6.2 Extra Charges & Tunnel / Toll Rules

6.2 Extra Charges & Tunnel / Toll Rules

Quick Answer: For all three general taxi types, lawful additional fares include $6 per piece of baggage (except light personal hand baggage in the passenger compartment), $5 per animal or bird, and $5 for a hiring arranged by telephone booking. Wheelchairs and crutches of disabled passengers are free. For CHT, EHC, and WHC, charge $25 (toll) + $25 (return toll), unless hire starts at a cross-harbour taxi stand or the final destination is not on the opposite side of the harbour. Tai Lam Tunnel and other toll facilities: charge the amount of toll (Tai Lam: amount paid by the driver). Overcharging is a 10-point TDOP offence.

Section 6.1 covered the metered Urban / NT / Lantau scales. This section covers extras and tolls — the items that appear as lawful additions when the facts fit. The Written Test loves these numbers because they are short, absolute, and easy to scramble.

Extra Charges Apply Equally to All Three Types

Unlike flagfall and step rates, the additional fare table is the same for Urban, NT, and Lantau general taxis. Do not invent a "Lantau baggage discount" or an "Urban phone-booking premium." Memorise one extras table and apply it to every general-taxi type.

Baggage — $6 and the cabin exception

Charge $6 for every piece of baggage, except light personal hand baggage carried in the passenger compartment. The exception protects ordinary handbags, small backpacks, and similar light personal items kept with the passenger in the cabin. Luggage that properly attracts the surcharge is typically larger pieces handled as baggage (including items that belong in the luggage compartment under the goods rules you study elsewhere).

Exam traps:

• Charging $6 for a small handbag on the seat — usually wrong if it is light personal hand baggage in the passenger compartment.
• Waiving all luggage charges as a "friendly policy" when the scale allows a surcharge — operational goodwill is not a substitute for knowing the lawful maximum structure; for the test, know when $6 is the prescribed additional fare.
• Using $5 (the animal/booking figure) for baggage — wrong item.

Animals and birds — $5 each

Every animal or bird attracts $5. Count per animal/bird, not "per cage free if small." Acceptance of animals may involve separate conduct rules in other chapters; for fare purposes, if the animal or bird is carried, the additional fare figure is $5 each.

Telephone booking — $5 per hiring

When the hiring is arranged through telephone booking, an additional $5 applies to that hiring. This is not a daily standing charge and not a per-call fee disconnected from an actual hire. It is an additional fare for that booked hiring.

Do not confuse telephone booking $5 with fleet customised pre-arranged fare structures (Section 6.3). For general metered hires arranged by phone, the Booklet/Appendix teaching is the flat $5 booking additional fare on top of the meter (and other lawful extras/tolls).

Wheelchairs and crutches — Free

Wheelchairs and crutches of disabled passengers are free. Never code them as baggage at $6. Never invent an "equipment handling" extra. This is both a high-yield exam fact and a core fairness rule: mobility aids required by disabled passengers do not generate an additional fare under this table.

Harbour Tunnels: CHT, EHC, WHC

For the three harbour crossings — Cross-Harbour Tunnel (CHT), Eastern Harbour Crossing (EHC), and Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) — the additional charging structure taught in the Booklet is:

• $25 — the toll amount, plus
• $25 — the return toll

…subject to the return-toll exceptions below.

Write it as $25 + $25 (return) when both legs of the toll logic apply. The return component exists because the driver must often re-cross empty to rebalance after a one-way cross-harbour hire; the prescribed structure authorises collecting that return toll from the passenger except in defined cases.

When the return toll is NOT payable

The return toll is not payable if either of the following is true:

1. The hiring begins from a cross-harbour taxi stand, or
2. The final destination is not on the opposite side of the harbour.

Read these carefully.

