Taxi credit card surcharge 'is unreasonable'

Charges placed on taxi customers who pay by credit card is a bone of contention among many executives.

Australians take a dim view towards the surcharge imposed for paying for taxi journeys with credit cards.

This is one of the findings published by the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) which claims that 88 per cent of business executives find the ten per cent card fee charged when paying by plastic to be "unreasonable".

Of such consumers, over half deemed the charge to be "very unreasonable".

Research from the organisation also revealed that around three in four people believe that taxis fail to meet the needs of the cities they serve.

"There is overwhelming consensus for change with 90 per cent of respondents indicating they supported reforms to improve taxi services," Brett Gale, TTF executive director, states.

Meanwhile, an article in the Age this August pointed to comments by a taxi industry figure who suggested that instances of Aussie credit fraud involving taxi drivers is rife and that passengers often complain about being charged multiple times.

By Nate Sawyer