Uber licence 'not renewed' in London - thoughts?

Stoke

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Sorry, but you're expecting a driver to come and get you and take you somewhere for the grand total of £2.32?

Then take Uber's commission from that you're left with £2

Then take (say) 2 miles of city driving and you're looking at about £1.50.

Then take a share of licensing costs (minimum £500 a year for car and driver), then take H&R insurance (minimum £2000 a year), then take maintenance, then take the cost of buying a car new enough to get licensed and having to replace it having been a minicab as it reaches the age limit for licensing.

You save money, Uber make money, driver gets nothing.

So, you got your cheap fare but you are supporting slavery. How nice of you.

Obviously now you can see that £5 is a fair fare all round and £2.32 definitely isn't. Will you therefore use a reputable company in the future?.....probably not.

Yes this is a money saving forum however we should never be paying so little for something that others are suffering as a result of it.

Bahahaha, what a load of sanctimonious old !!!!!!!!.

I'll let you into a little secret, on one of the longer trips I took in Manchester, I got chatting to the uber driver. Lovely fella. Aside from telling me that he thought working for Uber was brilliant, he also told me that "one of the good things is, you don't have to accept jobs if you don't want too". He also told me that he's earning about 40 grand a year from his work as an Uber driver and although it was long hours, it was by far the most lucrative job he'd ever had and was giving his family a good quality of life.

So, you suggesting that I am endorsing slavery is absolute rubbish. The reality is more likely, the fella saw my job and thought "oh I'm on the way home and it's in that direction" or "I'm on the way to near there anyway" and figured it was another quid or so in the bank.

Furthermore, unlike you, who is simply talking !!!!!!!!, I can actually back up with facts as I can pull the fare up on the very useful app. The time part cost 60p. Using the Uber site, I can easily calculate that this means I was in the car for around 6 mins.

So lets do some ball park maths sugar plum, 60/6 = 10. £2.32 per trip. Multiply by 10.

£23.20 an hour, minus a couple of deductions from Uber and a fairly small amount of fuel as I wasn't in the car for that long distance wise either.

But dunna worry, I support slavery.

Clown.

Stoke

Additionally, despite supporting slavery, my rating as a customer on uber is 4.33 out of 5.

chattychappy

An establishment victory. Few can afford black cabs - uber comes along and it's a boon for Joe Public. So called "transport for London" demonstrates it's not really for London people.

Black cabs are one of those London "institutions" that must not be criticised. But I've had foreign friends ripped off by them. Most of them can't even generate a proper receipt - just giving you a scruffy card where you can fill in the amount yourself enabling you to cheat your company and cheat the tax man.

Personally I'd ban them from bus lanes and let them compete with other cabs - be they licensed minicabs, Uber, or private cars.

London's going backwards.

Stoke

chattychappy wrote: »

An establishment victory. Few can afford black cabs - uber comes along and it's a boon for Joe Public. So called "transport for London" demonstrates it's not really for London people.

Black cabs are one of those London "institutions" that must not be criticised. But I've had foreign friends ripped off by them. Most of them can't even generate a proper receipt - just giving you a scruffy card where you can fill in the amount yourself enabling you to cheat your company and cheat the tax man.

Personally I'd ban them from bus lanes and let them compete with other cabs - be they licensed minicabs, Uber, or private cars.

London's going backwards.

The same applies in my local area. It's basically a glorified business card with a couple of lines on the back. Not a massive nightmare for expenses claims, but not ideal either. Printed receipts are expected.......

You can print directly from the uber website. Funny how this uber thing is dead popular isn't it? Almost like they're actually..... good.

CKhalvashi

Marktheshark wrote: »

Basically sending out a loud and clear message, London is closed for innovative businesses that save the public money to protect those that don't.

No we're not, we're sending a loud and clear message that Britain deserves better than outfits that feel it's ok to take advantage of people for their own gains. Any legitimate business is, of course, welcome. Naturally Uber isn't the first and won't be the last to try it on.

Stoke wrote: »

Bahahaha, what a load of sanctimonious old !!!!!!!!.

