How do taxi drivers use math?

Answer 1

Well first you have the basics. You have where you start at zero and work your way through different speeds all the way up to the legal limit, and higher if you choose to do so. Speaking of the legal speed limit, you also have road signs to reflect the speed limit. Along with this you have vehicle heights, bridge heights, weight restrictions, tyre pressures and mileage. But that applies to everybody in a vehicle.

If you call a taxi, the first thing that they have to do when they receive your job is to locate your address. This involves map reading skills (sat-nav) and looking for your house number. If your house number was to be 39, you may stop first at number 3, then 17, then 19, then 31 and finally 39. That's so long as all the odd numbers are on one side of the road, and you are not in a cul-de-sac where the digits go up a single number at a time or 1a,1b,2a,2b etc. Similar problem to the postman. Except in a big house where the numbers are set back and it is dark, you will not be able to see the numbers, and will have to rely on a small amount of Maths when you find a bigger number that you can see and another number you can also see (you are unfamiliar with that particular road as you have never been there before) to allow you to calculate the direction of the house and approximately whereabouts you have to drive to. So there we have an estimation of distance plus the use of two separate numbers to allow you to find a specific address.

The customer is now in the car and wants to go to the airport. You travel towards the airport using your sat-nav and when they get there it turns out the car park charges £15 per minute to park, which you are now used to as it is the year 2057. You want to make your exit quickly to minimise your losses and the passenger pays you and you're off! Stopping at a petrol station after your passenger has paid you £115, you put in £30, leaving you with £85.

Another aspect of Maths used by a taxi driver is filling in a tax return. This involves putting your expenditures against your total income to find out your net profit so you can pay your taxes.

If you work in a taxi office with modern equipment then there should be a department that gathers statistics on the busiest times of day to work, how many requests have been taken, how many drivers have successfully picked up from these requests, how many have not, where the busiest places to work are and what the best time of day to work is. The main part of the job is driving to any given destination either to pick up or drop off.

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Answer 2

Taxi drivers calculate the change to be returned when a fare is paid using subtraction (mathematics).