Taxi Driver Online

I expect a lot less.
Still if the charge £260 a week, then its no surprise they keep on asking for more drivers.

Nice guy Pat Connor but when placed in a position where he has to justify restricting numbers its amazing what some people will say to justify their position. Mantax the largest Radio circuit in Manchester don’t have one single Track available on their board and normally they are a good indication of track availability. That says it all. However you would think that with only 1400 hackney carriage badge holders there could well be a shortage. The number of cabs on the town is rapidly catching up to the number of Badge holders so eventually something will have to give.

The waiting lists and the number of badge holders don't add up. But you have to take into account that there are two lists, a numbered list and an un-numbered list. I understand the numbered list has less than a hundred applicants on it and the un-numbered list which is commonly known as the second list has over a thousand on it. So work out what category of person has applied on the second list.

Getting back to Pat Connor and the comments he made, I advise you to take what comes out of the mouths of some of our representatives with a pinch of salt. For someone who has campaigned to restrict numbers his entire life one can expect these types of comments from Pat.

Pat help write the doom and gloom report back in the early nineties when he was with the T&G Union, It was aimed at stopping the issue of new licenses. The report contained the usual propaganda of how some owners would lose their houses and how they would have to work more hours to maintain their standard of living etc, etc, etc. The reality is, we now have nearly double the Cabs, drivers have a better standard of living and the doom and gloom scenario that Pat Connors etc predicted, failed to materialise.

I suppose anyone reading what Pat said in the Manchester Evening news, would take it for granted that their is a shortage of drivers, based on research from the various radio companies here in Manchester I take a different view.

If you want a track in Manchester phone 0161 230 3333 and ask them how many tracks they have on the Board........the answer will be none. That may change by next week after the students break up and in six weeks time the schools follow but at this moment in time, as nice a guy as Pat Connors is, in my opinion, his comments don't reflect reality.

Pat has done a lot of good for the Trade here in Manchester and he continues to do so but I can't understand what information he based his comments on.

The best advice I can give to those persons who Pat is talking about, is "Advertise your track in the Manchester Evening news" but it’s amazing how the personal columns in this renowned Newspaper have an eerie silence when it comes to cabs.

Best wishes

John Davies

I'm a black cab owner /driver in Manchester , i get 200 off my night man , i work the days 6am-5.30pm 6 days a week and take on between 85-100 a day if i stick at it and work right thru without a break, i put on average £15 fuel in a day , so on a 48 week year thats 31,200, my insurance is 2,800, and my repair bill and other overheads last year was 2,600 , that brings my profit down to 25,800, and i'm paying 800 per mnth for the cab &plate finance .....profit £16,500....... welcome to the real world Mr Davies !!!! day men making £200 per day .....

Now Manchester has been held up by some to be the perfect regime in terms of assessing and reviewing taxi numbers. I just wonder how many councils have two waiting lists, and more people on them than are licensed to drive the bloody things.

_________________
IDFIMH

Manchester Guest,
This is because some of the plonkers we have in the trade,or most so the newer lads,telling people what a fortune they make.
If they sat down and did a realistic profit and loss excercise,they would
mess themselves.
New vehicle,no running costs!poppycock,sooner people in the trade realise,to make a decent living,with the hours you have to do,gives you a living,not a fortune.
Only people making lots of money is the offices.

P.Auper.

I assume you don't have a radio Or if you do have one you don't work it, or perhaps if you do have one you are on a poor radio circuit.

If you don't have a radio, you fit perfectly into the category of a non-radio driver whose earnings I described as being around 80 to 90 pounds a day. Thank you for confirming my figures.

If you read what I said about a driver with a radio doing 200 miles a day you will see I said it would equate to 150 pound when you take into consideration the discount on account work. If you’re going to quote me please quote the whole sentence and not part of it to suite your own argument.

Maybe you should try getting a school job. The average school job nowadays must pay around 50 pound a day, or perhaps join a good Radio system such as Mantax if you’re finding it hard to cope financially.

For your day man to be paying you 200 pound a week the day man will have to be grossing around 570 pound to make himself 300, considering he cant start earning for himself until he has earnt your 200 pound and the diesel to boot.

Anyway, you cleared up one thing and that is that Day men without a radio can earn 700 pound a week if they work seven days.

The question posed by Geoff was this, he asked if the Manchester evening news got it right about cabbies earning 30 grand a year. I explained fully the potential of earnings of a Manchester cab driver; it was also evident that the scale I used was in the extreme, if you read my post u will no doubt see that.

Not many people work 12 hours a day seven days a week but if they do they can expect to earn in the region of the figures I quoted, even you must realise that. As for outgoing's, I made it very clear that the figures I quoted excluded outgoings such as vehicle repayments.

There is no point in whingeing just because you bought yourself a cab and plate. You go into this game with your eyes open, if you didn't think the game was lucrative enough to make a good living you probably wouldn’t have staked so much into something that could be worthless come tomorrow.

Best wishes

John Davies

I have taken 200 on occasion but this does not equate to clearing 200 on a saturday(you have to pay for the fuel).
I also place lot of importance to my personal life.
I attend to the needs of my family first and think of Driving when I am happy that they are happy.
My kids will never remember the last job I did but will remember the time spent together.
Of course its your choice but I dont wish to kill myself (as I know many drivers have sadly done so) prematurely.
Apart from all this you dont account for the ''runners'' and non payers that are dealt with by the Police.
Perhaps I will never make a ''proper'' taxi driver.

I fully enjoyed this posting its the best I have read from a successfull failure.

how many runners do you get from your tx2? and why do you let them out?

and you dont try and catch them for the love of your family?


and how do you keep non payers in whilst the police come?

That's a bit mean Geoff, maybe he thinks you are the tax-man.

We all earn different sums, because we all work different times and areas. But maybe where we are all the same, is that if we want to, we can earn a lot.

It's called working your nuts off.

_________________
IDFIMH

Its a lot mean but he implies that no taxi drivers love thier familty or wants time off.

lots of my colleagues work thier nuts off to provide for thier families.

most taxi driver have a great love of thier families.

Yeh offices cost nothing to run, staffed by volunteers, the greedy [edited by admin].
Business Brains of the year everyone makes more than me, poohoo.

Where do you get this little chestnut "that its my choice" Did I say I worked 7 days a week 12 hours a day? No I didn't.

For your information I don't work anywhere near 7 days a week in fact I try to work as little as possible, I'm sure my home life is just as rewarding as yours if not more so.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to spend a lot of time with my family. when you, have everything paid for, you might be able to afford the same luxury of time off that I enjoy. Until you can afford to have 3 full days a week or more off, dont assume you have a better quality of life than the next person.


Was this question supposed to solicit a serious response? I can't believe a man of your stature would entertain posting a nonsensical question such as this. How many runners or non payers a year do you get? I can count on one hand the number of people a year who have tried to put one over me. If your getting that many runners or non payers it might be advisable to get the money up front before you commence your journey.

With all due respect to yourself, after considering both your posts on this topic I have concluded that you might be better off sat on your backside up at the Airport. There you can spend 70% of your day engaging in chit-chat and the other 30% actually working. At least up there you will be immune from the riffraff we have to deal with on the town. Another advantage is that you will most likely preserve your piece of mind and perhaps go home to your wife and kids without feeling you have done a days work.

It might also give you time to reflect on what I actually said in my original post about potential earnings I’ll say it again just for your benefit and any other dummy who is hard of hearing, The word is “POTENTIAL” and the scenario is Maximum number of hours.

I suppose there are Taxi drivers and then there are Taxi drivers? At the end of the day you reap what you sow in this game, sitting around on Taxi Ranks talking to your pals all day will get you sweet FA.

Best wishes

JD

I dont know where you get the ''tx2'' from ? but let me assure you that from a TX1 I have had the middle glass partition kicked in, been grabbed by the throat, and finally the ''punter'' kicked a door window out and jumped out.
Now I have a grilled partition which helps a lot.
I now keep non payers in and drive (where possible) to the Police station.
The point I am making here is the time wasted in the process.
Yes, Mr John Davies, I have worked ALL the radio circuits of manchester and left each one because of ''feeding''.

What a lame excuse that is. How can an operator blatently feed someone on Mantax, The system doesn't allow it, everything is recorded. The operator calls the first cab off the rank. For out of town work you have the option of running for the job, if you think you are nearer. The only feeeding that goes on is out the back door on occasions by virtue of the management, or perhaps on a free call in town. But you don't get that many free calls in town in any case.

Theres plenty of work on Mantax during the day apart from the school and Student holidays. There is so much of it that it can't get covered on most occasions.

Best wishes.

JD

no no John he doesnt meen that he means they make his dinner and probably burn it?