Taxi Driver Online

Hi all, first post so here's to you all.

Looking for some guidance here. I've been driving for one of the radio cos full-time for two years now (my current owner since last Sept). It's an S reg TX, so a few years old now. I do Mon-Fri dayshift and have always paid £40 a day. Got a call from the current owner yesterday saying he was going to put the rent up to £45 a day, so for me that's £25 a week, £100 a month and almost £1200 a year increase.

Says he's not making much money/costs rising - all that stuff etc, but has his cousin doing Mon-Fri n/s as well as exclusive all Sat & Sun from a few weeks back. I have calculated that since I started working for him I have spent the equivalent of an hour short of 12 full shifts nursing the taxi in the garage, so have suffered a fair loss of income in doing so.

I have the changeover outside my house, so it means I don't have to worry about getting too/from work, to be fair and accept there's a value in that.

What I'm trying to establish is if other owners/drivers feel this rise is justified (coming just after the tarriff increase) or not. I feel it's a big jump but don;t want to tell him to do one if others feel I'm not living in the real world as regards current rentals etc. Thoughts?

Drove an E7 before and that was £40 a day. What's a Merc rental go for?

Appreciate any feedback. Cheers.

Knew it wouldnt be long before this [edited by admin] started,tell him to ram it,45 quid a day for a tx1 F**K that,
wait till you see how hard its going to be over the next few months,motor at the door or no,screw that.

add another £15>£20 fuel and scran and your £70 a day ffs
to much imo, cant see a fiver a day making any difference to him either,why bother for a fiver a day if you look after the moror(no easy feat on a double shifted tx1)and you pay on time then why the [edited by admin] does he wnat to screw you for a fiver,never get these pricks.

How much are you making a shift? That's got to be £65-£70 a day, including fuel, before making a bean for yourself. So what's that, a fiver an hour, if you're lucky.

Only you can decide what's best for you in this instance.

The 'on your doorstep' change-over is defo a plus point.

Ask the lads on the ranks what they pay, and if it's around that amount then swallow it.

At the end of the day it's not what you pay out, it's what you have at the end of the week.

If there are plenty of cabs available at a cheaper rate then leave, if not then just bide your time until there is.

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IDFIMH

You'd be better on half the clock with the owner paying for the fuel. You're going to be struggling to make it pay through the next five months at £40 a shift. Tell him to stick his £45 up his ar*e.

Its really up to you Big Paul, if you feel that £45 a day is too much then shop around, IMO its too much for a TX1 wether its at your door or not.
The time you pay your diesiel you are looking at £65 plus per day before you earn anything therefore you need to earn at least £170 a day to give you a decent week, that is going to be hard over the coming months. There are probably a lot like you at this moment where the owners are trying to screw you, however, there will probably be a lot of owners who will have to single shift their motors as drivers will walk as they cannot earn the money they need to survive. Owners never reduce rentals when times are hard in fact the opposite as is proved in your case.
Best of Luck

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LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD

It sounds by your first post this owner is tying to squeeze out a living for himself through what he charges the drivers. In reality, he's putting your rental up when you are facing a drop in income over at least the next few months and possibly the year. He's right about his costs though, they're not likely to go down. However, he can't be that desperate if he's not driving himself. Maybe it's time to move on. On the face of things, it looks like it to me.

You might want to consider driving part-time when it pays to have your arse in the saddle. That's if, you can get another job on the books, it would probably pay better than being a full time cabby.

Your other option is buying in. Although, I would wait a few months before making a ridiculously low offer and see if anyone bites. You never know. You might end up buying your current owner out before he goes down the tubes.

The only surprise is that anyone is surprised.

My posts have stated that the hike in the tariff wasn't at the behest of drivers. Neither did the customers ask for it.

The hike was driven by the two big taxi companies that are run by amateurs who couldn't manage a pi shhh up in a brewery.

They see income dropping as the public seek alternatives or just stop using taxis because of economic circumstances.

So they need to increase circuit fees. So they drive a hike in the tariff. So owners hike rentals.

So customers drift away in greater numbers. So drivers' income drops further.

Never mind. The bozos driving the companies still pay themselves their big salaries. They still claim their high expenses while stiffing drivers. And a wee job or two to their own cars ...?



Any wonder there are loads of punters who actually despise the black cab trade?

That's what I keep telling my mate who works for a rival firm and regularly boasts about taking £100 per week more than me. He forgets his rent and fuel is £150 more than mine

Thanks for all the replies, folks, and some good points made. Not sure what to do, that's all I'm certain of

Spoke to a few people today and they report paying between £40-£45 a day for their taxi, whether TX, Merc ot E7. Most Mercs seem to be @£45. One guy told me that the £40 rate had been around for upwards of ten years, so it's not surprising there's moves afoot to raise it. I pointed out that although that may be the case (I can't know for sure) it may not have been the case that it was considered high in percentage terms of daily income back then, whereas now it may well be. I mean in terms of less taxis and PH competition back then when, if what I'm told is true, drivers were pulling in upwards of £200 a day no probs.

My perspective is that I have no pension provision, no holiday pay, no sick pay - therefore there is a need to maximise my income to help provide for the down times. I don't expect the owner to empathise too deeply with this but it's something I certainly need to take account of.

I think there is an element of him just trying to maximise his income (he bought the cab purely as an income/investment - he has no brief) and suspect it may be that I'm being lined up to subsidise his cousin on nightshift.

Hopefully he'll see some sense and compromise. Will let you know.

Cheers again for the steers...

Big Paul, I’m an owner that doesn’t have a driver, but to answer your question about £45 a shift being too much. Simple really, find someone else who is cheaper. The the reality is however, that after tax, the owner is getting £30 a day. Go to a Car Rental Co. and see what they charge for 12 hrs hire. As for people telling you, and you believing it, earning £200 a shift, 10 years ago ! ( DAYSHIFT) I was always of the belief, before I entered the Trade, that Taxi drivers were the biggest porky pie-ers around. Nearly 14 years later, and I’ve no’ changed my mind.


A working vehicle is being rented out for less than £3 an hour !!

To answer your question Big Paul, Fairplay, is the kind of tos*er who thinks he's a big-shot taxi mogul. When really, he's just a wan*er who needs to believe everyone wants to be like him.

A meaningless comparison.

Hint - £45, 5 days a week over 5 years = nearly £60k

A meaningless individual.