Taxi Driver Online

This ^ it definitely pays to be be finicky and sometimes less is more.

I've often started early or worked extra days without much net gain.

I don't think the HMRC figures are really realistic to use for this kind of stuff, Roy - the assumptions the figures use are probably miles out as regards the trade, so the HMRC figures will be misleadingly high, and will assume mileage that's a lot lower, most obviously.

I suspect the best way to look at it - and how the likes of the driver here would look at it - would be in terms of incremental or variable costs for the run, as compared to the fixed or sunk costs that he would be incurring anyway. For example, you'd ignore insurance and licensing costs because they would be paid anyway.

So not sure when you're talking about precisely, but I'd guess you'd maybe be looking at something like £20 for diesel, and maybe the same in additional wear and tear. So profit maybe £60, so not that much really for five hours, but again the calculation is probably to ask what the driver would be doing if he didn't do the LHR run. Well, maybe he's not being entirely rational, but on the other hand I don't think it would be realistic to say that he's actually making a loss.

And, for example, not sure where you get your figure of 4p/mile for tyres, which seems way over the top.

Had a look back to see if you had posted a spreadsheet or link to a file or whatever - I'm guessing you didn't, looking at the posts. But you did state that you'd expect a set of tyres to last 30,000 miles

When my current jalopy was still fairly new, I recall buying new tyres for £50 a corner. (Obviously cheap tyres, but on the other hand not the cheapest in terms of size - they're 235/45R17).

So that's £200 for four tyres over 30,000 miles, thus a lot less than a penny per mile, in fact nearer to a halfpenny per mile (two thirds of a penny to be precise, or 0.667p).

Of course, as cars get older the tyres tend not to last so long. But even if I buy a set of the cheaper branded tyres at today's prices (£350 for a set of four, say) and they only last 20,000 miles then that's still just 1.8p per mile

vehicles with mechanisms that achieve the London turning circle would certainly cost that or more as many achieve less than 10000 miles per tyre on the fronts. Don't forget taxis even saloon hackneys do a lot more turning than your average motorist so tyre wear is heavier on the fronts at least.

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Yes, Edders, but pretty sure it's not London black cab 'Conditions of Fitness' Roy was talking about. And it was Roy who cited the figure '30,000 miles a set' for tyres

And, in fact, if you really want to refine the cost analysis then you probably won't get much easier on tyres than a 200 mile run to LHR, mostly motorway, correct me if I'm wrong.

So, historically, my own figures for the kind of period Roy is talking about (2013 or thereabouts), I suspect my tyre cost on a motorway run would be less than half a penny, ie 0.5p, while Roy was using a figure of 4p. In fact, in another post he's talking about 6p per mile.

So I wouldn't be surprised if for a bog standard saloon 'taxi' or similar he's overstating the cost of tyres on an airport run by maybe ten times

And the reason I didn't query Roy's 30,000 mile per set of tyres figure is that it didn't seem unrealistic to me.

My first car as a taxi was a bog standard Mondeo, and think I was getting 50,000 miles or so on the rears.

Can't recall the front tyre mileages, but it was certainly hard on them, I think, and hard on front suspension components, so I'd guess the two were related.

But my first brand new car was the diesel Passat estate, and think got 27,000 miles on the first set of fronts, and well into the 30,000s on the rears. The fronts gradually reduced as the car got older, but think the worst I had on the fronts was 22,000, and I don't do that much airport or long distance stuff, but of course the steered tyres will always wear more quickly, as will the front tyres on FWD cars (which, of course, most are these days).

(I've had two Passat estates, and while in general they're not hard on the back tyres, they tend to wear prematurely right on the inside on both rear tyres, which different testers and mechanics seem to take a different view of. But certainly as regards the whole width of the tyre generally, I'd say 40,000 is still realistic).

To be honest, with lockdown and the like I've kind of lost track (pardon the pun) of the precise details of my tyre stuff, and we've got lots of speed bumps in town now, the type you kind of straddle to go over and I think that's maybe causing the tyres to wear prematurely on the inside (and exacerbating the pre-existing thing with my Passat).

But I still think a 20,000 mile average per set figure isn't unrealistic, so even with a half decent set of tyres @ £400, that's just 2p per mile.

And that's quite a conservative figure - I could probably get a set of new unbranded 235/45R17 tyres for £300 at today's prices, and if you maybe assumed an average 25,000 miles between front and rear, then that's 1.2p per mile, so probably less than a penny per mile on an airport run

Incidentally, I was maybe a bit optimistic earlier in saying that a 200 mile motorway run a decade or so ago would cost £20 in fuel. I was assuming 50mpg, which is maybe a tad optimistic, but of course would depend on the vehicle. Also, I was assuming £5 per gallon of diesel, but having looked back at the online RAC figures maybe £6 per gallon would be more realistic at around that time

This is a pretty pointless wee spreadsheet in which you input the average mileage for front tyres, and the average mileage for rears. And also the cost per tyre.

The spreadsheet will then calculate the average tyre cost per mile in pence (to the nearest two decimals).

Which is really a bit pointless, and isn't very exciting. But the purpose is to demonstrate the use of basic formulas to work that kind of stuff out.

Assuming this link works, you can see the formula in C16 near the top of the spreadsheet.

It basically just averages out the life of each tyre, and multiplies the cost for each tyre by four to give the total cost for a set of tyres.

It then divides the total cost of a set of tyres by the average mileage per tyre, and the result is the cost of the car's tyres per mile. (That's in pounds, so the formula also multiplies it by 100 to give the result in pence.)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... edit#gid=0

For anyone who wasn't paying attention at school , the same thing could be achieved in stages.

So in one cell a formula to find the average tyre life, then another cell with the total cost per set of tyres.

Then in another cell just divide the total cost per set by the average tyre life and you get the average cost of tyres per mile

When I was an apprentice at British Leyland in the 1970s costs were worked out to 5 decimal places and that was in old money. We had to calculate the cost for say making a handbrake mechanism. so there were about 20 or so individual parts and every operation was calculated to 5 decimal places. It was interesting working out the cost of the paint used for painting the casing.

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To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

BL got sold for a quid i believe?

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

Way overpriced IMO.

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IDFIMH

and once they'd milked the uk government for subsidy on false promises of keeping the site open and then asset stripped it they made a tidy sum on it.



and now MG is the second biggest electric car brand in the UK (made in china of course) or so I'm told

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Lets hope the EV parts backup is better than for the diesels, they cant supply clutches now for 2019 models

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If you read my figures properly, I got tyre cost at 0.04p per mile, not £0.04 which is 4p per mile. Half a penny is 0.5p. Did you not do your maths homework when you were at school?

It's all these hidden extras that add up, you thing you're getting a good earner then got a bill for something that goes wrong. My point is there's not much to be said for working just for cash turnover if there's nothing left at the end of the day.

It was 2014 when I pasted my formula on here. I'll try to get it to copy across again, but it's an xls document which doesn't copy well from applemac!

If anyone can tell me how to copy it on here I'll be glad to do so,

Suggest you revisit the edit button, Roy, lest anyone* thinks you're being serious with your tyre cost numbers

(I would quote your figures, but you won't be able to edit my post )

*ie, anyone who really didn't do their maths homework at school