Taxi Industry in chaos

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oisindoyle wrote: »

Many many are trying to get out believe me .As for standards of cars ,yes SOME cars leave a lot to be desired ,BUT that was predicted before deregulation that car standards would drop ....With drivers earning little is it any wonder they cannot afford a new car

Ehm were you in Ireland before deregulation. The standard was as bad. If not worse than it is now.

Yet another driver thinking the general public are stupid. They have memories. Can we stop this treating them like they are thick. It does us no good at all.

daveirl wrote: »

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That's a tad simplistic! Where do they go?
If we aren't earning a decent wage, how can you expect decent taxis?
You're getting the Taxi service the system deserves..........poor

It's a simple equation:
Ever decreasing income = Ever decreasing standards

bk wrote: »

I have to say I've seen little difference in the quality of vehicles used and drivers post regulation then pre regulation. The only difference being the number available, which is great for the consumer.

Are you saying it was bad then and is still bad, or are you saying the quality is good?


I'd agree the cars are the same as they were 10 years ago...but now they're ten years older!

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

I can only speak for Dublin.

Your not speaking for Dublin, in fact I think your speaking out of your arse tbh.

In the few years running up to my retirement from the Defence Forces I drove a taxi part time, testing the water's so to speak.

About five year's ago I made very good money, easily a grand a week. Then two years ago when retirement seemed a good idea I went to the bank manager asking about loans to buy a new car and told her I planned on entering the market as a full time taxi driver - she almost laughed in my face.

In the defence forces we can take up to 90 days pre-retirement leave, plus all your annual, so I took four months off and drove my arse off.

On a good day I made anything from €10-€20 an hour (before overheads) and had no real troubles getting onto ranks etc, but the winds of change were sweeping through the country and these figures began to drop rapidly.

I didn't take retirement, but continued to work PT, my shift in the army allowed me to work an almost full time hours.

In the months before I decided I'd get out of the business entirely my takings were down to between earning nothing for hours at a time to maybe €5 - €7 per hour. I couldn't afford to have my car professional serviced, so I downloaded the instructions to do it myself.

When I brought my receipts etc to my accountant he looked at me like I was a lunatic, and when taking depreciation of my car, my diesel and other overheads into account I was running at a loss.

How YOUR making more money than your OH who works fulltime as a funds administrator in the IFSC beats the sh*t out of me.

Of course, I've met your type before. Most taxi driver's know you, you seldom make less than €200- a day, and you won't go home unless you earn over €400 on Friday & Saturday nights - you can woe us with tales of all the birds you could have had, and all the arseholes you've had to beat up for the €10 fare they refused to pay.

You live in a dream world, but your content with your little imaginings. However, its dangerous. Because lads are leaving full time jobs thinking they can make a good living when they listen to people like you.

Plus junkie think taxi driver's are an easy touch and robbing just one will bring 'em a working mans weekly wage on a Saturday night.

Get real.

Taxi driver's are now making minimum (and below) wage, and thats before overheads are taken out.

The best thing I done was get out of that business, it sucks big time.

Yea, the public talk through their hole when they express ignorant opinion on taxi drivers - but by jesus its nothing like the sh*t I've heard from driver's themselves.

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Cecilia Raspy Duster wrote: »

Your not speaking for Dublin, in fact I think your speaking out of your arse tbh.

In the few years running up to my retirement from the Defence Forces I drove a taxi part time, testing the water's so to speak.

About five year's ago I made very good money, easily a grand a week. Then two years ago when retirement seemed a good idea I went to the bank manager asking about loans to buy a new car and told her I planned on entering the market as a full time taxi driver - she almost laughed in my face.

In the defence forces we can take up to 90 days pre-retirement leave, plus all your annual, so I took four months off and drove my arse off.

On a good day I made anything from €10-€20 an hour (before overheads) and had no real troubles getting onto ranks etc, but the winds of change were sweeping through the country and these figures began to drop rapidly.

I didn't take retirement, but continued to work PT, my shift in the army allowed me to work an almost full time hours.

In the months before I decided I'd get out of the business entirely my takings were down to between earning nothing for hours at a time to maybe €5 - €7 per hour. I couldn't afford to have my car professional serviced, so I downloaded the instructions to do it myself.

When I brought my receipts etc to my accountant he looked at me like I was a lunatic, and when taking depreciation of my car, my diesel and other overheads into account I was running at a loss.

How YOUR making more money than your OH who works fulltime as a funds administrator in the IFSC beats the sh*t out of me.

Of course, I've met your type before. Most taxi driver's know you, you seldom make less than €200- a day, and you won't go home unless you earn over €400 on Friday & Saturday nights - you can woe us with tales of all the birds you could have had, and all the arseholes you've had to beat up for the €10 fare they refused to pay.

You live in a dream world, but your content with your little imaginings. However, its dangerous. Because lads are leaving full time jobs thinking they can make a good living when they listen to people like you.

Plus junkie think taxi driver's are an easy touch and robbing just one will bring 'em a working mans weekly wage on a Saturday night.

Get real.

Taxi driver's are now making minimum (and below) wage, and thats before overheads are taken out.

