
tance actually traveled. The Price
Commission permitted scale sets
this at Kr. 177.69 per kilometer
durin the day; at Kr. 266.54 per
kilometer at night and the weekends;
and at Kr. 359.83 per kilometer on
Major Holidays.
Finally, and this is very impor-
CHARGE ITEM DAY RATE NIGHT RATE MAJOR HOLIDAY
Start fee 1,400 1,400 1,900
Distance charge 400 5 50 750
TOTAL (NO WAIT) 1,800 1,950 2,650
TOTAL (5 MIN. WAIT) 2,400 2,550 3,300
TOTAL (10 MIN. WAIT) 3,000 3,150 3,950