Becoming self-employed with no work coming in?

Darfyddi

Hello all,

My neighbour has recently passed his taxi exams/tests thingy and is now a licensed taxi driver - he wants to become self employed but for the first few weeks or even a couple of months he just wants to get used to driving around the area he will be working in.

I started looking at the HMRC online form with him for being self employed and that looks simple enough although he will probable need help with self-assesment as and when that happens.

The thing I was wondering was does he need to get any insurances or pay for anything after registering as self employed but before acutally starting getting work come in - obviously he will need full insurances to cover the car, the public and whatever else before he has his first client in the car but the few weeks between registering as self employed and the first client is what I mean.

Many thanks for advice and pointers to this advice (I have tried looking on direct.gov and hmrc but can't find anything for this time between registering and actually working.)

paulsad

Surely he'll need to join a taxi firm with radio etc. to get business? I did it for a bit and joined a local firm - got all the help I needed from the lads there - there are also some simple and cheap taxi accounting software apps available on ebay etc. Good luck to him though - I got sick of the drunks and aggro so wasn't for me.

AP007

the op says 'taxi exams/tests thingy and is now a licensed taxi driver ' so maybe he is a black cab driver?

Darfyddi

Hello,

Many thanks for such quick replies - he is licensed to be a taxi driver (I left the 'to be a' out in the first post by mistake.)

He is unemployed at the moment and just wants a few weeks to get used to driving around the new area but not in the work sense - it will be in his own car without any customers.

The way the costs work out, it will be much better finanially for him to be self employed while he does this than to be unemployed (by four figure amounts).

Obviously everything has to be done legally even informing JCP if he does become self employed (though working under 16hrs) but we just need to know about the laws covering self employed people that have no work yet in relation to any insurances or other costs.

Sorry if my first post was misleading - many late nights and an energetic toddler to fry my brain.

Dunroamin

AP007 wrote: »

the op says 'taxi exams/tests thingy and is now a licensed taxi driver ' so maybe he is a black cab driver?

Surely if he were a black cab driver he'd've done "The Knowledge" and wouldn't need to drive round the area?

AP007

Dunroamin wrote: »

Surely if he were a black cab driver he'd've done "The Knowledge" and wouldn't need to drive round the area?

but the OP said they had done 'taxi exams/tests thingy' not sure what they are if you can drive and have a car.

If its just a mini cab you do not even need to know the way as the passenger always has to tell mini cab drivers anyway and they use a sat nav too

Dogger69

AP007 wrote: »

but the OP said they had done 'taxi exams/tests thingy' not sure what they are if you can drive and have a car.

If its just a mini cab you do not even need to know the way as the passenger always has to tell mini cab drivers anyway and they use a sat nav too

Unless they want the driver to take a certain route, it is not for the passenger to have to give directions!

AP007

Dogger69 wrote: »

Unless they want the driver to take a certain route, it is not for the passenger to have to give directions!

Tell that to the mini cab driver - I always give directions as the mini cab driver doesn't learn the knowledge like a black cab driver and that's the difference

Dogger69

AP007 wrote: »

Tell that to the mini cab driver - I always give directions as the mini cab driver doesn't learn the knowledge like a black cab driver and that's the difference

He should still know his way around the local area, that is part of his job. You would not expect a visitor to the area to know their way around.

Darfyddi

...off topic much? lol

paddedjohn

Darfyddi wrote: »

...off topic much? lol

What exactly are you asking? He has got his badge (is he private hire or hackney carriage?) and wants to practice so before he starts for real the only way he can learn is by driving round the town in his spare time.