I'll let you into a little secret, on one of the longer trips I took in Manchester, I got chatting to the uber driver. Lovely fella. Aside from telling me that he thought working for Uber was brilliant, he also told me that "one of the good things is, you don't have to accept jobs if you don't want too". He also told me that he's earning about 40 grand a year from his work as an Uber driver and although it was long hours, it was by far the most lucrative job he'd ever had and was giving his family a good quality of life.

So, you suggesting that I am endorsing slavery is absolute rubbish. The reality is more likely, the fella saw my job and thought "oh I'm on the way home and it's in that direction" or "I'm on the way to near there anyway" and figured it was another quid or so in the bank.

Furthermore, unlike you, who is simply talking !!!!!!!!, I can actually back up with facts as I can pull the fare up on the very useful app. The time part cost 60p. Using the Uber site, I can easily calculate that this means I was in the car for around 6 mins.

So lets do some ball park maths sugar plum, 60/6 = 10. £2.32 per trip. Multiply by 10.

£23.20 an hour, minus a couple of deductions from Uber and a fairly small amount of fuel as I wasn't in the car for that long distance wise either.

But dunna worry, I support slavery.

Clown.

Lets give you a basic maths lesson.

Many taxi and private hire drivers can earn give or take £40k in a year after expenses, however you have to accept that this will be a mix of long distance runs and shorter journeys. The figures below are about 7 years out but should give you a general idea.

If you go out at 4am on a weekday you'd expect to clear £120ish before 8am if you can get an airport run. You're then looking at another £60-80 to midday and around £12/hour after that to 5pm where it rises to £15-20.

On the highest of those estimates (lets use £225 for 12 hours) and with a Peugeot 406 HDi, you'd have looked at expenses at the following:

£30 a day for diesel (15p/mile on an average of about 30mpg, more miles due to lower fares although cars are more efficient now).
£10 a day for insurance (£2500ish over about 250 days).
£20 a day for radio rent (with Uber it's I believe 25% of fares, so it's much higher).
£5 a day to keep the car to a licensable standard of maintenance assuming nothing major breaks.
£2 a day for licensing.

So, those expenses are £67, with Uber they'd be around £105.

I make that £30k vs £40k on 250 'average' days a year, with the additional £10k of that going to Uber. This is before taking into account a frankly ridiculous £1.25/mile in London (partly offset by Uber's reach, partly worsened by increased traffic) and that fuel prices are a lot higher now than they were then.

Just to add, Friday and Saturday night on rate 2 (after 10pm) were the best nights, as there was demand outstripping supply and higher rates. This only widens the gap between a normal operator and Uber.

Minimum on the meter was £3 for the first mile with increments at 20p for 1/10 mile or 20 seconds, whichever comes first. 10pm to 6am and all day Sunday/Bank Hols +50%. With Uber, as I'm sure you're aware, there is no 'rate 2' most of the time. I have therefore excluded it from my figures.

So, earning £40k a year (which I doubt on Uber fares) is hard enough without working extreme hours and definitely not possible on the charged rates. I still maintain that the driver made absolutely nothing on the job you quoted though, even if (as I knew already) it was at the shorter end of the scale.

Oh, and a driver won't have a passenger in the car for 10x your 6 minute journey, it'd actually likely be less than half. You forgot that when doing your calculation.

I no longer have any interest in the industry and can speak therefore freely based on experience rather than what you 'think' may or may not be the case.

Mercdriver

Stoke wrote: »

So lets do some ball park maths sugar plum, 60/6 = 10. £2.32 per trip. Multiply by 10.

£23.20 an hour, minus a couple of deductions from Uber and a fairly small amount of fuel as I wasn't in the car for that long distance wise either.

But dunna worry, I support slavery.

Clown.

What you have calculated is TURNOVER. That's not even profit, let alone earnings.

£40k a year turnover is a hobbyists earnings.

CKhalvashi

Mercdriver wrote: »

What you have calculated is TURNOVER. That's not even profit, let alone earnings.

£40k a year turnover is a hobbyists earnings.

As I mentioned above he hasn't even done that as you won't have a passenger in the car 100% of the time.

