Taxi Industry in chaos

TaxiManMartin

jack90210 wrote: »

It would appear there is defo money to be made in fact there is thread on irishtaxi.org right now stating that drivers are earning 300 euro for a saturday night which sounds pretty good to me. Posters now giving out telling the admins to lock it as it will encourage people to start taxing.

I was reading it
http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=669.0

Look at them saying to cover up what they make. Whats the point?
Im amazed that some of the guys think the average punter is just stupid. I understand we cant pull the wool over peoples eyes regarding how much we make. So i work hard and earn good money. We could do with less moaning and massaging of the figures from other drivers. It makes us all look like plonkers tbh. Seriously, we wouldnt be doing it if we didnt make money.

Id say you can nearly double that figure for an average saturday night take.
Probably get that or more on a Friday and maybe an average of about €30 an hour on a weekday evening until about midnight.

If i only took €300 on a saturday night i would consider it a very bad night.

mikemac

I read that thread too, the OP was moaning that used to make 300 per night and now it was only 200.

lol, you're right that others wanted the thread deleted in case it encouraged others.

I've no idea what the average takings are in every town in Ireland for a weekend night. (and this thread seems to revolve around Dublin??)
But if you're a PAYE worker and already have a car, then hey 200 euro for a Friday and then a Saturday night is something worth checking.
Sure there are start-up costs but there might be something there and could be handy since you're down money on the income levy and maybe you need cash for holidays, house repairs, etc

Ooops, the full time drivers will accuse you of cherry picking the lucrative shifts :P

TaxiManMartin

mikemac wrote: »

I read that thread too, the OP was moaning that used to make 300 per night and now it was only 200.

lol, you're right that others wanted the thread deleted in case it encouraged others.

I've no idea what the average takings are in every town in Ireland for a weekend night. (and this thread seems to revolve around Dublin??)
But if you're a PAYE worker and already have a car, then hey 200 euro for a Friday and then a Saturday night is something worth checking.
Sure there are start-up costs but there might be something there and could be handy since you're down money on the income levy and maybe you need cash for holidays, house repairs, etc

Ooops, the full time drivers will accuse you of cherry picking the lucrative shifts :P

I already had the taxi. While i was in college i drove the taxi. Hours suited me anyway. Then since graduating last year ive been driving the taxi full time. At last i got the job in th career i want. Slightly less money than i took with the taxi, but its what i want to do.
Im still doing the taxiing in the evenings and weekends. It more or less should double my income - i need the car anyway. So im very happy to cherry pick the best shifts.
Im just tired of the old guard taxi driver complaining about people double jobbing, or entering the business easily etc . They dont care that others are willing to work hard and do those extra hours because they want to make money - they just care that they now have to get up off their asses and work for a change.

PS - I was actually banned before from that forum for telling it like it is.

Have a read of this to see the kind off crap venomous people i have to pretend to put up with
http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=112.0

They are just lazy people.

For an example of what drivers can do to help themselves instead of complaining heres what we do.

My dad and brother are taxi drivers too. We also have 5 others in on our little club.
Basically we have business cards printed, offering 20% off. Each of us gives these cards out. We pay between us for a flyer drop every few months too. We've got our own radios. We all go around picking up off the streets too.
The number on the card is always diverted to someones phone who is working at the time.
Whenever we get a call we pick up the radio and see who is free and is closest and they take the job.

There are a couple of other things we do too to get the jobs too that im not going to go into here as it might upset some other drivers.

Basically we're all busy nearly all the time we're working.

This came about as a result of us getting together and coming up with a system where we could maximize our cars. Not from sitting in the rank complaining and lying about how we are on the breadline and omitting to say we can write off expenses against tax (if we do pay the tax ).

jack90210

Lots of racism and threats against the regulator on that forum. Pretty shocking.

Ham'nd'egger

jack90210 wrote: »

It would appear there is defo money to be made in fact there is thread on irishtaxi.org right now stating that drivers are earning 300 euro for a saturday night which sounds pretty good to me. Posters now giving out telling the admins to lock it as it will encourage people to start taxing.

