Ever leave a taxi with a hole burning in your pocket? You’re not alone ⁠–⁠ Sydney has been named one of the world’s most expensive cities to catch a taxi.

Every Sydneysider has had the experience of feeling ripped off in a taxi. For me, it was only the other week. I completed my trip and was told the card machine wasn’t working. No worries, I had cash. But, rather conveniently, the driver then said he didn’t have change. My only option was to hand over a crisp $20 note for a ride that metered $12.

Small potatoes, perhaps, compared to what others have experienced: earlier this year, one taxi driver was fined $2,000 for charging an overseas family $188 for a 13-kilometre trip from Sydney Airport to the CBD.

Now, data is backing up the fact that Sydney taxi prices are sky high. A study by the Deutsche Bank Research Institute‘s ‘mapping the world’s prices’ ranked Sydney the 14th most expensive city to catch a taxi out of 69 world cities. The study put the average cost of a taxi at approximately $28.67 AUD per five kilometres. Zurich topped the list at a whopping $42 AUD per five kilometres, and Paris came in second with $40.85 per five kilometres. Interestingly, the study also noted that their data for taxi fares were volatile, with “price differentials all over the place". These disparities hint at pervasive price gouging and overcharging, which would be par for the course when it comes to the taxi networks in Sydney and other Australian cities.

This volatile pricing has become such a rampant issue that the NSW government is trialling capped airport taxi fares to the CBD. From November 3, taxi drivers will only be able to charge a flat fee of $60, and will not be able to pass on any additional toll charges to passengers.

Last year in Victoria, things came to a head outside a Matilda’s game, when groups of taxi drivers conspired together in an attempt to price-gouge passengers. Multiple taxis queued at the rank refused to turn on their meters and demanded fares upfront that were almost three times the standard rate. The prevalence of overcharging has been exacerbated by laws that allow independent drivers to work without belonging to a taxi network, meaning there is often very little recourse for passengers who do find themselves overcharged.  This also means that even if drivers do face consequences from their taxi network for bad behaviour, they can simply continue operating under an independent license. With any luck, measures like capped fares will curb overcharging, with the potential to be rolled out across more routes.