Overcharged by taxi driver AIBU?

[StrategyMaps]

I take the same journey once a week, at the same time, on the same day, and get a taxi each time from a taxi rank. I know the journey well and it takes less than 5 minutes. The fare is always £6.60 or similar give or take £1. This week I took my cab and the driver wasn’t using the machine which shows you the fare due. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But when the journey ended it was £3 more than I’d expect to pay, and I felt cheated. But since it was late at night I didn’t feel safe to challenge them, as I was alone and no one around. So I paid with my card, and later logged on to the council website to report overcharging. Unfortunately I wasn’t thinking properly and didn’t photograph the number plate as he drove off… AIBU to be annoyed about this? I feel like he just made up the fare.

To be fair it's quite often a luxury to go by taxi.

Hackney Carriage fares are set by the council. The photo shows the current fares for where I live. With no waiting time, a 2-mile journey would cost £6.90 in the day, £7.10 after 7pm, £8.10 after 7pm on Fri/Sat/Sun. Only on bank holidays do they add the specified extras to this.
In practice, the actual fare can be up to £1 more than this due to waiting in traffic, but this is usually worse during the day so the day/night fares tend to be similar anyway.

A private hire vehicle can charge whatever they like, but most of these nowadays are also metered and are typically about 10-15% cheaper than hackneys. When they are not metered, a price is supposed to be agreed before starting. If a price is not agreed YOU CAN PAY WHAT YOU LIKE.

Several years ago a large group of us needed 3 private hire vehicles to go from A to B. The first charged £4.30, the second £4.50 and they were each given £5, but the third asked for £6.50. We refused to pay more than £4.50. He radioed base asking "is it £6.50 from A to B" to which base obviously agreed. We still refused. Fortunately a police car was passing and we flagged it down and explained the situation. The police officer said that as no price was agreed beforehand, we could pay what we liked and suggested £1 to make the point clear. We paid £1 and walked off as the drive was given stern advice by the officer.

He shouldn't be off the meter.