€300 on a Saturday would be about right give or take a few € for but bear in mind that is for about 9-10 hours work before costs. Yes, there are times when you will take in more that that but there are also times when you will take in less than that.

There are at least five other nights in the week that I can assure you are nothing like even close to that busy; pop into any city centre bar on a mid week night and tell me otherwise.

mikemac

Hamndegger wrote: »

There are at least five other nights in the week that I can assure you are nothing like even close to that busy; pop into any city centre bar on a mid week night and tell me otherwise.

Fair enough but if you want to do it part-time as well as your full-time job, possibly there is money to be made.

Oh, and there would be six other nights too, not five

25 punts for 1

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

I was reading it
http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=669.0

Look at them saying to cover up what they make. Whats the point?
Im amazed that some of the guys think the average punter is just stupid. I understand we cant pull the wool over peoples eyes regarding how much we make. So i work hard and earn good money. We could do with less moaning and massaging of the figures from other drivers. It makes us all look like plonkers tbh. Seriously, we wouldnt be doing it if we didnt make money.

Id say you can nearly double that figure for an average saturday night take.
Probably get that or more on a Friday and maybe an average of about €30 an hour on a weekday evening until about midnight.






you think you can earn 600 on a saturday....thats the biggest pile of gick ive heard in years....its getting harder by the week...why dont you buy my plate and rent it out, im sure there'll be a que around the block to rent it from you with that kind of bucks to be made......seriously whats yor agenda or are you just an old fashioned liar??????

Ham'nd'egger

mikemac wrote: »

Fair enough but if you want to do it part-time as well as your full-time job, possibly there is money to be made.

Oh, and there would be six other nights too, not five

And I don't deserve a night off?:D

mikemac

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

I was reading it
http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=669.0

That site is some joke.
They are complaining about Luas access and the bridge across the Liffey which will improve access to the O2 and the national conference centre.

Sure who could complain about better facilities?..........unless you were a vested interest and want loads of easy & mega fares.

mikemac

Don't forget the threads on part time scum :eek:

jack90210

Hamndegger wrote: »

€300 on a Saturday would be about right give or take a few € for but bear in mind that is for about 9-10 hours work before costs. Yes, there are times when you will take in more that that but there are also times when you will take in less than that.

There are at least five other nights in the week that I can assure you are nothing like even close to that busy; pop into any city centre bar on a mid week night and tell me otherwise.

Yeh but on top of your regular job or for students it would be a nice earner on top. If you came out with €500 a week which I feel is likely considering €300 on saturday is possible it must mean taxi men are on at least €26000 a year and if you factor in the odd special period like Christmas where they earn more to cover the costs not been factored in here. They really do have a job paying about the average industrial wage which ain't half bad really for driving a car around and been your own boss. Certainly more than the €200 a week on the dole!

the boss of me

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

I was reading it
http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=669.0



Id say you can nearly double that figure for an average saturday night take.
Probably get that or more on a Friday and maybe an average of about €30 an hour on a weekday evening until about midnight.

If i only took €300 on a saturday night i would consider it a very bad night.

I really think you should change your name to "Taximanmitty" because you're dreaming. A few years ago it was possible to get €300 on a Saturday night (for about 10 hours work), but it was never possble to double it. These days €200 is a more realistic target for a Saturday but it's hard to get even that nowadays. Fridays nights are even worse and the weeknights are a washout.
I gave it up recently after ten years because it just isn't viable anymore. It's not fair to give people the impression that investing their money in getting into the taxi business is a good investment so please stop misleading people.

Danny Fisher

I'm a Taxi driver in Dublin. Like all the taxi "slaggers" here, I'm all in favour of the free market, market forces, let the market decide, etc., etc. But the thing is..........................? BTW, This guy never got his licence!













