Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

vivatifosi

Blimey, anyone else watching the boat race? Never seen that before (won't say what as for a spoiler)

PasturesNew

Love the one paddling without his oars in the water.

If you compare the stroke lengths of the two teams, you can see the ones in the lead are leaning back and having twice the stroke length of the losers... who seem to just leaning back a little as if it's a Sunday afternoon outing.

PasturesNew

LOL - commentator advising them to stop rowing... he said if they complete then the other team win and the records show "X won". If they just stop rowing then the records will show "Race didn't complete" and it'd flag up in the records that something unusual happened.

CKhalvashi

PasturesNew wrote: »

For years I had two jobs to try to cover the cost of living ... and sometimes unusual jobs when I was between jobs.

I had one short stint as a taxi controller years ago - had to know the area inside out of course, to send the nearest taxi.... it was probably about 1985, so old fashioned phone hand set, map on the wall and pins with stickers. And the "log journeys logbook" kept to make sure there was an even spread of long journeys offered to drivers was a ring binder and lined paper.

In 1997 I moved to my current area and, in looking for "any job", there was a taxi controller job advertised in the Jobcentre. This was pre-minimum wage days and I remember it said it was the night shift and they paid £2/hour.

We were paying £70 a shift (through PAYE, of course ) when we took it over last time.

Nowadays, the traditional radios are gone (even if it was only last week), the owner-drivers have been thrown out of their own cars and we’ve got the Cordic system (which the company round the corner use).

£2/hour for nights is rubbish IMO. We’re running a system of 4 on, 4 off, 4 weeks days, 4 weeks nights with me around to cover any time that I can’t get anyone. It was pure luck that a lady living in the flats opposite me asked for a job, and I’ve got a family member on every shift after her, with 2 more slotted in somewhere. We’re paying £18k/year with a £5.5k company pension contribution added onto that, and the family member £60k/year with a £7.5k match pension contribution (although she ran the office last time and has to reach certain targets to get that.

A typical taxi office will run on a 50/50 basis with drivers (all of ours are now in our cars) and this is calculated on a 'Rate 1’ basis. All cars can carry 6, so they work out taking 60%. Insurance is around £2000 a car per year and we’re responsible for maintaining them. If you have drivers taking an average of £800 a week, that’s £400 for you, £40 for insurance = £25000-ish per week and an extra £3000 for the station (averaged out). We pay Abellio £1800 weekly for the station (every 3 months), and it costs about £4000 a week to run the office, so in theory, you’re looking at about £22000 per week. It’s when you take into account the frequency you’re changing the cars (64 x 3yr old vehicles and 6x ’12’ plate at the moment, to be changed over the next 3 years with maintenance, so about £70k/month with the deal we’ve negotiated with a Ford dealership) that things disintegrate.

A rough guide is £300k/year in profit, however whether that will actually happen or not is a bit of a different story, dependent on many factors. Also, the vehicles come pre-plated for the first year, but we’ve got £500/car after that, per year, to stomach. I literally want the company for about 3 years, then to get rid of it at profit.

No jobs in PN towers at the moment, sorry

CK

vivatifosi

PasturesNew wrote: »

Love the one paddling without his oars in the water.

If you compare the stroke lengths of the two teams, you can see the ones in the lead are leaning back and having twice the stroke length of the losers... who seem to just leaning back a little as if it's a Sunday afternoon outing.

Did you also see the bit before it where they nearly hit the swimmer in the head with their oar?

Truly the most bizarre I've ever seen.

PasturesNew

CKhalvashi wrote: »

No jobs in PN towers at the moment, sorry

CK

No room at the inn!

I'm surprised at your rates of pay. In my county it'd most likely be NMW and no bonus and no pension for a controller job. To run the office/be office manager and do all of the accounts and payroll and everything too it'd probably be £14-15k.

Years ago I had some mates whose parents started a cab company from the cubby hole under the stairs in their home.... they did well. Both my mates (twin lads) were working for the firm before too long - and within a couple of years they were all well off.

Another place I've seen big bucks is chip shops. I had a friend years ago who was the manager of a chip shop. She told me her boss had bought the one she worked at for £80k and had paid off the loan within 3 years. And that was in about 1988, when £80k was a lot of money

misskool

oh, i missed the race.

but there's only one winner in my mind

PasturesNew

vivatifosi wrote: »

Did you also see the bit before it where they nearly hit the swimmer in the head with their oar?

Truly the most bizarre I've ever seen.

No. The boat race was my departed old's thing ... I never was interested in watching it.... but I do know it happened as the Internet grapevine moves fast.... and that's what made me turn over to see what was going on

vivatifosi

misskool wrote: »

oh, i missed the race.

but there's only one winner in my mind

Does one wear light or dark blue?

PasturesNew

misskool wrote: »

oh, i missed the race.

but there's only one winner in my mind

Yes, the person who found something more interesting to do