Please advise me....

SmileyG_2

Hi littlechickpea

I still can't get my had around that car insurance. £1550 per month against a monthly income of £1500? He'd be better off staying at home and not working or even finding another job, whatever it is.

Please check....

Smiley

PS Sorry I missed your earlier correction on the car insurance. That's two of us in the dim corner (well, maybe just me...)

CLAPTON

The essential issue is your OH's job as a taxi driver and the costs of doing this


costs are

fuel 720
insurance 135
maintenance 40

subtotal = 900 approx
plus capital cost of the car ..say 100 per month (probably more in practice)
so total a minimum of 1,000

so his job is costing at least 1000 per month out of earnings of 1,500... so he is working for 500 per month

sorry but that's the essential issue... he needs a new job ... anything paying the minimum wage will be better than that

neverdespairgirl

littlechickpea wrote: »

OK to explain high car costs; partner is taxi driver so spend 30 a day on diesel, the car needs mot every 6 months and replating every year.
Sorry to be a prat I just so desperate to sort it I'm getting all mixed up

That's a business expense, then, and shouldn't be in your personal income / expenditure bit.

Do you have children?

taxi73

Hi there..I'm a taxi owner and I can understand that you find it hard to work out all the figures and this in turn throws out the whole budget.
There is no way those figures can be correct.He cannot possibly only take £1500 and use £720 of fuel.Fuel costs are approximately 11% of our take..His insurance is quite high as well...ours is £1005 fully comp for the year on a brand new car.You haven't included subs,badges,pits tests,crb medicals in the budget either.
It may be a good idea to go through his books with a fine toothcomb.
Or if you have the last years books to just divide the yearly amout after expenses by 12(minus the tax and ni) to get a better figure for you SOA as actual income per month.

Wookey

littlechickpea wrote: »

Thanks again. Very good point now I can see the figures, the thing is some days are great for him, I have based the figure for his income on 50 a day which is a bad day. Its so hard to get an accurate picture as its so variable, I don't know how to crunch the numbers when they are so unpredictable...:(

Write down his daily takings, depot rent if applicable, fuel costs etc, total them up for the month then divide by number of days worked. That will give you the average daily profit for the month. As its a cash in hand job that relys on demand trying to base figures on a bad day or a good day will skew your totals for the SOA. You probably will find after doing a few months accounts,as above, then each months takings will average out fairly similar.

littlechickpea

Thanks very much wookey, I'll figure that out and it;ll be more meaningful.

pipk62

Taxi73 and Wookey are both correct, but I'd like to add to that.

If hubby is self-employed then the money he takes from the business as a kind of wage is called drawings.

Drawings can be included in your personal budget, but that should really be the only crossover from business to personal.

If you use the car for personal use as well as business then that would be classed as part of your drawings.

If you and hubby still think its conceivable to run a cab and want to continue in business then you need to seperate the single entity into personal and business.

If you do use the taxi for personal use, then you will need to work out to what percentage it is used in that way.

I know paperwork is a headache, but once you work out a system whereby the two things are seperate then it will be obvious what is being spent on the business.

Another thing, Taxi companies often 'contract' self employed drivers who own and operate their own cars on behalf of the company, some supply cars, and some employ drivers and have a fleet, (different things in different areas).
And some SE's run their own company, usually with a mobile phone.

I don't know which your hubby does, but has he shopped around?

I was an office manager for a taxi company and I know that a lot of radio controlled companies use the preferential treatment method (whereby drivers are sorted according to their status within the company - better paying jobs going to the favourites) rather than the nearest to job method, which often shows up when cabs are always late btw.

As he is self-employed then he has the right to go and work elsewhere, or on his own IF IT WILL IMPROVE HIS TAKINGS.

Also, If he is an independant operator has he thought about trying to improve his customer base?
Maybe take on things like school runs paid by councils or private schools?

I know independants that seem to run a service for a couple of jobs, turning down better jobs so they can always be there for 'doris', unfortunately its a business, and you can't afford to do that, look after those that contribute by using the service regularly and pay 'the going rate', but don't worry so much about the others that don't.

Sorry to go on a bit, but from the figures you have here it seems that he can pack it all in (as an ex-cabbie I know how hard that is, loved the job, but after the third time of having a knife to my throat I decided to pack it in) and look for other work, or really think hard about the business, and make some attempt to move forward and develop it, after all even though he may think he's merely a cabbie, he should realise hes also a businessman.