By Ray Managh
Thursday February 28 2002

A GROUP of pub barons has joined forces in a bitter legal battle to stop a mini-pub opening in their midst. Judge Jacqueline Linnane was told in the Circuit Licensing Court yesterday that Baggot Street newsagent Eugene Bellew was seeking a drinks licence for a proposed conversion of a former butcher's shop to a pub in Upper Baggot Street.
His counsel, Ms Constance Cassidy SC, told the court that six major pubs in the immediate neighbourhood Smyths, Searsons, Paddy Flahertys, The Lansdowne Hotel, The Waterloo and The Wellington were objecting on the grounds that another pub in the area was unnecessary and that the premises was unsuitable.
Ms Cassidy told the court it was her intention to question every objecting publican if their own pubs were fit for the purposes for which they had been licensed.
She told Judge Linnane she would be calling evidence of extensions having been carried out to the objecting pubs without the necessary court orders and breaches of planning in relation to each and every one of their premises.
Ms Carol O'Kennedy, counsel for the publicans, objected to the relevance of such evidence being called. She said the court was considering objections in respect of the proposed new pub and not the existing premises of the objectors.
She added that, if the proposed new licensee felt there were any problems concerning planning relating to the premises of the five objectors, he should raise such matters through the proper planning channels or at the next licence renewal applications relating to the pubs concerned.
Judge Linnane said the court would be deviating from the application before it if it was going to start investigating alleged unauthorised extensions to other premises.
Ms Cassidy said she would reserve her right to cross-examine the objectors on these points and would seek the courts permission to call planning evidence, if necessary, at that stage.
Ms Cassidy, who appeared with Ms Dorothy Collins, told the court the applicant's proposal was to license the ground floor of 11 Upper Baggot Street with a customer capacity of 124 persons.
She said that, insofar as size was concerned, the proposed new pub would be just a fraction of the size of all of the objecting premises, the biggest being 10 times the size of Dowling's and the nearest in size being about three times bigger.
Architect Keelan McCloskey told the court he was satisfied the old butcher's shop, which would retain its existing name as Dowling's Pub, was fit to receive a publican's license. It would be developed as a typical old Dublin pub and would be one of the smallest in the city.
He said Smyths had a capacity to serve 300 customers, the Wellington 360, Paddy Flaherty's 450, the Lansdowne 700, the Waterloo 800 and Searsons 1,200. Taken together on the restrictions of the fire laws they had a total customer capacity of 3,810 as against 124 in Dowling's.
The hearing is expected to last several days.
- Ray Managh

TaxiManMartin

25 punts for 1 wrote: »

you think you can earn 600 on a saturday....thats the biggest pile of gick ive heard in years....its getting harder by the week...why dont you buy my plate and rent it out, im sure there'll be a que around the block to rent it from you with that kind of bucks to be made......seriously whats yor agenda or are you just an old fashioned liar??????

No, i said i can nearly double €300 on a Saturday. And i said if i only made €300 on a Saturday i would consider it a bad night.
If you are going to quote me then quote me properly.
You're not interested in telling the truth at all. Just misquoting so you can dis people instead. If you put even half the effort into maximizing your car you would make more money from it.

Have you read what i've said about maximizing your car instead of complaining.

No, you havent even mentioned it. You are commenting only to discredit anyone who tells the truth. People arent stupid. But if you treat them like they are you are doing us all a disservice.

What do you do to maximize the money you make from your car?

corktina

i know this is mostly about Dublin taxis but I take the point about maximising income. My local railway station (Malloew) has a train in each direction cork to dublin every hour plus locals and the Kerry line and yet yhere is more or less never a taxi sat waiting..I would have thought it a great place to pick up a fare rather than the huge number of taxis parked in Cork City waiting for a fare....i guess this is the sort of thing Martin means?

paulm17781

TaxiManMartin, well done.

I've been in my share of arguments with other drivers here (and I'm not getting in to one on this thread). It is nice to have someone who seems to have a good strategy making good money. The business card / discount idea is a great one.

Keep up the good work.

25 punts for 1

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

No, i said i can nearly double €300 on a Saturday. And i said if i only made €300 on a Saturday i would consider it a bad night.
If you are going to quote me then quote me properly.
You're not interested in telling the truth at all. Just misquoting so you can dis people instead. If you put even half the effort into maximizing your car you would make more money from it.

Have you read what i've said about maximizing your car instead of complaining.

