Taxi Driver Online

Anyone made the transition and found it worth the extra costs?

The first car I drove was a Ford Galaxy. The firm I worked for had different pricing for standard car, estate car, people carrier jobs (rising in price in that order). You'd probably find that it won't be worth the extra running costs of buying the minibus unless you get paid and regularly get minibus jobs - rather than carrying one or two people most of the time paying standard rates.

Also consider is it worth the hassle dealing with a busload of drunks if you do nights, or doing airport work with huge families with loads of luggage during the day?

Also bear in mind standard cars are often requested by the elderly who find it difficult to step up into a people carrier/minibus.

I run saloons, MPVs, 8 seat minibuses and 16 seat minibuses. You will probably be OK with an 8 seater but anything bigger will need to be licensed by VOSA. One thing that we have noticed when we have the 8 seater out on a Saturday night picking up off the rank, Some people think that it will cost more than a sallon even when there are only 2 of them.

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Grandad,

I had 2 Cars and a Minibus, it was profitable enough and I got the VAT back on Fuel for the Minibus...sadly the town im in aint big enough to merit running both Cars and a Minibus. What I gained in Minibus work I lost in Car work..people quick realised it was better to travel in bigger groups to clubs etc and there was no net gain.

Because I was Getting VAT back on fuel I Had to run 2 different Business's, The Minibus one being VAT registered and the Private Hire Non Vat Registered, if I didnt do it that way I would have had to add VAt to my PH fares or lose out. I had twice the amount of book keeping to do and the chore of submitting regular VAT returns.

Another Minibus Drawback is that you need a PSV Licence to drive one and Between me and my Partner only I have a PSV so I had to do all the PSV stuff and this took me away from the PH work.

To compound the Problems of Minibus's is the need to have your Drivers go through CPC training and thats an extra cost, Regular D4 Medicals and Driver Licence renewals. then add to that a Tachograph and a speed limiter on the Minibus , Regular Vehicle checks several times a year, an Operators licence and suddenly the Minibus idea loses its appeal.

In the End I found a 4 seater saloon and an 8 seater MPV suited my needs best.

Im sure everybody on here will have a different opinion or experience to mine..but thats how i found it. In short I worked 33% harder for 0% more money.

Personally four people are enough for me, particularly if you're talking about the late-night drunks market, but if you're doing mainly aiport runs then perhaps screaming kids leaping about in the back are a bit more bareable

I've known a few guys who've thought a big vehicle would be a good idea but have had second thoughts a year or two later.

Apart from more people - thus more grief - they're more difficult to manouevre (which might not seem such a big issue until you've been doing the job a while) and if it's an HC then people may walk past you on the rank to get into a saloon. And the short runs can be a pain if you have to get out every time to open/close the doors, put the seats down, or whatever, depending on the type of vehicle. If you're working for a small office then you may get leant on to do jobs that the others can't do, for example being obliged to stay out later/come out earlier, or being hiked huge distances to do crappy little jobs.

On the plus side there's a lot more room for your own personal belongings and equipment - another issue that becomes more apparent when doing the job - and of course you can generally charge higher fares and do get more long-distance stuff.

And if you're an HC then the people who walk past you for a saloon tend not to be going very far anyway

I ran a 9 seater (8 pass + driver) Tourneo, doing airports with +6 passengers was dodgy cos their luggage needed as much space as they did

i once took 7 to Manchester and only JUST got everything in, had a suitcase between driver/pass seat, 2 puschairs between rear passengers, nightmare, lead passenger asked if i had a trailer (at 5am miles from anywhere.....as if)


undercharged them (a usual) two days before they came back they rang from Florida requesting a trailer, i said not possible and a mate followed me up in her pug 407 estate car (non-plated) and that got filled with luggae and pressies, and i double the return fare

for dedicated non-D/VOSA airport runs (max 8 passengers) id now go for a 12 seater Transit with seats removed/downsized to 8

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

Wouldn't that require changing the registration document and having the vehicle re-classed?

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Grandad,

just a trip to a VOSA station, but yes

and you can flog the spare seats

AND, you can avoid having a front passenger seat, im not one for sharing the cab with 2 i dont know....


EG...........

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/mercedes-spri ... 807wt_1185

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