Private hire drivers, good occupation?

[El Cid]

I drive a school minibus for the local council, I earn around £8 an hour; there are also private cars and minibuses doing the same thing.

I am thinking about working out the costings, anyone have experience of this?

[GerryBooth]

I would ask a private hire driver but I would say no. At least you get paid when at work but I see many a taxi driver parked up where I am working for up to an hour.

 

I have asked this myself to taxi drivers and there are good days and bad ones. Busy up to 10am then nothing till 4pm. Evening are ok up to 8.30 then nothing except Friday and Saturday night and even that depends on what times of month it is.

 

Also not only are you not getting paid whilst waiting for a job to come up but you also dont get paid on the way to it. Frustrating in the rush hour and even more frustrating when there is no one there when you arrive.

 

Ask about running costs, taxi hire, insurance, radio rent, fuel. It came to £330 last time I asked. So that is at £330 you have to take to cover your costs at least before you make any money for yourself. If you did that job Mon-Friday 9 till 5 I bet you wouldn't even earn minimum wage.

 

And as for those down at the taxi rank at !midland Station, it must take ages to get to the front of the queue and then get someone wanting Novotel Hotel. Gutted!

 

Ask questions, but I dont think it worth it unless you have plenty of hours available.

Edited March 12, 2015 by GerryBooth

[*_ash_*]

I drive a school minibus for the local council, I earn around £8 an hour; there are also private cars and minibuses doing the same thing.

I am thinking about working out the costings, anyone have experience of this?

 

I would ask a private hire driver but I would say no. At least you get paid when at work but I see many a taxi driver parked up where I am working for up to an hour.

 

I have asked this myself to taxi drivers and there are good days and bad ones. Busy up to 10am then nothing till 4pm. Evening are ok up to 8.30 then nothing except Friday and Saturday night and even that depends on what times of month it is.

 

Also not only are you not getting paid whilst waiting for a job to come up but you also dont get paid on the way to it. Frustrating in the rush hour and even more frustrating when there is no one there when you arrive.

 

Ask about running costs, taxi hire, insurance, radio rent, fuel. It came to £330 last time I asked. So that is at £330 you have to take to cover your costs at least before you make any money for yourself. If you did that job Mon-Friday 9 till 5 I bet you wouldn't even earn minimum wage.

 

And as for those down at the taxi rank at !midland Station, it must take ages to get to the front of the queue and then get someone wanting Novotel Hotel. Gutted!

 

Ask questions, but I dont think it worth it unless you have plenty of hours available.

 

Hi El Cid. Gerry's post isn't far wrong, but I'll add to it a bit... there are a few drivers on this forum and they will most probably agree with me. (even if they know me )

 

What sort of hours are you on now El? If you are sort of 9-5 M-F (or roughly 37 hours) then you will be earning roughly £290 top line a week.

 

So to look at figures that Gerry posted, which are pretty accurate, but I'll break it down a bit.

 

If you rent a car:

 

Taxi car rent: £100-£110 per week

Insurance: Ranges from all sorts, but weekly insurance deals are about £80/week.

Radio rent for 5 days is around £100 per week.

Fuel varies obviously on hours worked, but for those hours you will be looking at no less than £100 per week.

 

So total so far: £390.

 

On average throughout all times, you can expect to take about £10/hour in fares.

 

If you want steady money, and those types of hours, it isn't going to work.

 

Like G said, you need to be working some of the busy times which is very early morning or late nights to keep that average.

 

The thing with taxiing is your overheads (especially if renting) are pretty stable, so you can expect to do 37 hours or so to break even, then it's mainly profit (minus fuel).

 

I think today it's important also to add in that the council over the last few years have been flooding the market with more drivers, which all dilutes the work, and this last 2 years the student population aren't going out anything like in the past. They are going out between 2300 and midnight every night having already drank at their residences. (and black cabs hoover up all the return journeys)

 

-

 

However, it's not all doom and gloom. I know some drivers who do 12hours day 7 days a week to send money home/save for future etc. and if you can pull these sorts of hours off, you can earn a decent wage. The other thing which many are doing now is sharing cars which drastically reduces some of the overheads.

 

Feel free to PM me, if you want more info.

 

I gave up last year after an incident (not my fault btw!) meant I was losing money almost every week, and couldn't continue so I sold mine.

Edited March 13, 2015 by *_ash_*

[El Cid]

If you rent a car:

 

Taxi car rent: £100-£110 per week

Insurance: Ranges from all sorts, but weekly insurance deals are about £80/week.

Radio rent for 5 days is around £100 per week.

Fuel varies obviously on hours worked, but for those hours you will be looking at no less than £100 per week.

 

So total so far: £390.

 

 

Still just thinking about it, looking online leasing a minibus for around £250 per month, but I guess there is insurance on top of that, I do have enough cash for a deposit and to buy with a loan.

I wasnt thinking about renting a radio, just school runs and maybe a little more.

I need to speak to the person that deals with hiring buses at the council. But I believe that they have bids for work, similar to ebay.