How to charge for waiting time and extras like luggage, airport and tolls
There are really two kinds of waiting charge: the meter billing every stopped or crawling minute, and a flat waiting fee some rate cards add on top. FareMeter covers both. The per-minute price runs by itself in the classic mode, and a one-tap Waiting extra adds a flat fee alongside Airport, Luggage, Night, Booking, Pet or anything you name yourself.
How much do taxis charge for waiting?
Whatever you set as the per-minute rate on your own tariff — there is no universal number. In the classic mode every minute below the Idle threshold (10 km/h out of the box) gets billed at the Per minute price automatically, nothing to tap.
| Minutes waiting | Day tariff (0.30/min) | Night tariff (0.40/min) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.30 | 0.40 |
| 5 | 1.50 | 2.00 |
| 12 | 3.60 | 4.80 |
| 20 | 6.00 | 8.00 |
Pause stops the meter dead: no time and no distance until you tap Resume. Use it when your own rules say the wait is free — a passenger running late for a booked pickup, mostly.
The built-in extras and their starting amounts
| Extra | Default |
|---|---|
| Airport | 5.00 |
| Luggage | 2.00 |
| Night | 3.00 |
| Booking | 2.00 |
| Waiting | 3.00 |
| Pet | 2.00 |
These are flat surcharges. Waiting here is a fixed fee, separate from the per-minute waiting the meter already counts, so only use both if your rate card charges both.
How to add an extra during a ride
- Start the ride with START. The extras row appears under the fare.
- Tap Airport, Luggage or Night in the quick row to add it; tap it again to remove it.
- For the other presets or a custom charge, tap the plus button at the end of the row.
- Pick Booking, Waiting or Pet, or type a Name and amount under CUSTOM EXTRA and tap Add custom extra.
- Remove a wrong extra with the small cross next to it. Extras show on the receipt line by line.
Adding a toll
No dedicated toll button — tolls vary too much by road for FareMeter to guess at one, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a gap. Add it as a custom extra instead: type "Toll" as the Name, enter what you actually paid, and tap Add custom extra.
Worked example
Day tariff: 3.50 base, 1.20 per km, 0.30 per minute. The ride is 8.5 km with 5 minutes stopped, one suitcase, and a 4.50 bridge toll.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Base + distance + time: 3.50 + 8.5 × 1.20 + 5 × 0.30 | 15.20 |
| Luggage | 2.00 |
| Toll (custom extra) | 4.50 |
| Total | 21.70 |
Extras are added after the minimum fare check, so a short ride that hits the minimum still gets its extras on top.
Setting your own default amounts
- Open Settings and scroll to Quick Extras.
- Enter your local amounts for Airport, Luggage, Night surcharge, Booking, Waiting and Pet.
- New amounts apply to extras you add from then on.
Where it goes wrong
- Charging waiting twice without meaning to: per-minute waiting plus the Waiting extra on the same ride.
- Adding the Airport extra on top of a tariff that already prices the airport run.
- Forgetting pausing stops everything, time included, until you tap Resume.
Questions and answers
Do taxis charge for waiting?
Can I rename the built-in extras?
Can I add an extra after the ride?
Is the airport charge a separate tariff?
You might also like
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 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
- Is there an Apple Watch taxi app that works as a fare meter?
- All questions about FareMeter
- Back to FareMeter