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A good opportunity?
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Author:  rashid [ Sun Mar 28, 2021 11:33 pm ]
Post subject:  A good opportunity?
Please could you advise
I need as many people with year of experience in the game to advise me,

I’m a Hackney driver in Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire and since the pandemic first hit their it no work left on the main station rank where we was getting 90% of our trade and working on a circuit means paying high premium rates and even the ones who are paying aren’t still getting much work due to the fact the circuits only giving Hackney drivers work when stuck on how they give their normal Ph work so I decided to start up on a 1 man band then gradually once work picks up Add more cars on like Ph

Question is had anyone done this before and would care to share some information on how to succeed?

Few questions I have is

1. How would I advertise being a start up I wouldn’t want to invest too much money until work starts picking up ?

2. When on a Job and I receive a call do I answer with the customer in the back or would that seem unprofessional so how would I go about that? And how would I log the job as Booking history?

3. How would I set Pre booked fares as a Hackney we use meter Local and when out sometimes agree a price or just go on meter, As I would like local customers who use local Ph firms how would I compete with them Currently most charge £3.70 Under 1-1.5 mile and 1.1 Per mile after which is lower than meter price ?

4. If on a Job which will take 10-15 minutes and receive another call would I be able to do both jobs or do I pass on job to someone else or say can’t do the job ?

Please could as many drivers give me as much information as they could as really do not want to pay a weekly to be on a circuit and not receive same amount or fair enough jobs as their regular ph
Author:  edders23 [ Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
1) there's no way round this you need to invest in business cards and an advert on yell and yes it will cost but without advertising you are invisible

Every time you pick a fare up give them your card

2) Yes most customers don't like you not answering as long as you are on handsfree and say something to customers like excuse me a moment while I take the call about 95 percent of customers are OK with this

3) there's no right or wrong way you probably could offer 10% off the fare for pre booked

4) be honest with the bod on the other end of the line if you are going to be 15 minutes offer them that it's easier to give them the option of phoning someone else than trying to faff around making calls to find someone to cover the job
Author:  grandad [ Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
With respect, I don't think you can legally set a fixed price within your district. Within the district the meter must be used, but you can charge less than is on the meter. I know some do offer a fixed price in a Hackney but they shouldn't.
Author:  edders23 [ Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
grandad wrote:
With respect, I don't think you can legally set a fixed price within your district. Within the district the meter must be used, but you can charge less than is on the meter. I know some do offer a fixed price in a Hackney but they shouldn't.



as long as the price charged is below meter should be fine

the problem is that in many areas people have had experience of getting charged more than expected so customers always want the price guaranteed fixed before they get in the vehicle so if you are stuck in traffic for half an hour they don't bear the cost
Author:  grandad [ Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
edders23 wrote:
grandad wrote:
With respect, I don't think you can legally set a fixed price within your district. Within the district the meter must be used, but you can charge less than is on the meter. I know some do offer a fixed price in a Hackney but they shouldn't.



as long as the price charged is below meter should be fine


But if the meter is not engaged how does the customer know that they have been charged let than the metered fare?
Author:  edders23 [ Mon Mar 29, 2021 3:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
let me re-phrase

the correct procedure is to quote a price or meter rate whichever is lowest and then engage the meter and charge the lowest that way customer is happyish and authorities are happy

many customers have a panic attack when the meter goes on believing they are going to be charged meter rate not the quote so you have to explain carefully
Author:  Sussex [ Mon Mar 29, 2021 5:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
Quote:
1. How would I advertise being a start up I wouldn’t want to invest too much money until work starts picking up ?

Build your own website for under £50, possibly under £20.

Quote:
2. When on a Job and I receive a call do I answer with the customer in the back or would that seem unprofessional so how would I go about that? And how would I log the job as Booking history?

Answer the phone, your current customer wont give a monkeys, unless you give them a pen and paper and ask them to note the address.

Quote:
3. How would I set Pre booked fares as a Hackney we use meter Local and when out sometimes agree a price or just go on meter, As I would like local customers who use local Ph firms how would I compete with them Currently most charge £3.70 Under 1-1.5 mile and 1.1 Per mile after which is lower than meter price ?

As long as your fares don't exceed the council's tariff you can charge what you want. If you want to offer discounts then charge meter less 5/10/15% or whatever you want. Nothing stopping you giving an estimate.

Quote:
4. If on a Job which will take 10-15 minutes and receive another call would I be able to do both jobs or do I pass on job to someone else or say can’t do the job ?

Depends if the customer will wait, if not pass the booking on, or don't answer the phone.
Author:  grandad [ Tue Mar 30, 2021 7:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
Sussex wrote:

Quote:
4. If on a Job which will take 10-15 minutes and receive another call would I be able to do both jobs or do I pass on job to someone else or say can’t do the job ?

Depends if the customer will wait, if not pass the booking on, or don't answer the phone.

Passing on jobs between drivers happens a lot here. However it often ends in tears when a customer who has used you for a long time gets passed to another driver and that driver either charges the metered rate where you offer a discount or that driver undercuts your price to try and prise the customer away from you. Oh the arguments that go on.
Author:  edders23 [ Tue Mar 30, 2021 2:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
grandad wrote:
Sussex wrote:

Quote:
4. If on a Job which will take 10-15 minutes and receive another call would I be able to do both jobs or do I pass on job to someone else or say can’t do the job ?

Depends if the customer will wait, if not pass the booking on, or don't answer the phone.

Passing on jobs between drivers happens a lot here. However it often ends in tears when a customer who has used you for a long time gets passed to another driver and that driver either charges the metered rate where you offer a discount or that driver undercuts your price to try and prise the customer away from you. Oh the arguments that go on.



and here too there is one driver that none of the independents will trust because he does exactly that offer a cheaper price for switching allegiance
Author:  Sussex [ Tue Mar 30, 2021 4:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
Quote:
Passing on jobs between drivers happens a lot here. However it often ends in tears when a customer who has used you for a long time gets passed to another driver and that driver either charges the metered rate where you offer a discount or that driver undercuts your price to try and prise the customer away from you. Oh the arguments that go on.

You would need to have good colleagues, who will also pass work on to you.

If not, and if you don't hear from any punters that you have passed on, you don't pass anymore to that driver.

And possibly have a word with him. Image
Author:  wannabeeahack [ Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
Tesco are setting on...
Author:  edders23 [ Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:12 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: A good opportunity?
wannabeeahack wrote:
Tesco are setting on...



I would not look at supermarkets as secure employers Amazon have destroyed the department stores the supermarkets are next in their sights
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