Taxi Driver Online

Hi all! I need some opinions... I'm not going to give our company name for obvious reasons, but I'd really like to hear some opinions.

We've been established about 6 months. We've gone from nothing to dominating the local airport transfer market with bookings coming out of our exhaust pipes. We've gone from one car, to two (which we see as our spare) but now have the need to get car number three on the road. We don't get a great deal of local work... we get some, but the local market is dominated by the big companies and to be honest I've got no real interest in it. I take bookings if we get the calls, but we don't publicise. We are, however, page 1 number 1 on Google for airports and ports for every town within a 40 mile radius and we get a lot of long distance. That's us.

Well, car number three is nearly ready to be taxi'd up, and the intention is to rent it out... but I'm really wondering how to, and what to charge. Basically, there's no finance on it, it's our car. We can't guarantee bookings but local rank work always generates £300-£350 for a weekend without any problems. We would, of course, give the driver airports as they arise but we have manic and dead periods.

I was reading an advert on Google that does it a very clever way... with them, they charge £x if you want to rent the car from them with insurance, or £x(less) if you rent it and organise your own. I quite like the thought of that. Because we've only been going 6 months fleet insurance is very difficult to get, and the quotes I have had have been far more than insuring the three cars individually, so that's why I'm looking at that option. We don't necessarily need to make money out of car 3, we just need to cover the work and get our name out!

So what I'm thinking is £50 a week without insurance, or £100 with. Rank work, as any local driver will know, will pull in £400+ a week without airports, or with airports the sky's the limit!

So does that sound reasonable? Should I charge more? I'd struggle to charge less, £50 a week covers maintenance and tax etc!

What's your thoughts?

£210 a week all in is reasonable.

In your dreams..



Your car.. their Insurance....Who get's the cheque on a payout..

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

That would worry the hell out of me. We insure all the cars that we own.

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Grandad,

£210 is what I'd expect to be paying a company that has a lot of local work coming in... we are busy with airports, but I need to put it in perspective.

Car 3 isn't designed to make us money, cars 4+ can do that, car 3 is to basically give us a backup and get our name around town. Regarding £50 a week for maintenance etc, our cars aren't new... but the £2600 a year that would generate would amply cover anything that could arise... I'm really not worried about that at all.

I'd also prefer to keep all insurances in the company name, but I'm interested to know what I should charge weekly to cover it. £100 a week may not sound a fortune, but that would cover the insurance, tax, maintenance etc which is mainly what we need.

You dominate an airport with just 3 cars?....

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

I think a balance needs to be made where you earn money, but the driver earns a reasonable living.

Look up what the average regional wage is for your manor, think you can find it on your local council site, or the ONS.

That's what the driver should be taking, and you can have the rest.

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IDFIMH

here, £320 a week "just add fuel" or £60 a day for 12 hours getting fed to [edited by admin] to cover it

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

talking to an under-25 tonight whose had his rent upped to £335 a week to cover an extra insurance premium due to his age

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

Bloke round here charges 120 per week. You then need to pay radio settle of 80 quid. cheapest I've seen and no idea how he makes money. Probably cheaper than owning a vehicle!

You need to go with your local market.....and I do not mean Tesco.

All business is full of skulduggery and snooping! In fairness it is needed in order to find out what the other traders are doing i.e Tesco/Sainsbury/Morrison's whoever can only charge so much and as such keep an eye on one another.

In your case you should be ringing around as a perspective driver for other companies to find out what they charge ! Then you have to realise that being in business is about generating enough profit from ALL angles, to replace stock that is going to fall apart at some time in the future....the figures that you mention are not realistic for rental. They may not be new vehicles, but you can be rest assured that others will treat them like crap, and the vehicles will become older before their time.

P.S. If you have a car (3) then it is a cost into the business.........do not be blasé about it, use it to make money or you will not be in business for very long.

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Common sense........is just not that Common.

He needs to get another job, that's an obscene rental price.

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IDFIMH

The firm has about 10 full time renters at £320 a week, some get a 2010 Octavia, 1 has a 58 plate Mondeo estate...


There are also some who rent just per day at £60/day and cant take the vehicle home

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