Taxi Driver Online

No it used to BE stand in the street and flag down a hack who defo wouldnt go sarf of the ditch or maybe to heathrow cause he couldnt be bothered and it was the wrong time of the day

Now theres apps and god knows what else [where are yer GBC} to stop that nonsense and of course many AL Drivers got pizzed off with being treated like scum as they were and are today, the apps are getting GBC's mob loads of extra work at AL expense, its impossible to earn a living as a PH Driver in London without working ridiculous hours, which is why as Sussex points out 40% dont renew their PH Licenses.

Plus of course the hidden benefits

Getting beaten up murdered
Parking fines by camera everywhere
Cheating by proprietors ,work distribution, account rates, fines for missing shifts. and of course flooding the circuit with Drivers
A Racist Police force regularly fitting up Drivers on touting
Ridiculous traffic levels
30000 too many PH cars for the available work
The only competition being who can charge the LESS.

and of course a dullard selection of Drivers incapable of any form of Organisation, for the majority the only tactitcs are SERVILITY AND GROVELL

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A) could you explain how companies 'indoctrinate' drivers into sustaining lower fares?

B) given that the London industry was 'dominated' by HC before AL got a foothold just as Liverpool was 'dominated' by HC before Delta got a foothold ... What has domination got to do with cheap fares? One could argue that domination precipitates cheap fares but equally one could argue that cheap fares precipitates domination

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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing...

they tell the drivers "if you dont like it here, leave your PDA on the table and go somewhere else" - somewhere else is also cheap if not cheaper



and now its dominated by the PH Baron, offering cheap fares using even cheaper labor and dominating the work force as in the above comment

This thread questions what makes for a 'successful' taxi operation that couldn't be emulated by just about anybody else. Whilst an interesting development within the taxi industry, Apps are available to all and sundry, and so are irrelevant to our line of enquiry.

Which still leaves us only two propositions thus far. Metropolitan vehicles are unpopular and taxi bosses are brave ...

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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing...

See my original post, foreigners are being brought over and given driving jobs, there licences and any training are paid for, then the owner rips the crap out of them, many are working 70 or more hours just to make the repayments and to live, you only have to look at addison lee and what the former john priest did in Plymouth.

Cheap labour from abroad? Interesting proposition... Let's investigate.

One might reasonably assume that lack of road knowledge, poor English and cultural differences would detract from a company's ability to win and retain customers... Common sense suggests that passengers are more likely to prefer drivers they can relate to and communicate with and who know where they are going. One would expect an evolutionarily stable state to eventually emerge where balance is maintained between customers seeking cheaper prices whilst at the same time avoiding poor quality drivers.

Let us however for the sake of argument imagine that a successful taxi boss did arrange extensive training which brought his foreign drivers up to the very same standard in every respect as 'native' cabbies (no mean feat in itself!). What's to stop these highly trained foreigners simply switching to another taxi boss offering slightly better working conditions?

Anyone out there should in theory be able to attract these foreigners by simply offering a 65 hour week instead of 70, or a 60 hour week instead of 65, until another evolutionarily stable state emerges.

The fact is ANYONE can employ foreign labour so this doesn't meet our criteria ... So we're still left with
1) metropolitan vehicles are unpopular
2) taxi bosses are brave

Not every London HC can operate a Ford Galaxy, not every driver has the courage to set up his own circuit, but anyone can employ cheap labour from abroad. Any other propositions?

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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing...

by telling them what to charge or else...

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

well base barons actually as many circuits are mixed HC/PH too

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

Could you explain that please?

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IDFIMH

The bosses of any company are those brave enough to risk their (or rather the bank's capital) to start and operate a business. Those who work for them are those who aren't brave enough to do so, or don't have the business acumen or simply can't be arsed to try to run their own business. Yet those same workers are those who will become self-employed working for a pittance driving for those who run the big circuits.

They usually start their self-employment in the cab trade because there's not much else to do, it's easy money driving around all day earning loadsamoney, and that's how things are done in this industry. Fortunately (in some ways) I operate in a semi-rural area where there's no circuit, so most here are one-man operations with a couple of cars, usually p/h, but there's a couple of hacks who have tried to expand but because they lack business knowledge, they failed. People round here ARE price-conscious, but they also appreciate a car that turns up on time and is clean. Hence my business succeeds, but like everywhere, the hours are long and income low. I wouldn't earn any more by dropping prices; yes, I'd be busier, but profits would drop a I'm then doing more miles for less £ per mile.

I don't have a radio circuit, car rental or other overheads to worry about except those directly involved with running my business. There would be little purpose in starting a radio circuit round here as the market is quite limited. Success could be gauged on who all the pubs and restaurants phone first when they want a cab. Round here it's my firm.

