Taxi Driver Online

A little late now but if you google gap insurance you will find hundreds of companys that will do it, even retrospectivly, but sadly not after an accident.
If you have a car on a bank loan you can sell it at any time. It is a personal loan to you, not a charge on the vehicle.
The car you have on HP. Did you put down a deposit when you bought it? If you did and the deposit and the payments that you have already made are at least 50% of the purchase price, you can give the vehicle back to the finance company and terminate the contract.

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Grandad,

Dito with grandad, any vehicle on hp can be returned to the finance company once 50% is paid, it will say that on your agreement

I know that I can return it after 50% has been paid, but I've not reached that amount yet. So between now and then, I wanted to at least try and get the vehicle to at least pay itself until I get rid of it, or try and get more work so it is worth keeping it as I would rather not downsize, but if need by I would.

A quick query about handing the car back, would it affect my credit rating? Or would it just [edited by admin] of the finance company who would be likely to turn me down in future, even though I have had numerous personal cars prior to this through them and never missed payment etc.

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Tam Tam the taxi man,
If anyone can,

Tam can

Thanks for that, never knew that. I thought it covered the "agreement" as opposed to the "vehicle". At least I know for in future now. I take it they don't get commision on selling gap policy's then?

If I dont learn anything else from this forum, at least I have learned this one thing, which sadly was a bit of a schoolboy error to make. Think I might ring up the dealer tomorrow and question the salesman about it, or even go in past. Will probably get a line about how he cant remember that conversation!

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Tam Tam the taxi man,
If anyone can,

Tam can

GAP insurance is priceless in our game mate, even without a loan or HP GAP Insurance will always be top of my shopping list.

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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

Believe me, don't get Mercury X2

It will not affect your credit rating at all. The HP company may not like it but it is in the agreement. Providing that you have not missed a payment they will not turn you down in the future simply because you have done everything within the agreement. Also, when they sell the car at auction, if it makes more than the outstanding balance, they have to give the extra to you. I got £777.00 back when I returned my Suzuki van.
Don't forget when calculating the 50%, any deposit you paid is part of the 50%.

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Grandad,

But any warranty or insurances are not.
These must be settled in full.

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Thanks for the advice so far folks. A few more of my ideas/plans.

My mate works at the airport and told me that the some of the airlines use hotels that are within my LA for crew staying at overnight. It would mean a drive of perhaps 15/20 minutes to the hotel(s) to pick up, but does anyone think it would be worth trying to get this sort of work? Reckon I would be looking about £20/£25 per journey. I know it would possibly tie up a vehicle a good bit early morning and late evening, but it would be work. Anyone know if I would make enquiries with the airline at the airport, or go through their head office?

Has anyone had experience of doing deliveries for couriers? I’ve been pretty keen to avoid it as from what I’ve heard it is shocking money per parcel and you basically get paid once for the parcel, even if you have to make three attempts to deliver it. Only upside I could see would be being able to put a card in with the package, but surely it is going to end up being the same faces for most of the drops? Something similar to this I thought of was Newspapers – how do shops get them delivered to their remote locations. There are a good few shops around the area that sell newspapers and appear to have them delivered by the paper company themselves. I assume the shop has to pay for this, I did think about contacting a few shops and seeing if I could work out some arrangement where I would pick up the papers and deliver them to their shops, or would I be better contact the actual paper company? I know they get delivered early morning and mid-day/early afternoon, 6 days a week. Not sure how they arrange their Sunday papers.

Is it wrong to contact Funeral Directors and offer my services of being a wheelchair access vehicle? I keep the motor clean, washed and hovered / polished regularly and it is silver. I myself will always wear a collared top and trousers when working, and thought perhaps when it comes to older people passing away, there could be a likely hood of a close relative being wheelchair bound due to old age / ill health etc.

I thought about looking into perhaps doing some sightseeing tours of the local area or golfing trips. I used to be a bus driver, so know a few guys who have retired and would possibly consider the odd day driving doing something like this. I thought about getting a few different routes planned, whether it is half day or full day excursions and then putting it on my website and possibly putting flyers into the local hotels and Tourist Information shop. With the golf trips I wasn’t too sure the best way about it. Would it be worth approaching some clubs and asking for a discount on green fee’s if I brought them some work, but obviously I couldn’t guarantee “x” amount of trips there. Was thinking of doing trips that would play one course in the morning, somewhere for lunch and then another course in the afternoon.

I keep toying with the idea of accepting Credit Cards and getting a terminal. I notice there are options to get software for your phone and process the transactions that way, but a bit worried passengers may think it is some kind of scam or not 100% secure. Anyone had any experiences with the non-monthly payment options?

As for something different for advertising, I thought about phone boxes. There is one at the front of the main rank and another at the station that I had thought about, but wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to advertise on these or would it be considered as “touting” due to their proximity to ranks. Anyone know how much these cost to advertise on, had a quick look but could only find prices for London through JC Decaux. Think I might send BT an email about it.

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Tam Tam the taxi man,
If anyone can,

Tam can

Has anyone had much joy through sponsoring local events and competitions? Our town has a pool league and a darts league on different week nights with some teams playing in smaller villages nearby. Have thought about approaching the leagues and asking about sponsorship, and possibly offering a fixed price for teams in the league who have to travel to the other villages to play. I know the golf club gets holes sponsored, but I think this could possibly be out of my budget at the time being. I could try contact the local rugby team or football team and find out if there is anything I could do with them, perhaps offer a discount to players to try and get them using me.

I thought about approaching the council regarding their door to door bus service. They haven’t tendered anything for any provision of a kind of backup service or such like, so thought I might try and find out if it is something they would consider. Their buses have tail lifts for wheelchairs, and my motors are WAV. It operates in my area, so thought about perhaps seeing if they would have any need for me on an ad-hoc basis in case of breakdowns, not having a bus run due to a driver calling in sick at short notice, over booking the buses etc.

Does anyone do work for local banks? Obviously the banks in the big cities will use taxis fairly frequent, but do the local banks use them at all? I was thinking along the lines of perhaps account managers going to meet clients at their premises or does the branch manager go out and about with meeting clients.

My mate suggested to me buying wall mounted ashtrays and getting them done with an advert for my company and offering them to local pubs, hotels and restaurants for free. Saves them buying new ones or extra ones and gets me advertising. Not bothered about it creating advertising through a perceived “negative source”, as long as it generates me business.

I thought about introducing a discount card, but not calling it as such to try and not make it sound desperate for work. Thought about calling it a “Gold Card” or “Platinum Card”, something along those lines. My plan was charge something like £3 for the card and it is valid for 12 months, with the customers’ photo on it so they can’t buy one and share with mates. I would get them to fill in small application form so I could then send them a renewal in 11 months’ time and with the card they would get 10% discount on all journeys. My plan was to buy blank cards such as these at the start and then the £3 fee would cover my costs of the initial outlay. I would try and get some terms for it done such as they could only use one card per journey and not end up with a 70% discount! My fixed prices I offer tend to be set at 10% off the meter at the moment, and was toying with the idea of still offering this on top of the fixed prices. My other idea of approaching hotels and bars to try and get work from them, I would also offer these cards free to their staff to try and get the owner to see it is a being a benefit for their staff also.


Must dash, that’s my lunch break for the day over. Time to go make some money hopefully!

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Tam Tam the taxi man,
If anyone can,

Tam can

I think you have lots of ideas and I know a driver that offers tours for tourists etc and does quite well from them, this however is in Liverpool. With regard to the discount card why not make it a customer loyalty card like they do in the supermarkets etc. I'm sure if you have a terminal to except payment by card you should be able to have a terminal that adds up customer points

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Or just give out a card with spaces on the back, like the ones you get from Mcdonalds - pay for 6 cups of coffee and get a free one. No terminal needed, just a rubber stamp for each cab.
You can buy them for a couple of quid each.

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I never thought of that particular method which I guess is good if you're not rewarding on a per £ spent like they do in the supermarkets.

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

We did this a couple of years ago as a lead up to a cash draw to mark our 25th. anniversary. (full card = entry to draw) One thing to watch for it can cost you if you are reimbursing the drivers for full cards. In hindsight I would have changed the parameters to 8 paid=1 free/part paid hire to the value of £3 (or £5 if you feel flush) The local printer also supplied us with dots (pvc cut-outs to size) in a bright aqua (not available in the shops).

I must admit it was a roaring success for the time it ran. The drivers paid in to fund both redeemed cards and prize money, so for us it was self financing.

The cards, IIRC cost £80 per 1000 custom printed and laminated.

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My heart is heavy, but my consience clear,
I voted Yes, without any fear.