Sussex Man wrote:
Andy7 wrote:
So, a jockey CAN give an owner between £100 and £300 a week?
Well thats hardly "earning" the owner that much is it.
Insurance (typically) £50 a week.
Circuit rent (typically) £85 a week.
Hire Purchase (typically) £100 a week.
Maintenance (typically) £30 a week.
Then, of course, there is fuel to consider.....
But why should it be down to the journeyman to subsidies all this?
Many get by without journeymen, most of the hundred odd thousand PH vehicles in the country get by without them, and have much the same outgoings (bar WAV only areas) as the HC trade.
If a driver gives £10,000 a year to an owner, then that easily pays for the vehicle, insurance and maintenance costs. Most on fixed deals pay for their own fuel.
I'm starting to wonder exactly what some HC owners want from the trade in restricted areas. They have a nice little quota cartel, and a car paid for, insured and maintained by someone else.
So, journeymen should be unemloyed? And subsidised by the rest of us?
I cannot see the logic here. I just have not met many journeymen who actually want to be owner drivers, and I have not met any rich owner drivers who employ journeymen.
About 7 months ago, our circuit went from all fleet rental cars to whatever the drivers wanted. They could just take over their cars as owner drivers (no premium fior the plate), become employed on PAYE or stay as they were as journeymen sharing cars. Of 50 drivers, only 5 actually wanted to change.
Now, 7 months later, the margins created by either fleet cars of owner drivers, is just fractionally better earnings for the owner drivers, mainly due to the fact that they do not have to account for VAT on their fares. The profitability of the cars with journeymen is also only marginal. These Fat Cat owners, are just something I have heard the T&G complain about, but are something I have never actually seen. And I have been in and out of the trade in several towns, over about 30 years.
Maybe in the big cities it is different, I dont know. But in both our delimited town, AND the limited towns I have worked in, the margins on operating taxis have never been so great that one can get rich from it with or without journeymen.
My personal view, is that the debate on journeymen/not using or being a journeymen, is simply devisive ideological talk which serves no purpose.
Other's experiences may differ, but thats my personal experience. Personally I dont have a journeyman, as my cab is also my personal car. But I cannot condemn out of hand, those who do. At the end of the day its free choice for all, and those who say most about it are usually the greedy ones who want it all for themselves, and the same people who try and retain limits on plates. And that, is why I am surprised by the comments of some specific corespondants on here, as I know that really, deep down, they are only after fair play for all.
Login
Register
FAQ
