A taxi driver rating is the metric a company uses to decide which driver gets an order first, and it shows the quality of a person's work. In practice there are usually two ratings: the passenger rating (stars after the ride) and the company's internal points rating, which is added and deducted automatically for specific actions: a completed order, lateness, a rejection. A low rating is one that lags noticeably behind the other drivers in your company, not any single number. There is only one way to raise it: work consistently without the violations that cost points.
Let's look at how both kinds of rating work, how the rating affects order dispatching and how an owner can build a driver rating system that drivers will consider fair.
How is a taxi driver rating calculated
To avoid confusion, let's separate two concepts.
| Passenger rating | Company's internal rating | |
|---|---|---|
| Who gives it | The passenger after the ride | The software, by the company's rules |
| Scale | Usually 1–5 stars, average score | Points, which can be positive or negative |
| What it reflects | Subjective impression of the ride | Discipline: lateness, rejections, speed, workload |
| Validity | Average across all ratings | Each entry is valid for a set period, then expires |
| Effect on orders | Visible to the passenger, affects trust | Directly affects order dispatching |
The passenger rating matters for reputation, but it's noisy: one ride stuck in traffic can earn three stars through no fault of the driver. The internal rating is more accurate because it relies on facts the system records: pickup time, statuses, route.
The internal rating: the sum of active entries
In Tonotel, a driver's rating is the sum of all unexpired entries. Each entry is created by a rule from the "Rewards and Penalties" section or manually from the driver's profile; it has a value (for example, +2 or −3) and a period after which the points stop counting. The total changes on its own: a good week lifts the driver, and old mistakes expire over time.
This leads to an important principle: the rating can't be "fixed" retroactively. The total can only be corrected with a new, compensating entry or by waiting for the old ones to expire. That's why expiry periods need to be thought through from the start.
Does driver rating affect orders? Exactly how
A rating only makes sense if it affects work. In dispatch software, this happens through order dispatching strategies.
Rating-based broadcast. Drivers with a higher rating see the order first, and the rest see it after a set interval. The company chooses how many seconds ahead the best drivers are.
Nearest driver, accounting for idle time and rating. Here "nearest" doesn't mean "geographically nearest". Each rating point is treated as a minute of idle time and virtually moves the driver about 10 metres closer to the order. The farther the order, the stronger the effect. In practice, a driver with a good rating who is slightly farther away gets the order before a neighbour with a poor rating.
Group priority. Drivers can be split into high, medium and low priority groups. On request, the system provider can tie a group to rating thresholds, and then drivers will be placed in it automatically.
What is a low driver rating
The direct answer: a low rating is one that is noticeably below most drivers in your company. There is no universal number, because each company decides how many points an order earns and how many a violation costs.
Practical guidelines:
- For an internal points rating. A warning sign is a negative total: more violations than completed work. A second guideline is the leaderboard position: if a driver has been in the bottom 10–15% for several weeks in a row, it's time to look into it.
- For passenger ratings. Look at the trend and the number of ratings, not a single figure. An average over three rides means nothing; a gradual decline over a month does. The company sets its own threshold for a conversation with the driver and tells drivers what it is.
- For a new driver. In the passenger app, the average score line only appears after the first ratings. A newcomer without a rating is not a bad sign.
Is 4.7 a good driver rating? What about 4.77?
Figures like 4.7 or 4.77 refer to the average passenger rating on a five-star scale. That's not the same as the company's internal rating: in Tonotel, the internal rating is counted in points for specific events, while the average star rating to two decimal places and the number of ratings are shown to the passenger on the current order screen.
Why 4.7 out of 5 isn't "nearly perfect". Most passengers who had no complaints give five stars. So drivers with many ratings usually average close to five, and every low rating pulls the average down noticeably. A few examples using simple arithmetic:
- 20 five-star ratings and one one-star rating already give 4.81;
- 9 five-star ratings and one two-star rating give exactly 4.7;
- with 100 ratings, raising the average from 4.7 to 4.8 takes another 50 five-star ratings in a row.
So 4.77 with the rest being five stars is roughly one one-star rating every eighteen rides, and 4.7 is one every thirteen. If colleagues in the same company average higher, such a driver ends up at the bottom of the list. Look not only at the figure but at the number of ratings: with ten ratings, 4.7 may be chance; with a hundred, it's a stable pattern worth analysing through the comments.
A low rating is a reason for a conversation, not a verdict. Often the cause is not understanding the rules: the driver didn't know that "Arrived" mustn't be tapped in advance, or that rejecting an accepted order costs points.
How to build a driver rating system: step by step
- Define 5–8 events that affect the rating. No more: drivers need to understand the system.
- Set the weight of each event. Positive events should occur more often than negative ones, otherwise everyone's rating will go negative.
- Set expiry periods. 7–14 days is enough for everyday events; 30 days for serious violations.
- Enable rating-based dispatching for the relevant order types.
- Show the rating to drivers in the app and announce the rules.
- After a month, check the points distribution in the report and adjust the weights.
