Taxi Driver Online

One of my drivers rang me last night to say that she was covering a job this morning for another driver. Fair enough. She has a school run that starts in the village where she lives and comes into town, great. However she lives 6 1/2 miles from town so she has driven in the 6 1/2 miles to pick up this punter and take him 0.8 of a mile which would cost £3.20 on the meter. She is then going to drive back the 7.2 miles from the drop off to start the school run. So she is driving 13.7 dead miles for a £3.20 fare. She will be paying me £4.50 for these miles.
I have tried to explain to her that she should have turned the job down. It is obvious to me that the chap she was doing the job for has got a better job and is off loading the cheap one. The really daft bit is that this chap is one of the main drivers who will pinch your fare at the drop of a hat and he works on a small circuit where no one would help him.
How do you tell such drivers?

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Grandad,

You can't. Same as the old chestnut of airport runs which I think may have been mentioned here before.

Why drive a long way to lose money when you can sit at home and not lose money??

"Helping others" usually means they've got a better job that pays far more. I used to get this when I ran a bus company in Sarf Lundun. Another operator would phone in the summer and aske me to cover their school run, to which the answer was "no, but I'll cover the trip to Brighton for you".

Her own stupid fault. Let her do it.

Are they both hackneys and licensed in the same area?

let 'em get on with it.. and when they are complaining about not earning enough or their mileage is through the roof explain that its the fault of these 'favour' jobs...

Unfortunately I think a lot of people count other drivers and owners as more of a friend than they should do....

spoke to a base op today who was convinced she could quote a £4 job pickup/drop 6 miles away at £10 cos it was booked through the base so neednt go on the meter, including dead miles...

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

Yesterday one of my drivers did a "favour" for one of the local one man bands off sunning himself in the meditteranean a wait and return to Worcester which also turned out to involve considerable running around there including the 2 or 3 hours working our board before he did the job which was worth £200 he clocked up 310 miles !!!

when I pointed that out to him he shrugged his shoulders and said well it was £200 thats more than he would have taken in a full day on the board

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Yes.

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Grandad,

Most of the company's here do that.

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Grandad,

till the punters know the law they are safe...

she mentioned 1 old boy who has a taxi to a local swimming pool, 8 miles, hes there an hour but refuses to pay the £12 each way saying it shouldnt cost extra to get home above one x £12, hes had run ins with a few drivers, i asked why they keep taking the job

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

With some of these "cut price" merchants, I'm just waiting for the day HMRC get their teeth into them. I know that HMRC have an "average" a cabbie ought to earn based on his mileage, so if there's say 30,000 miles a year there ought to be about £20,000 earnt; so, if Mr Cutprice has only declared £10,000, he'll get taxed on £20k, unless he can prove otherwise, .

I know, I have a friend who used to be a high-up in HMRC doing such investigations.

You don't.

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IDFIMH

HMRC also have a book, it has every trade with a ratio of a main cost vs takings

with taxis the main cost is fuel, £100 of fuel = (say) £400 takings

when they put down £250 of fuel down for £400 takings alarm bells ring, far simpler to put down 25% of declared takings as fuel and any excess mileages explain away as a driving holiday to Portugal...twice

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

or three times

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

There speaks a man that has never spent several hours with an Inland Revenue inspector they do not understand Logic only receipts and figures if you claim for a driving holiday they will want to see petrol receipts from where you have been !!!!!

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector