Whats the easiest route to Private Hire legally?

JethroUK

Im thinking of using my car for Private Hire (Taxi)

There seems to be quite a few rules an regs

Im not 100% sure its fir me so I wouls like ti dip my tie in the water and see

Whats the easiest/cheapest/quickest route to Private Hire legally?

arcon5

If your gonna dip your toes in then drive somebody elses car.

There is a lot of fees involved for both driver and vehicle... getting a vehicle on the road is easy.

Drivers private hire badge: (prices varies between districts but rough guide based on my area)
DBS £60
medical about £100
badge fee about £70
dvla check about £12

So the initial badge you're looking at about £250+.
Renewal about £82.
Bi-yearly renewal with DBS £142

+ any costs by the county council if applying for that badge as well

Car needs:
Plating up (just screw it on bumper or alongside number plate or something) £130 yearly.
Most districts operate similar checks - MOT every 6 months at authorised center (as most also have their own check sheets to fill in) so £35 for MOT + £12 for pass certificate to display in vehicle from council. (So about £94 yearly).

Expect to pay £100+ to a private hire operator for work.
If you want to operate on your own you'll also need an operators license + public liability insurance etc.

Insurance for private hire is expensive. I know somebody paying £1100 with 20 years taxi driver experience and many many years NCB. I also know somebody 24yr old paying £4k PH insurance.
I've had PH insurance before and paid £3300 with 1yr NCB.

Car repairs - well be prepared to do them yourself as a car doing 40k miles per year won't last long. Factor in repair times also. I know a garage owner who gives his cars an 18 month life expectancy.
You could whack a night driver in - but it doesn't usually work for 1 car setups as theres no backup when the car goes down, not if, but when and probably multiple times in a month for one reason or another.

Be prepared to kill braincells with boredom. You may get a good school run in the morning and afternoon, but 11-2 will be dire. Be prepared for long hours to bring in some money. Be prepared for a less than minimum wage equivilent pay packet - and the fact you'll be self-employed, thus no holiday pay etc. You'll pay class 2 & 4 NICs instead of class 1 you pay under PAYE - so if you become unemployed good luck getting JSA since they based it on class 1 contributions. I become unemployed once and got declined from both types of JSA because my partner worked 16hrs per week and I was self-employed prior (thus no class 1 contributions).


I know this industry well, having worked in it for a good few years. Here's a typical week:

10hours per day/5 days per week (many taxi drivers do longer shifts)
£550-£600 takings
50% commission
Less driver shift charges and other levies
Net about £250-£280 = £5 - £5.60/hr.

In your own car expect fuel to come to about 20%

£600 takings
Less office bill £100
Less fuel £120
Less insurance £60
= £320
Less cars capital costs - say £30pw assuming you're not driving anything of value (other double that)
Less cars maintenance costs - say £40pw(as above)
= £250
(Importantly, i've been VERY conservative with these figures)
Not much in a one car owner driver unless you put in 7 days per week and start pulling in £800-£900/week in which case you might start getting closer to 50% profit region.

There are garages that will rent you a car out and do everything, usually you then pay about £150 per week to them + the office bill to the operator. So initial outlay about £250 per week. Then all you do is pay for fuel. This also removes the pressure of it breaking down as they'll usually easily put you in another car whilst it's being repaired.

Then your £600 turns to about £230 still.


Of course the above figures do not even start to factor in the costs involved in plating the vehicle and paying your licensing costs. But you get my point.


Frankly, i'd not recommend many people touch the industry. It's good if maybe you're retired or something but imo that's about it. Although most of the drivers in the industry have usually been doing it for many many years and certainly aren't getting any richer.

rev_henry

Easiest way is probably to get a PH licence in the area you want to work, then rent a plated car by the week. It'll cost you a fair bit to get your existing car plated (it may not even be possible - too old, wrong colour etc) so better off renting to dip your toe in the water.

arcon5

Oh -- and quickest -- nothing quick about it. Re-licensing usually takes about 4 weeks without a DBS check, 6 weeks with. Let alone initial licensing. Takes ages.

Oh and I forgot to mention many areas now have knowledge tests you have to take first.

Oh and many areas have driver assessment tests also - similar to those river awareness course type things (usually done by the same people as well), whereby at the end they rate you as competent or not competent (or something like that - can't remember exact terminology now) then send it to the council.
That's another £100 or whatever it is they charge nowadays.

Rules and regs though vary between councils.

Hope i've given you a little bit of insight

jaydeeuk1

Car pooling site, like bla bla car or liftshare. Technically only allowed to claim back costs, but doesn't stop someone charging £15 pp from notts to derby on bla bla.

colino

Contact your local authority and get the rules from them (they may even be online). Private hire is one of the few games LAs have to play with nowadays and some do it to stupid degrees. No point taking generalist advice until you know what you have to do locally.