Taxi Driver Online

...to consider buying a HC in Plymouth?

Hi I've been renting a HC for over 6 months and have now come to the decision that I'm sick of paying £290 a week in rent (including office).

So I want to buy. I've been offered my cab (S reg Metro) for £25K. The council told me today that the survey has indicated no unmet demand, so it looks as if they are happy to keep the plates restricted for now. But then there's Mr Preece's court case coming up and hopefully finishing no later than August (or am I being a tad optimistic?!). Plus the council have indicated they will be reviewing the situation in 12 months once various new city centre developments have been completed.

Any advice/thoughts/views and opinions are greatfully received. I'm pretty sure that buying a cab and plate for £25K basically comes down to a financial gamble - am I missing anything here. Anyone else had experience of buying a plate in a restricted area then the council deregulating straight afterwards?

Many thanks for reading this your input is appreciated
Cheers

Yes.

I would at least wait until the court case is over, since that could have a catastrophic downward effect on plate values, whereas if the court case leads to no change then it's unlikely to have a huge upward influence.

Even if there's no change in council policy, the Govt will be reviewing the situation in a couple of years anyway, so restrictions on numbers could end anyway irrespective of what Plymouth want to do.

So basically you would be gambling first on the legal aspects, and then on what is essentially about politics.

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i think you are plain daft for even thinking about it.
put your money in a house. and rent it out.

The money I would use to buy the cab would be coming FROM my house in the form of a second mortgage.

I imagine I could pay it off to 3 to 4 years.

In that same 4 year period I will pay £58 864 in rent.

What if they don't open up the plates. In four years time I will be still renting, having lined someone else's pockets by nearly sixty thousand pounds, where I could have put £25K into a loan, then be out on the road earning money for me instead.

Question: Are rental prices related to whether the plates are limited? Ie. if they open up the plates, would the price of renting dramatically decrease? My point is, if I do buy, and worse case scenario: they open up the plates straight after, will I be worse off repaying a loan at £130 per week compared to renting for £290? Or will rental prices plummet, and I'm left paying off a loan in a flooded market whilst all the other renters are getting a better deal with cheap rents?

Thanks for your input

Keep your money in your pocket, four weeks ago plates in Manchester were selling for 50 grand because another 80 plates are rumoured to be coming on you can now buy them for 40 and 45 grand.

Sensible people don't speculate on the whim of a councilor, especially in the present climate. If you wan't a plate go and apply for one and if they refuse, take them to court. Thats the sensible way.

Regards

JD

I would never borrow plate money against my house.

But you could take a chance, and you could well pay it off in 3 or 4 years. But then you have to rely on the council not changing their minds, the courts not changing it for them, or the government finally doing what they should have done last year.

As for the money you would pay for a plate, you also have to put on the cost of a vehicle, the insurance and running costs. Yes you would be better off, if quotas remain, but it's a big gamble.

If I was you, I would buy a PH and work for Taxifast, Steveo does alright, and he hardly works.

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IDFIMH

When you put it like that it certainly doesn't look like much of a gamble.

But then again, if you could get a plate for nothing in six months then presumably you could pay around £30 a week rather than the £130 you would be paying if you bought a plate now.

I'm assuming the plate is worth around £20k and the Metro around 5k?

Your current rental seems high - does this include office rent? Presumably everything except fuel is included?

But there's no doubt rentals would soften if the market was opened up.

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T.D.O. FOR EVERY ACTION THERE IS A REACTION ,
rents soften I doubt it , more likely to go up, if you are getting a plate for free and you can't afford to buy a cab, you have no where to go ,
The nature of the beast is that the strong play on the weak...mrT..

Did you realise that soften was an anagram of Sefton

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Taxi Driver Online
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So that's why the fleet owners in the 'pool are so desperate to keep restricted numbers then? So they can keep rentals low?

As Jim Royle would say, MY A***

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Taxi Driver Online
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you are a fool.....mr T.....

i dont believe thgat for a second.
if there were more cabs then the owners would be desperate for drivers.
that would lead to rents being far lower.
if rents were going to be higher then the fleet owners would be praying for de-limitation.

You mr birdbrain have got your plate for nothing ,that did not take a lot of brains did it ?, but the multi owners have had to build up their businesses. that takes brains ,they have money ,they do not have to rent out ,they can sell or park up the cab's...they can wait you out ,if it was me ,I would be asking , how many types of public hire plates there are....mrT...

I'm not sure how hard it is to build up a fleet of cabs in a restricted area.

Providing you have plenty of money, you can get the lot.

It's a lot different building up a taxi/PH radio circuit, that involves offering the best service and value. Because customers have a choice.

In a taxi quota area, cab drivers have two choices, pay what the owners want, or buy your own plate.

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IDFIMH