MTM84 wrote:
Another expense I hasn’t considered...do the majority of Glasgow’s taxis have a card machine? I assume this is rented through Glasgow Taxis? Must a radio and card machine be rented together and how much is the card machine?
Whilst it would be significantly cheaper to simply offer a basic cab with no radio etc. I suppose the enhanced earning potential to prospective drivers is a no-brainer.
You can get an iZettle for £30 + vat, so don't worry too much about that.
In relation to the general thread I think if you have got spare cash, doing what your doing isn't a that bad an investment, provided you can get enough good drivers, and the council keep taxi numbers restricted.
The numbers jozefbloggz put up would lead you to recoup your investment within two years, if everything went well.
But as he mentioned getting good drivers, i.e. ones that pay the rent on time and look after your motor, isn't guaranteed. Although I suppose if you adjusted your rent downwards that might help.
I had a discussion with a mate recently who has a large number of houses he rents out to students. The returns he would get on having ten taxi plates compared to a house with seven students (approx £450,000 each), is interesting.
In short he could earn 3 or 4 times more investing in the taxi plates. I know it's comparing apples to oranges, but interesting none the less.
But as he knows my views on restricting taxi numbers, he is keeping his money in property.
Thanks very much for this. I’ve just had a look at the iZettle which is definitely a viable option. It seems they charge 1.75% per transaction which sounds fair enough.
I don’t really have an easy answer re. drivers and know that this could be something of a stumbling block. Given what has been said about the insurance side of things, I’ll really need to look into the associated costs of ‘any driver’ insurance as I hadn’t anticipated the annual premium being quite so high as has been mentioned.