Taximeters

Around the year 1900 it was prescribed for the first time that taxi fares have to be automatically determined and indicated by a taximeter. Since then, appearance and function of the instruments have evolved substantially. The pictures show historical instruments from 1900 and 1960 and two modern instruments. Modern designs are microprocessor-controlled devices which offer a great variety of possibilities of automatically setting the tariffs. The automatic preselection of a tariff by the internal clock is of particular importance. It allows day and night tariffs, weekend tariffs etc. to be set, the change from summer to winter time and vice versa also taking place automatically. The greatest part of the test work carried out by the PTB within the scope of type examinations concerns the testing of such optional features.

With the coming into force of the European Measuring Instruments Directive (MID,  2004/22/EG) the conformity assessments for taximeters are performed following this directive. The MID covers a taximeter before it is installed in a vehicle. Receipt printers receive a national type approval certificate (until end of 2014) or a Certificate of Type (since 2015).

The following list shows the approved instruments and the addresses of the manufacturers or of the German distributor (last change: November 2004):