Exception 1 — cross-harbour taxi stand start. Cross-harbour taxi stands are organised so taxis can accept hires that cross the harbour under the stand rules. When the hiring begins there, the passenger is not charged the return toll component under this rule set (you still apply the proper toll amount logic as prescribed — the exam focus is that return toll is not payable in this start condition).

Exception 2 — destination not on the opposite side. If the passenger does not end on the other side of the harbour, you are not in a classic one-way cross-harbour drop that justifies the return-toll collection under the exception wording. Example pattern for study: a hire that uses a harbour tunnel but whose final destination remains on the same side of the harbour for the purpose of this rule — return toll not payable.

If neither exception applies — ordinary hire not starting from a cross-harbour stand, ending on the opposite side — the $25 + $25 return structure is in play for CHT / EHC / WHC as taught.

Common harbour-toll exam traps

Tai Lam Tunnel

For Tai Lam Tunnel, the additional amount is the amount of the toll paid by the driver. There is no separate fixed "$25 + $25 return" harbour formula here. Pass through the toll the driver actually paid for that facility under the Booklet rule.

Other Toll Tunnels, Roads, or Areas

For other toll tunnels, roads, or areas (not covered by the specific harbour $25+$25 structure or the Tai Lam wording), charge the amount of the toll. The principle is pass-through of the lawful toll cost, not a driver-invented "tunnel handling fee" on top of the toll itself.

Summary toll map:

Overcharging = 10-Point TDOP Offence

Overcharging is not a soft customer-service issue. Under the Taxi Driver Offence Points (TDOP) system, overcharging is a 10-point offence. Ten points is a heavy single-hit score in a system designed to remove persistently non-compliant drivers from the trade.

What counts as exam-relevant "overcharging" discipline:

• Demanding more than the prescribed metered scale for the taxi type.
• Adding fake extras (e.g., charging for wheelchairs, inventing "night surcharges" not in the scale, double-counting baggage).
• Collecting return toll when an exception makes return toll not payable.
• Inflating toll pass-through beyond the amount of toll paid / prescribed structure.

Undercharging by informal deal may create other compliance and meter-use problems; the TDOP spotlight statement for this section is clear: overcharging → 10 points. Protect yourself by running the meter lawfully, applying only listed extras, and explaining toll exceptions correctly on the receipt and in conversation.

Putting Extras and Tolls Together

A lawful total for a general-taxi hire is conceptually:

1. Metered fare from the Urban / NT / Lantau scale (Section 6.1), plus
2. Additional fares that actually apply ($6 baggage pieces, $5 animals/birds, $5 phone booking; wheelchairs/crutches free), plus
3. Toll / tunnel amounts under the CHT/EHC/WHC, Tai Lam, or other-toll rules, with harbour return logic applied only when allowed.

Do not merge steps. A telephone booking does not change the flagfall. A harbour crossing does not replace baggage rules. Each component stands on its own legal base.

Memory Hooks

• 6 / 5 / 5 / free — baggage $6, animal $5, phone $5, wheelchair/crutches free.
• 25 + 25 — harbour trio CHT/EHC/WHC, with two return exceptions (cross-harbour stand start; destination not opposite side).
• Tai Lam / others — amount of toll (Tai Lam: paid by driver).
• Overcharge = 10 TDOP points — no "rounding up for convenience."

Closing Checklist for Section 6.2

1. Extras table identical across Urban, NT, Lantau.
2. Baggage $6 except light personal hand baggage in passenger compartment.
3. Animal/bird $5; telephone booking $5; mobility aids free.
4. CHT/EHC/WHC: $25 + $25 return unless exception.
5. Exceptions: start at cross-harbour stand or final destination not opposite side.
6. Tai Lam and other tolls: amount of toll (Tai Lam wording: paid by driver).
7. Overcharging is a 10-point TDOP offence.

Section 6.3 leaves street-hail extras and turns to vehicle hiring documents between owner and hirer, plus the taxi fleet licensing regime, livery, fleet stopping places, and customised pre-arranged fares.