Taxi Driver Online

Like I said if you put a car on it will cost around £250-£300pw to run.

If we work on the basis you make £10ph (sometimes more, sometimes less) on the meter you will have to work at least 25 hours just to cover your expenses.
If you rent a car for the week you'll pay at least £100 for the rent and another £50 fuel, again that's 15 hours before you turn a profit.
If you go on a split bag you give half to the owner (after fuel) and keep the other half, so if you do a ten hour shift at £10ph and put in £20 fuel you get £40 and the owner £40.
If you do a ten hour shift in any other job you'll get at least £63.

It would appear I have wasted my time and money then, wonder how the Asians manage to make a living at it. On my written knowledge test there was 2 of them came over from Sheffield for it. They both did give up on the written routes though, the first question they asked was when could they sit it again

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

If you're not responsible for children, you need to work the following hours to get Working Tax Credit:

if you're aged 25 or over, you need to do paid work of at least 30 hours a week
if you have a disability and are aged 16 or over, you need to do paid work of at least 16 hours a week
if you're aged 60 or over, you need to do paid work of at least 16 hours a week[/b][/quote]

This is why mine stopped in August, I no longer work long hours my contract has been cut to 16hr a week, hence the license to fill in the shortfall

To differ from the naysyers, i have made part time pay for 2 years now since putting my own ph car on. I do friday night, sat night and then any week night of my choosing. As long as the weekend is decent, i can cover my expenses with the friday and half of sat. The remaining sat hours and week night takings are then mine. On weekends here the average hour will see an income of 15 to 20 pounds per hour. Week nights around a tenner.
This is private hire with a radio rented from a local firm.
However, a night off or poor weekend can see u not making a profit.

However just to add the money that i see for myself when converted into an hourly rate is around 6-7 per hour. Sometimes more on busy weekends, also i can work an extra night if i want to. I'm lucky that i bought a pre plated car for cheap and as such have no outgoings like finance etc. Give me a shout if u want anymore info.

It all boils down to where you're gonna work and what time of day you're starting at. Nights mean more work.

Its that simple.

Half the London Taxi trade are part time either through age, other jobs, or can't be arsed! (That could be my category)

Maybe you should change your user name from GBC to CBA.

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Grandad,

Some days in my area we're lucky to earn £40 between 2 of us!! Like last Saturday!![/quote]
Is that during the early hours as well?
Also have the fares gone down, when I last had a taxi home from our town centre (Chesterfield) at about 2am it used to cost me £12-£14 for the 3.5ml journey home, this was about 6yr ago. My daughter now pays £8
Has competition battered prices down, or has the pay extra after midnight concept gone[/quote]
There's no early hours work where I am! the pub in town shuts at midnight, and if we're lucky we get 2 £5 fares from it. Saturday night it closes before midnight with no cab trade!! Yes, competition and the fear of having no income has brought down the prices, but it only means you get less money for doing less work. You need to be getting at least £1 a mile on ALL miles, including dead mileage to earn anything. The average car costs 45p a mile to run.

How do the Asians make a living out of cab driving? Possibly by being on call 24/7, possibly by not being licenced, I couldn't possibly comment as there's enough white English doing that round my way. What's killed the trade here is the pub staff who "give people lifts home"; the kebab delivery drivers who give people lifts; the engineering staff at the local airport who give cabin crew lifts into town, all doing us out of business. Like I said to a pub landlord: I'm licenced to sell cab rides, you're licenced to sell beer. I don't sell beer, if I did, you'd moan and I don't expect you to sell cab rides.

Some days in my area we're lucky to earn £40 between 2 of us!! Like last Saturday!![/quote]
Is that during the early hours as well?
Also have the fares gone down, when I last had a taxi home from our town centre (Chesterfield) at about 2am it used to cost me £12-£14 for the 3.5ml journey home, this was about 6yr ago. My daughter now pays £8
Has competition battered prices down, or has the pay extra after midnight concept gone[/quote]


Sadly Chesterfield has been hit with the idiot stick, "not charging T2". By doing it this way they think they'll bring in extra work. If they want to run for nothing after Midnight more fool them.

Thanks to all for your answers...its pretty much as a thought before I came on here, that I need one late night run to cover expenses. As I am more than half way through the badge, I am pretty much committed to giving it a go now. One of two things will happen, it will work, or I will fall flat on my face! One thing I now am sure I am going to do is not put plates on my own car at this point.

thank you.....

I'd definitely have a crack at driving someone elses car first. Try a local ph firm. If you're lucky then u will find someone who will take u on. Although due to insurance prices skyrocketing in recent years there aren't that many with 'any driver' policies anymore.

I definitely feel that the money aint worth the unsociable, late hours (take a sat night off and u may aswell take the entire week off), but I do it as i like the fact that i dont have to answer to anyone. If i want to finish early, etc then there's no one giving me stick for it.

He's got his own vehicle, it's got to be cheaper to licence that than to rent one

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

Part time will be difficult because you will not begin to relax until your costs have been met - which may be half way into your Saturday shift. A more experienced driver will be better placed to do this because he/she will know the ebb and flow of the trade, know the area well (which always helps!!) and the type of client he/she is likely to encounter. Your inexperience may make your experience quite stressful but you got to do what you have got to do right? I do wish you all the luck in the world and sorry you have entered the trade at the present state.

A small caveat to bear in mind. This game is all about keeping costs to a minimum. When I started my costs were 160 pound per week more than what they are now. The strange thing is fella, I am working longer and harder than I have ever done when I was trying to make ends meet 'back in the day'. I don't know if anyone has done a study into work motivation but I seem to work more when I am making the dough rather than chasing it. Positive motivation works for me not negative motivation. I need a brew after that. Best of luck mate.

Heike, what you have to know is once the running costs are covered everything after that is profit so it depends on how many hours you need or want to put in.

So say you rent a car and the weekly cost is £150 the first 15 hours (based on earning £10ph) is just to cover expenses, but after that every additional hour is £10 profit. Work 15 hours you make nothing, work 25 hours you make £100.

Have a word with existing drivers in your area, find out how much they average hourly and then look at the costs of putting your own car on or renting/going on splits. From that you can then figure out how many hours you would need to do on each of the options to make what you want.