How far does £10 take you in a London taxi? Tom the Taxi Driver puts it to the test in his latest YouTube video
- Perry Richardson
- Sep 8
- 2 min read
Tom Hutley, better known online as Tom the Taxi Driver, has built a strong following on YouTube by demystifying the workings of the London taxi trade. A licensed cabbie and Knowledge of London graduate, he uses his channel to explain the realities of driving a black cab, from practical tips to fare breakdowns. In his latest video, he runs a simple but revealing experiment: how far does £10 actually get you in a London taxi?
The test shows how London’s unique taxi meter system responds to different driving conditions. Fares are calculated on both time and distance. When travelling below 10.8 mph, the meter rises with time spent in traffic. At speeds above that, the calculation switches to distance covered.
Sitting in stationary traffic produced the slowest result. It took over seven minutes for the meter to climb from £5 to £10, underlining how unproductive congestion is for both driver and passenger.
On a clear stretch of Euston Road, where the taxi remained above 11 mph, the results were very different. The fare reached £5 in just one minute and 28 seconds, showing that moving vehicles accumulate fares far quicker than idling in queues.
To test consistency, Tom drove continuous loops around Regent’s Park without stopping for traffic lights or junctions. The final test was a real trip to Charing Cross where he tested out the rough estimate of £1 per minute as a reliable rule of thumb for central London journeys.
Tom’s YouTube presence has grown significantly over the years. By mid-2023, his channel had surpassed 80,000 subscribers, to over 130,000 today. That continued growth reflects his status as the leading YouTube voice of the London taxi trade.
Tom is also a Qualified Tour Guide. He passed the rigorous “Knowledge of London” in 2017 and began offering taxi-based tours, later becoming a Liveryman through The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers and tour guide. His content spans YouTube videos, a weekly newsletter, and a book titled The Knowledge: How to Become a London Taxi Driver, through which he champion’s the heritage and standards of the black-cab profession.