I've just noticed as well that he's using 60p for 10 minutes.

To the best of my belief £6 an hour is below the legal minimum.

I'm not necessarily blaming OP for his thinking, merely attempting to highlight that things aren't what they may seem on OP's part due to a misunderstanding (that many companies in the industry have attempted to make too) in how high the expenses actually are.

Stoke

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Lets give you a basic maths lesson.

Many taxi and private hire drivers can earn give or take £40k in a year after expenses, however you have to accept that this will be a mix of long distance runs and shorter journeys. The figures below are about 7 years out but should give you a general idea.

If you go out at 4am on a weekday you'd expect to clear £120ish before 8am if you can get an airport run. You're then looking at another £60-80 to midday and around £12/hour after that to 5pm where it rises to £15-20.

On the highest of those estimates (lets use £225 for 12 hours) and with a Peugeot 406 HDi, you'd have looked at expenses at the following:

£30 a day for diesel (15p/mile on an average of about 30mpg, more miles due to lower fares although cars are more efficient now).
£10 a day for insurance (£2500ish over about 250 days).
£20 a day for radio rent (with Uber it's I believe 25% of fares, so it's much higher).
£5 a day to keep the car to a licensable standard of maintenance assuming nothing major breaks.
£2 a day for licensing.

So, those expenses are £67, with Uber they'd be around £105.

I make that £30k vs £40k on 250 'average' days a year, with the additional £10k of that going to Uber. This is before taking into account a frankly ridiculous £1.25/mile in London (partly offset by Uber's reach, partly worsened by increased traffic) and that fuel prices are a lot higher now than they were then.

Just to add, Friday and Saturday night on rate 2 (after 10pm) were the best nights, as there was demand outstripping supply and higher rates. This only widens the gap between a normal operator and Uber.

Minimum on the meter was £3 for the first mile with increments at 20p for 1/10 mile or 20 seconds, whichever comes first. 10pm to 6am and all day Sunday/Bank Hols +50%. With Uber, as I'm sure you're aware, there is no 'rate 2' most of the time. I have therefore excluded it from my figures.

So, earning £40k a year (which I doubt on Uber fares) is hard enough without working extreme hours and definitely not possible on the charged rates. I still maintain that the driver made absolutely nothing on the job you quoted though, even if (as I knew already) it was at the shorter end of the scale.

Oh, and a driver won't have a passenger in the car for 10x your 6 minute journey, it'd actually likely be less than half. You forgot that when doing your calculation.

I no longer have any interest in the industry and can speak therefore freely based on experience rather than what you 'think' may or may not be the case.

OK, lot of content there, but just a few points. I have absolutely no reason to lie regarding what the driver told me about his yearly income. He said he earned 40 grand a year, so either he was trying to blow his own trumpet, or he was telling the truth. It's not a figure I made up. I remember it, because it made me think that all things considered, hard work aside, that's an excellent wage.

Also, you're wrong about the second point you make. It's 10p a minute, so 6 minutes was 60p.

By the sounds of it, you probably understand it a lot better than me, but it does sound like you have a vested interest to some degree. It seems odd that when I've spoken to Uber drivers about Uber, they've had nothing but positive things to say, while competitors have merely complained that they're being constantly undercut.

Perhaps I'm naive.

Stoke

Just to add, I would be more tempted to use local taxi companies if they:

a. Turned up on time (Rarely happens locally).
b. Didn't turn up in dirty, unpleasant taxi's.
c. Used the meter rather than pulled a random fare out of their head when we arrive that's usually way over the top (a real problem in Stoke).

Mercdriver

Stoke wrote: »

Just to add, I would be more tempted to use local taxi companies if they:

a. Turned up on time (Rarely happens locally).
b. Didn't turn up in dirty, unpleasant taxi's.
c. Used the meter rather than pulled a random fare out of their head when we arrive that's usually way over the top (a real problem in Stoke).

You could always do what people are recommended to do on holiday and if they aren't running a meter (something you can ask the dispatcher when you call) what the cost will be for your planned journey.

If they are overcharging they are breaking the terms of their licence and should be reported.