London workers used to topping up their earnings with “creative” expense claims were dealt a blow today when it emerged that Mayor Ken Livingstone wants to bring to an end the system of taxis issuing blank receipts.
The move, which will force taxi drivers to issue detailed electronically printed receipts for each journey, could see one of the City’s most established and time-honoured practices in creative expense accounting consigned to history.
The change is part of a scheme being introduced by Transport for London (TfL) under which all black-cab drivers are to be obliged to fit machines that will give a detailed printout of every journey made.
The receipt will detail for a passenger’s employer exactly when the journey was made and where to.
A spokesman for TfL denied that the scheme was being introduced as a result of the Mayor’s desire to clamp down on expenses fiddling.
“We are doing this because a lot of customers have asked for it,” he told the Times.