Much the same here, except we are fully rural....lol

people traveling to the nearest big town (10 miles at least) get cars to fetch them though

local trips they wont/cant

90% of my income is school contracts

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

Certainly, my good man…

In asking “What makes for a successful taxi company that couldn’t be replicated by anyone else”, the first proposal came from our esteemed friend Skippy41. He suggested ‘slave labour’ but by definition slave labour is in fact ‘forced’ labour and so far as we are aware nobody is ‘forced’ to work for successful taxi operations.

Trotskys Twin suggests in a manner of speaking that drivers may be slaves to their debts, rent, mortgage, bank loans etc but this is not the same as being slave to a taxi operation. Drivers have no choice where responsibility towards debt is concerned but they do get to choose how to pay such debts, whether or not that is via a taxi company and if so WHICH taxi company. The choice element proves Skippy41’s assertion of slave labour to be fundamentally flawed. Even if the choice is “TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT”, that is still a choice not enjoyed by slaves. Any further assertions that rely on the failed hypothesis of slave labour are therefore equally flawed.

It was later suggested by 187ums that “artificially low fares” could be the secret. Nidge2 thought not as this would attract only the low end of the market and Trotskys Twin also dealt 187ums’ proposition a further blow by pointing out that in the case of Addison Lee, cost is irrelevant to London customers. He says it isn’t cheap fares… it is “Newish motors that turn up on time and get you there”. Given that any company could replicate turning up on time and getting you there we must discard both from our investigation… but newish motors? London regulations prohibit the HC trade from using the same “newish motors” that Addison Lee are able to operate. This therefore represents our first, as yet unrefuted, possible reason for success by a taxi company than cannot be replicated by rival operations in the same area.

Wannabeeahack then stated that most car owners are “scared of the unknown”… clearly not everyone possesses the same courage but those that do excel in this area can go on to run a successful taxi operation. He gives us our second proposal yet to be refuted… taxi owners are braver than their drivers.

Roythebus next offers empirical evidence of groups of HC drivers failing to expand their organisation due to not having the necessary business acumen or not being sufficiently motivated. Let us add these to our list…

1. Successful taxi companies operate modern comfortable vehicles
2. Taxi bosses are braver than drivers
3. Taxi bosses have better business acumen than drivers
4. Taxi bosses are more motivated

These suggestions are solely the work of Trotskys Twin, Wannabeeahack and Roythebus. Does anyone refute their suggestions or offer any other reasons for taxi success that cannot be replicated by anybody else?

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The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing...

1. Successful taxi companies operate modern comfortable vehicles
2. Taxi bosses are braver than drivers
3. Taxi bosses have better business acumen than drivers
4. Taxi bosses are more motivated

5. Base owners (to be precise) trade on the fears of the car owners
6. They take more than they give
7. They feed their own cars or those of the inner circle
8. They believe might is right

Theres more but everyone has to find out for themselves


oh, and

9. The one thing they fear is a group of the circuit members breaking away and starting a new company, that 5h1ts em up

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

Its nice to see that I am not the only person wondering how to make a successful taxi business!

I have been operating now for over 5 yrs and have tried nearly everything but still remain the smallest fish in the pond. I thought when I started the business that I would be good to the drivers as I had seen how badly they had been treated in other offices, this was a disaster as it was thrown in my face time and again so I learnt that thats not the way to operate.

We have had help from Bill at Datamaster and the system has speeded up our office and the free textback makes picking up alot quicker which has built up the work.

After all this we are still struggling to find drivers and this has been the same since day 1.

It doesnt help that there are quite a few offices in the town centre (8 in fact in the centre alone).

As for price, we have been at minimum fare now since we started and its the same across every firm, instead of being able to raise fares which would increase drivers earnings when costs are rising we cant as no other office will raise there fares. We do have two firms who under price stupidly, and the drivers hat work for them cant seem to see that they are making life harder for themselves and other drivers. An example is a long run we got asked about the other day, we quoted £32 which is around the going rate for most offices, the customers then said the other firm would do it for £25, my view is let them do it as it is a 80 minute job minimum and £25 is a very low price.

It seems that price is the driving force to gain drivers, I have always said its price and service, although as we have not enough drivers we cant provide a great service as we are so stretched although we are on time for about 99% of jobs which keeps us work.

I have heard recently that other offices are paying some drivers a wage on per hour rate, this is something I am considering so if anyone knows anything about this then please let me know.

Last point! I did stumble across this the other night :http://taxibusinessadvice.com/ the system does come at a hefty £580 I think it worked out at which if it works is cheap but if it is information you can find free then boy someones making alot of money!

Drivers that use our cars can make a lot more money than they can at any of the other firms in our town. I do not go out and ask them to come and work for us because I don't work that way. They all know how much they can earn but still choose to drive at slave rates. Some are to scared to jump because they have driven for the other company's for years. Some are claiming benefits and don't want to earn to much in case they lose their benefits. My solution is to not take on any more work than we can comfortably handle and don't be afraid to say no to customers when you can't do a job.

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Grandad,