A sample starter set of rules:
| Event | Points | Valid for |
|---|---|---|
| Completed an order | +1 | 7 days |
| Accepted an order quickly (within 10 seconds) | +1 | 7 days |
| Beat the shift target | +5 | 14 days |
| Late for pickup by more than 10 minutes | −3 | 7 days |
| Rejected an accepted order | −5 | 14 days |
| Tapped "Arrived" too early | −3 | 7 days |
| Actual route with the customer 30% longer than recommended | −5 | 30 days |
The values are illustrative; adjust them to your company's order volume.
Rules can be limited to driver groups, order types, days of the week and time of day. For example, it's convenient to give the quick-acceptance bonus only during peak hours.
There's also a special technique for the start of the month: the actions "Award rating until a day of next month" and "Lower rating until a day of next month" give points that stay valid until a set date. This is handy for monthly results: the best drivers get priority for the whole of the following month.
What drivers see in the app
Transparency is half of a rating's success. If the company has enabled the rating, the Tonotel driver app shows:
- "Rating" and "Leaderboard position" lines in the driver profile;
- a "Rating" tab with a list of entries: rule name, time, number of points and a "Valid until" date after which the points stop counting;
- a "Leaderboard" listing the company's drivers: position, call sign, rating;
- a pop-up message when points are added or deducted.
Tip: name rules so the name makes it clear what the points are for. "Late for pickup" is better than "Penalty 2".
Passenger ratings: how to collect and use them
Passenger ratings complement the internal rating and help catch what the system can't see: rudeness, a dirty interior, aggressive driving.
In the passenger app. After a completed ride, the passenger gives one to five stars and can add a short comment. Rides can also be rated from the trip history. A rating is given once and can't be changed later. The passenger sees the driver's average score and number of ratings on the current order screen.
Phone or SMS survey. For passengers who book by phone, you can set up a survey in the "Customer feedback" section. The question is played as an audio file, the passenger answers by pressing a digit, and each digit maps to a rating and a comment. For SMS, a text template with a link to a rating page is used. The survey can be limited to a driver group, order types, tariffs and frequency, for example asking about every Nth order.
How to use ratings:
- review every rating below four stars with the driver in person;
- look for recurring complaints, not one-offs;
- if complaints are about the car's condition, set up regular photo inspection: the driver photographs the car according to a template and the company checks the photos.
How to improve your driver rating: a guide for drivers
You can send this guide to drivers as a news item or print it for newcomers.
- Accept orders quickly. Many companies award points for fast response.
- Don't reject accepted orders. A rejection almost always costs more than a missed order.
- Arrive on time. If you're running late, let the dispatcher know.
- Tap "Arrived" only when you've actually arrived. The company can set up a rule that records premature taps.
- Follow the recommended route. Significant deviations are recorded.
- Work when the company needs drivers. Many companies offer bonuses for shifts at the right time.
- Keep the car clean and be polite. This directly affects passenger ratings.
- Check the "Rating" tab. It shows what points were added and deducted for and when they will expire.
Common owner mistakes
- The rating exists but affects nothing. If dispatching ignores the rating, drivers quickly stop paying attention to it.
- Points that never expire. The rating turns into seniority, and a newcomer can never catch up with a veteran.
- Only minuses. If points are deducted for violations but never added for good work, everyone ends up with a negative total.
- Rules change silently. Any change in weights must be announced in advance.
- Relying only on passenger stars. They're useful but too subjective to base dispatching on alone.
If you're still recruiting, think the rating through in advance: for a newcomer, a transparent system is an argument in favour of your company.
Frequently asked questions
What is considered a low taxi driver rating?
There is no universal threshold: each company has its own scale. For five-star passenger ratings, the company usually sets its own threshold below which the driver is invited for a talk. For an internal points rating, a negative total or a place at the bottom of the leaderboard, for example in the lowest 10–15% of drivers, is a reasonable definition of low.
How can a taxi driver improve their rating?
Complete more orders, don't reject accepted ones, arrive on time, accept orders quickly and don't tap "Arrived" before actually arriving. In companies with an automatic rating, points are awarded by rules, so it's worth asking the dispatcher exactly what earns and loses points.
Does a driver's rating affect the number of orders?
Yes, if the company uses rating-based dispatching. A driver with a high rating sees an order in the broadcast earlier or gets it even when slightly farther from the customer than a colleague with a low rating.
Can a driver's rating be reset?
In an internal points system, the rating is made up of entries with an expiry date. Individual entries expire on their own over time, and the company can correct the total by adding compensating points. That's why it's important to set sensible expiry periods from the start.
Can a passenger change the rating they gave a driver?
In the Tonotel passenger app, a ride is rated once and the rating can't be changed afterwards. So it's worth explaining to drivers that every ride is rated immediately and for good.
Is a 4.7 driver rating bad?
If it's the average passenger rating on a five-star scale, 4.7 is a signal to pay attention. Most passengers give five stars, so many drivers average close to 5, and 4.7 means noticeably more low ratings than colleagues have: for example, nine five-star ratings and one two-star rating out of ten give exactly 4.7. The company's internal rating is something else: in Tonotel it is counted in points for specific actions, while the average star rating is shown to the passenger on the order screen.
Conclusion
A taxi driver rating works when it's based on facts, affects order dispatching and is clear to drivers. Use an internal points rating with expiry periods as the foundation and passenger ratings as an additional quality signal. Start with a small set of rules, show drivers every entry and adjust the weights after a month based on the report. Then the rating becomes not a source of arguments but a clear way to earn more.