FareMeter Is there an Apple Watch taxi app that works as a fare meter?
Yes, FareMeter has a watch app that is a taximeter on its own: it uses the watch's GPS, shows the fare, time, distance and speed, and has one button, START or STOP. It does not follow the trip running on your iPhone, and you cannot edit its rates on the watch, which is easy to miss the first time.
Press START and the meter takes the base fare and climbs as the watch's GPS catches movement. STOP ends the run and the screen goes idle. That is nearly the whole app, and for a glance at your wrist it does the job.
What the watch screen shows
The first page is the meter: a big amber fare on top, then three small readouts in a row for elapsed time, distance and speed. Under them sits the button, green START when idle, red STOP while running. Distance follows the tariff's unit (km on the built-in one) and speed shows in km/h or mph to match.
Swipe sideways for a second page, TODAY: today's earnings, trip count and this week's total. Those numbers are copied from what the iPhone app wrote, so they mean nothing if you never open the phone app.
Does it need the iPhone nearby?
For metering, no. The watch reads its own GPS, and the fare engine is the same one the phone uses, including the rule that ignores drift below 1 m/s so a stopped car adds no distance.
But it does not pick up a trip started on the phone either. They are two separate meters, and starting both at once produces two numbers that never match.
What price does it charge?
This is the letdown. The watch uses one built-in tariff called Day: base fare 3.50, 1.20 per km, 0.30 per minute, a 4.00 minimum, in euros, with the classic mode that bills distance above 10 km/h and time below it. The watch has no screen to change any of that, and it ignores the tariffs you made on the iPhone. Unless local rates happen to match, treat the watch as a demo of the idea, not a stand-in for the real meter.
| Item | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Base fare | fixed | 3.50 |
| Distance | 6.2 km x 1.20 | 7.44 |
| Waiting | 3 min x 0.30 | 0.90 |
| Fare shown on the wrist | 11.84 | |
| Same ride on an iPhone tariff with the same rates but base fare 3.00 | 3.00 + 7.44 + 0.90 | 11.34 |
That last row is the point: a half-euro difference in base fare and the two devices disagree on the same ride. The minimum bites too. A 0.2 km hop with no waiting works out at 3.74, so the watch shows 4.00.
What it cannot do
- Change the rates, the currency or the charging mode.
- Add extras such as luggage or airport, or pause the trip.
- Save the trip or print a receipt; stopping just ends the run.
- Show or take over a trip running on the iPhone.
Nothing is saved. The watch is a live display and that is all; keep the log, receipts and shift totals on the iPhone.
Free or Pro?
FareMeter is free to download. The Apple Watch app is listed among the Pro upgrade benefits, alongside widgets, unlimited saved trips and no ads.
Battery and GPS
The watch asks for location while the app is in use and runs GPS at its highest navigation accuracy, which is the setting that drains the battery fastest. A full shift is not recommended on it; a few rides are fine.
Questions and answers
Can Apple Watch track GPS without iPhone?
Does Apple Watch GPS work without a phone nearby?
Can I use my own rates on the watch?
Does the watch show the trip I started on my iPhone?
More FareMeter guides
- How a taxi fare is calculated, and how FareMeter's GPS meter does it
- What time do taxi rates change? Setting up day, night and weekend tariffs
- How to charge for waiting time and extras like luggage, airport and tolls
- How to give a passenger a proper taxi receipt from your iPhone
- How to track your taxi earnings and expenses per shift
- Taxi driver record keeping: exporting trips and expenses to CSV
- All questions about FareMeter
- Back to FareMeter