Flag_fall
Flagfall
Expression for a fixed fee originating in Australia
Flagfall, or flag fall, is a common Australian expression for a fixed start fee, especially in the taxi, haulage, railway, and toll road industries. For example, Sydney's WestConnex motorways charge such a fee. From the Australian mobile phone industry, the expression has recently begun to spread to other English-language countries as business jargon for an initial fixed fee for establishing each phone call. The logic behind it is believed to be a method used by Australian mobile phone companies to recover a component of the carriage charges that they incur in completing a call to a subscriber. Called termination rates, they are based on the price terms and conditions for the mobile terminating access service (MTAS). The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is reviewing such arrangements.[1]
The expression is also beginning to find its way into other businesses as a synonym to "start fee". The taxi expression is also being used in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and some other countries, but it has not been used there as a general synonym for a start fee.[2]