Taxi prices in Lausanne: what each journey costs

A firm price, quoted before you confirm

At TAXI 624 you know the amount before you order, not on arrival. It appears on your screen as soon as you enter your pickup address and your destination, and once shown it does not move.

That means something very concrete: if traffic is worse than expected, if a crash closes a lane, if the driver has to go round, the extra is ours. You pay the amount you were quoted and accepted.

That is the fundamental difference from a taxi hailed in the street, which runs on the meter and whose total you discover at the end.

The route you pay for is the route the driver takes

Here is a point nobody explains and which concerns you directly.

Between two places there is almost always more than one road: the motorway, longer but faster, and the way through town, shorter but slower. Depending on the hour, they are not equally cheap for you — at peak times a quoted fifteen minutes can turn into forty-five.

Before quoting, our dispatch compares both roads against live traffic, keeps whichever costs you less, then holds the driver to it. You cannot end up paying for a city route while riding a motorway detour: the route billed and the route driven are the same one.

For scale, our own records give an average speed around 27 km/h inside Lausanne and above 65 km/h on a long motorway run. The same number of kilometres is not remotely the same journey depending on the hour — and that is precisely what the arbitration is there to settle.

Rides inside Lausanne

Lausanne station to Le Flon, Ouchy to Saint-François, the CHUV hospital to La Riponne: those rides are CHF 20. You know the price before you get in, and it depends on neither the hour nor the traffic.

This is deliberately simple. On a five-minute ride nobody wants an amount that shifts with the traffic light you happen to catch: a round price, known in advance, beats a calculation accurate to the centime.

Worked examples

Here is what a few common journeys from Lausanne cost, one way. These are the amounts our system quotes today, and they update themselves.

Indicative prices from central Lausanne. The price of your ride, from your exact address, is shown before you confirm — it will often differ, and once shown it does not move.

What is included, and what is added

These change nothing about the price:

• the number of passengers — the price is for the car, not per head, up to its capacity;
• the hour and the day: night, Sunday, public holiday or New Year's Eve, the amount is the same;
• the traffic, once the price is shown: if there is a jam, that is on us;
• a pet in a carrier or on a lead;
• short waiting at pickup, the time it takes you to come down.

Some options are added, and you watch them enter the price the moment you ask for them: a child seat, booster or infant carrier, bulky luggage, a larger vehicle for a group. Nothing appears on arrival: it is all in the amount you confirm.

Card and TWINT work in every one of our cars, and the bank fees are already included in the displayed amount — you never discover a percentage at the moment of paying.

Nights, Sundays, public holidays: what changes

Nothing.

Short, but it is the most important line on this page. We have no night rate, no Sunday rate, no public-holiday rate and no surge pricing. A ride at 3 a.m. on 1 January costs what the same ride costs on a Tuesday at 2 p.m.

That is a choice, not an oversight. Dynamic pricing — the fare that climbs because many people want a car at once — always strikes the same moments: the end of a concert, New Year's Eve, a thunderstorm, a rail strike. Precisely the moments when you most need a taxi and least want to negotiate.

Paying: cash, card, TWINT, invoice

Pay however you like: cash, debit or credit card, TWINT. Cards and TWINT work in every one of our cars — not "depending on the driver".

Companies, hotels, clinics and public bodies can open a monthly account: rides are gathered onto a single invoice, itemised by journey, by employee or by department. That is how most of our business clients in the Lausanne area work with us.

A receipt is available for every ride, on request to the driver or by text message afterwards.

Street taxi or booked taxi: the price difference

A taxi hailed in the street or taken at a rank runs on the meter: you discover the amount on arrival. That is legal, normal, and still the quickest option when a car is already there.

A taxi booked with us comes with a price shown before you book: the amount appears before you confirm, and it is guaranteed even if the journey takes longer than expected. If a crash closes the motorway, the delay is not billed to you.

Booking adds a modest amount to the fare — the cost of guaranteeing that a car will be there, at the stated time, at the stated address. In exchange you know the price in advance, you follow the driver live on a map, and you have their number.

Getting your own price in ten seconds

The simplest way is to ask the machine rather than a page: type your pickup address and your destination on our booking page and the price appears at once, before any sign-up and with no commitment. If the amount does not suit you, close the page.

Prefer to speak to someone? Our dispatch answers around the clock on 021 624 00 00 and will quote you over the phone.