Information please about starting a taxi firm?

catmulogen

Again, thanks to you all for taking your time to reply:) Hubby and I have discussed it so many times that it was great to be able to show him other points of views.

izzzzythedog

theres 2 types of taxi

black cab ( hackney carrage )
private hire ( normal car )

both have massively different rules to live by , it vrs from area to area , the quick version is this

a black cab has its own licence to opperate , therefore it can go ``on rank `` in waiting areas such as airports and toen centres , private hire does not , private each job MUST come through the opperator , you can not collect people from the side of the road , all jobs must be booked , you can run as a 1 man band holding the licence and being the driver but all jobs need to be writen down so it would normally require someone at home to recieve the booking and relay it to the driver , you cant run with a mobile going to jobs as the licence is from a home address and not a car , remeber the council will need to be told you opperate a biz from home which is another pain that i can inform you of if needed

the taxi licence ( private ) is easy to get with a police search and medical , you do not need to know the roads which shows the stupidity of the system , its then rent a car ( approx £115 a week going to £160 depending on 5 or 8 seats ) , you could buy a car for the job but be warned some councils allow 5 years as a max or in some cases only a max of 3 years old ( hence awfull kias being used as taxis ) , the car will need to be plated as in a licence ( £130 or so ) once its passed its taxi MOT ( and a normal mot ) , the taxi mot is a laugh , its almost impossible to pass as cars fail for dirty engines or paint faiding on first aid box`s , renting can be a much better bet but in the long term then buy but only after he knows its the world he wants to be in

hours are rubbish and jobs cant be ignored , ever , if on rank then expect to do 14-16 hrs days untill he can prove hes been at a company long enough to cherry pick the better hours , money comes and goes depending on areas , time of year , hours worked etc etc , the money at times will be so poor its a joke easly dropping bellow minimum wage . most times however expect to recieve approx £10 an hour , this sounds great but figure a month off each year ( 2 weeks hol and 2 sick , can easly be more waiting for car parts ) plus tax on that and NI and savings ( need something like £100 saved to replace a car or even more !!! ) so although theres loads of cash not much filters to the driver

best of luck , its a lifestyle choise not a job so do think carefully