Sheffield Taxi Drivers Protest Over Pay Terms

[SheffieldForum]

From The BBC:

 

“Dozens of Veezu taxi drivers have staged a protest outside their company office in a row over pay.

 

“The drivers gathered outside Veezu's Sheffield offices to complain about new working conditions.

 

“Veezu has introduced a new sliding scale of commission based on how many jobs each driver completes, but the drivers say it is putting too much pressure on them.

 

“Veezu have said the drivers are self-employed and can "decide which operator they use".”

 

Full story here.

 

So.. taxis… do you support the protesting drivers?  Has there been much change since City turned into Veezu? Are Uber better? Do you use an alternative company? Phone up and pay cash or use the app and charge your card? 

[GabrielC]

4 minutes ago, SheffieldForum said:

From The BBC:

 

“Dozens of Veezu taxi drivers have staged a protest outside their company office in a row over pay.

 

“The drivers gathered outside Veezu's Sheffield offices to complain about new working conditions.

 

“Veezu has introduced a new sliding scale of commission based on how many jobs each driver completes, but the drivers say it is putting too much pressure on them.

 

“Veezu have said the drivers are self-employed and can "decide which operator they use".”

 

Full story here.

 

So.. taxis… do you support the protesting drivers?  Has there been much change since City turned into Veezu? Are Uber better? Do you use an alternative company? Phone up and pay cash or use the app and charge your card? 

Like any driving job it is demanding enough without someone demanding more from you. I don't use Veezu so can't comment on service  I always pay in cash when paying the fare.

[Resident]

I just find it funny tbh. 

They're all free to leave Veezu and work for any other firm in the area. 

Same with the previous protests by the JustEat/Deliveroo crowd.

In this instance there appears to be enough of them to quit and start their own firm

 

[bassett one]

i find veezu offer a great service,prices are not cheap ,but i have never compared as i like there services.

[SheffieldForum]

30 minutes ago, Resident said:

I just find it funny tbh. 

They're all free to leave Veezu and work for any other firm in the area. 

Same with the previous protests by the JustEat/Deliveroo crowd.

In this instance there appears to be enough of them to quit and start their own firm

 

Most private hires I see are generally double-badged anyway - both Veezu and Uber stickers on their cars and working for both simultaneously.

 

A driver once told me he works both but will accept cash paying Veezu journeys as a priority over anything else.

[Vrsaljko]

23 minutes ago, SheffieldForum said:

A driver once told me he works both but will accept cash paying Veezu journeys as a priority over anything else.

So he can fiddle his tax return most likely.

[Resident]

59 minutes ago, Vrsaljko said:

So he can fiddle his tax return most likely.

I remember when lockdown was announced and support for the self-employed was going to be based on previous tax returns. The most vocal outrage was taxis. 
 

[Vrsaljko]

36 minutes ago, Resident said:

I remember when lockdown was announced and support for the self-employed was going to be based on previous tax returns. The most vocal outrage was taxis. 
 

Yep. That's because loads of taxi drivers declare an amount just below the tax threshold (£12,500 ish) and pocket the rest. I've seen quite a lot of tax returns through my work. I've never seen a taxi driver earning more than £15,000 a year on paper.

[ECCOnoob]

26 minutes ago, Vrsaljko said:

Yep. That's because loads of taxi drivers declare an amount just below the tax threshold (£12,500 ish) and pocket the rest. I've seen quite a lot of tax returns through my work. I've never seen a taxi driver earning more than £15,000 a year on paper.

Even more of an obvious anomaly given that based on current minimum wage, the pre-tax earnings of a full-time min wage worker is over £22k.

 

Must be an awful lot of taxi drivers earning in less than minimum wage.  Makes you wonder why there's so many of them.

[Pyrotequila]

3 minutes ago, ECCOnoob said:

Makes you wonder why there's so many of them.

Because it's really easy to fiddle what you report as earnings, so you can get full benefits.

There's so many texi drivers that report as self employed and they earn nothing, but keep doing the job for years.

 

Source; my wife works in benefits processing and is constantly disgusted 🙄