Taxi Driver Online

Of course I'll be declaring my earnings.

I'm not interested in what my hourly rate works out at, take home pay is what matters to me.

Can anyone give an opinion on whether I'd be better off doing PH midweek mornings instead of my current job?

It is going to vary area to area. Your best bet is to (this is the difficult part) try and find out from local drivers as to what it is like, some unfortunately will BS you. I felt that "southwalesph" gave a good breakdown of what to expect, having said that it is his neck of the woods, so it might be a lot different in yours. You will still have the same insurance to pay as a full time driver, and a lot more wear and tear than normal on your vehicle. Unless I have missed it the office monies has still not been mentioned.

Before you start (but there again you have as the car is almost plated) you need to write down what your taxi insurance is going to be - mileage that you expect to do, plus of course money for servicing/tyres/repairs etc and of course office pay in. No doubt that you would have had a lot of this cost in any event as it will probably be used as the family car, insurance/wear and tear being the difference re higher costs. Eventually your car will also need replacing, money will also need to be put to one side for that. The bottom line being is that you are going to have a lot of overheads, but! if as you say you can take £500 for your Fri/Sat/Sun, then you should have some change over after you have also deducted fuel.

Only you can decide as to whether it is worth it" It might keep you in a nice car Or it might actually make a difference to your family finances. You have already set the wheels in motion so only time will tell - good luck.

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

If you are earning a guaranteed £10 per hour in you current job i would stick with it. You might make that much on some hours but there will be many hours where you don't.

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Grandad,

The bases will love you. It should be all about working smarter and not longer.

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Grandad,

That's pretty much what i thought. Looks like the best option is to keep my current job & PH during the busy hours.

If i was the car/base owner id only let you do busy shifts on condition you also did some not so busy shifts, these are the shifts that form the back-bone of a base providing 24/7 cover and customer service

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

It's a good job your not the base owner then.

Would you also be paying a wage since you would be dictating what hours I worked?

You would be surprised how many bases DO dictate the shifts that drivers work.

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Grandad,

There's a few smaller ones around here that do and I can see there point as there loosing customers to the bigger operators who always have drivers available.

However the base I'll be working from is open shift.

Not if your self employed, wont your car owning fairy godfather want some good shifts too?

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

Silly me thought self employed meant choosing which hours I worked.

I have my own car. The base has an open shift policy as they have plenty of drivers and plenty of work to go around.

You said you were on a split bag

if you can justify £4000 insurance AND £5000 radio rent to work p/t go for it

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

As a part timer, my costs at first were:

Office rent: 80 quid (might be worth seeing if they will do a deal for you working less hours eg take 20 quid off)
Insurance: 50 per week
Fuel: 80 per week (based on 450 miles in a car that barely did 33mpg, and fuel was 1.30 a litre)
Tyres/servicing/licence costs: 40 per week (average).

The takings you have mentioned seem similar to mine. Fuel is cheaper now and if you have a decent diesel engine even better. You could work out your potential profit from the above. Good thing is if you need extra cash you can log on for an extra shift here and there as and when required.

I hope that you havent been put off, and you will only find out for definite by having a go.

Good luck..

@wannabehack

I said 'I was on a split bag'

And the insurance is nearer 2k.

thank you for your opinion.

Thanks for this. Those figures are very close to what I've budgeted.
Fuel at the moment is only costing me roughly a tenner a shift although I know that could go up anytime.