The best thing I done was get out of that business, it sucks big time.

Yea, the public talk through their hole when they express ignorant opinion on taxi drivers - but by jesus its nothing like the sh*t I've heard from driver's themselves.

.

If you were running at a loss and didnt know it you are not the brightest in the business department are you? Thats a common problem in the taxi business. If you have some business smarts you will make money. You cannot expect to make money being self employed unless you know how to run your business eg, you make sure you improve you're profit by analyzing why you are not making money and adapt. Any other self-employed person knows this too.

the boss of me wrote: »

Waffle,waffle waffle.... I worked as a hackney and taxi from 1998 to 2008 when I packed it in and sold up. The work just isn't there anymore. I made a decent wage for a long time but in recent times with the downturn in the economy, the work is drying up and the amount of people looking for a share of that work, is increasing.

As for having the business smarts, it's a taxi , it aint that hard, switch on your roof sign, affiliate to a good radio company and off you go.You don't need a masters in business studies to figure out where the work is, just like you don't need to be Steven Hawking to realise that you are talking a load of rubbish.

No, you dont need a masters in business studies, just a bit of common sense. tbh, A 10 year old would be able to spot a loss making venture without having to be told by someone else.
Obviously its hard for you, if you dont even know when you are running a loss until someone else tells you. Thats a HUGE mistake. Not the way to run a business. Perhaps you shouldnt be self employed at all.

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

No, you dont need a masters in business studies, just a bit of common sense. tbh, A 10 year old would be able to spot a loss making venture without having to be told by someone else.
Obviously its hard for you, if you dont even know when you are running a loss until someone else tells you. Thats a HUGE mistake. Not the way to run a business. Perhaps you shouldnt be self employed at all.

Very few drivers I know take depreciation of their car into account when they are looking at how their business is doing. This usually only comes up when up when they see the accountant. Also i dont know many 10 year olds who could explain depreciation of assets

Cecilia Raspy Duster wrote: »

Ok Mr 'I've got brains to burn' instead of waffling on here with your inflated tales of woe (earning more than your funds admin partner as a part timer was a good one and likely to catch the non-taxi driver out). Tell us just how YOU did it and no one else seem's to know the formula..

In fact don't, audition for Bill Cullen's 'The Apprentice' because YOUR the type of person Bill needs.

I done what the other's here failed to do, I called you out on a spoof & all you can do is try to give the impression your looking down your nose at us and get snotty about it.

As I said earlier, and I'll repeat myself - your playing a dangerous game with your imagination. Your giving the impression to people that there's still a good living to be made by driving a taxi, so those people will consider giving up a job to enter the market or if they're unfortunet enough that they're facing redundancy instead of upskilling and trying to enter a new career path they'll waste their package on buying into the taxi business (because Mr 'I know all about business' you will know that no bank manager in the last two years would/will give a loan on a taxi).

Then people who are ignorant of the business, and who like to rant about it here on Boards.ie brow beat the full time lads here with the rubbish they've heard from you and your ilk and that further compounds the misery and fustration these full time taxi drivers who have to listen from these people day in, day out.

And worse of all are the junkies & drunks.

Because the taxi industry is in such dire straits driver's are taking risk's they once never took, like junkies & drunks (and other undesirables) - now the lads would cut each other's throat to get a junkie or any of our cities/countries undesirables into their cab - and thats a HUGE risk as well you should know, but a risk driver's have to take after "analyzing" their business and realising that its gone down the sh*tter but the family still have to be fed.

Sorry if it appear's that I've gone off on a rant, I usually ignore taxi talk & threads now because I'm no longer part of that failed industry but I find it infuriating when I read dangerous waffle from drivers.

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Do you not think someone who cant tell if they are making a loss til someone else points it out for him should be doing something else that doesnt involve running their own buisiness.

I already told you how we did it, if you care to read. It wasnt hard to be honest. We still look for ways to improve our takings, and find more every day. Its called being proactive. Sitting on your hole complaining that the world is treating them badly wont help anyone.

If you take a junkie or drunk who is going to puke all over your car then you deserve what you get.
Put the effort in so you dont have to take them and can get enough business elsewhere.

And sticking to these tales about drivers being on the breadline does not fool ordinary people. It is just not going to work. People know exactly what the story is and can see through the lies.

Really, if anyone is on the breadline, they are not fit to run their own business and need to get another job where they are not on the breadline. Even the dole would be better if they are that bad at their jobs. Look up some of the threads on here about how much people take from social welfare. sometimes €20k to €30k depending on circumstances.

And yes, people who are self employed can go on the dole.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/social-welfare/social-welfare-payments/unemployed-people/self-employed-and-unemployment

So why, if you cant make any money in the taxi business dont people give up the taxi and go on the dole.
Its because either they are actually making money and pretending they re not and putting on the poor mouth for the sake of the public, or that they are just too dumb to figure out that making a loss is not viable and they would be better off on the dole.

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

tbh, its a bit of a biggie to miss taking depreciation of a car into account. They shouldnt be in the business if they cant even do that.

Re-read my post. I didnt say they miss it I said they dont take it into account because how much your car goes down in value has very little to do with how you conduct your business day to day.