No, you havent even mentioned it. You are commenting only to discredit anyone who tells the truth. People arent stupid. But if you treat them like they are you are doing us all a disservice.




why don't you enligthen us oh wise one...im not complaining at all, i got another job, i,ve tried every concievable shift over 7 days,i know whats going on in town, offering discounts isn't the answer either, why would people attend the march's by tdfc if they could earn decent money?? too many taxi's not enough work its simple really....your 1 in a million...or 1 in 45### anyway

Ham'nd'egger

TaxiManMartin wrote: »

No, i said i can nearly double €300 on a Saturday. And i said if i only made €300 on a Saturday i would consider it a bad night.
If you are going to quote me then quote me properly.
You're not interested in telling the truth at all. Just misquoting so you can dis people instead. If you put even half the effort into maximizing your car you would make more money from it.

Have you read what i've said about maximizing your car instead of complaining.

No, you havent even mentioned it. You are commenting only to discredit anyone who tells the truth. People arent stupid. But if you treat them like they are you are doing us all a disservice.

What do you do to maximize the money you make from your car?

Maybe you can show us all a breakdown of the fares that you take on a Saturday and how you claim you can do so well. Bear in mind that €600 on a Saturday night is €60 an hour for ten hours work and close to 100% occupancy all night long....

25 punts for 1

Hamndegger wrote: »

Maybe you can show us all a breakdown of the fares that you take on a Saturday and how you claim you can do so well. Bear in mind that €600 on a Saturday night is €60 an hour for ten hours work and close to 100% occupancy all night long....

now don't misquote him ...he said nearly double 300:D:D:D
best night i had in the last couple of years was halloween 10 hour shift for 400, and i was kept going non stop

TaxiManMartin

25 punts for 1 wrote: »

now don't misquote him ...he said nearly double 300:D:D:D
best night i had in the last couple of years was halloween 10 hour shift for 400, and i was kept going non stop

Not bad but at €4+ for the first Km and then 1.35+ per km after that you should be making more if you are flat out for 10 hours on a Saturday. Do you only drive slowly or something.

25 punts for 1

c'mon enough nonsense now...

samsham

"I already had the taxi. While i was in college i drove the taxi. Hours suited me anyway. Then since graduating last year ive been driving the taxi full time. At last i got the job in th career i want. Slightly less money than i took with the taxi, but its what i want to do.
Im still doing the taxiing in the evenings and weekends. It more or less should double my income - i need the car anyway. So im very happy to cherry pick the best shifts.
Im just tired of the old guard taxi driver complaining about people double jobbing, or entering the business easily etc . They dont care that others are willing to work hard and do those extra hours because they want to make money - they just care that they now have to get up off their asses and work for a change.:

TaximanMartin. you in full time employment, you make close to six
hundred on a Saturday night in Dublin , not to mention Fri and Sun.
You must be paying a fortune in Tax in your combined income. How
much are you paying. My insurance in €972 a year. when I started
years ago it was €3000. I taxi in waterford county. Nothing happening
here during the days just at weekends. Because I am rural I can clock
up 20 miles just to go pick up someone going three miles. Whats this new
invention you have diverting you mobile to a pool of drivers. Wow! I thought
drivers were doing that for years. Also almost everwhere in Waterford and
county drivers dont charge call out fees, often a 40% reduction. My question
for you is why are there almost 500,000 unimployed if there is loads of work
in the taxi industry. Give us a break you believing your own bullsh*t . Why
dont you give one of your nontaxi job to someone who needs if if your earning
a fortune in the Taxi. I have no idea what drivers are earning in Dublin but
certainly not here. But if anything your putting yourself up as some hungry
fecker and surely your not telling the tax man your combined income.

TaxiManMartin

samsham wrote: »

"I already had the taxi. While i was in college i drove the taxi. Hours suited me anyway. Then since graduating last year ive been driving the taxi full time. At last i got the job in th career i want. Slightly less money than i took with the taxi, but its what i want to do.
Im still doing the taxiing in the evenings and weekends. It more or less should double my income - i need the car anyway. So im very happy to cherry pick the best shifts.
Im just tired of the old guard taxi driver complaining about people double jobbing, or entering the business easily etc . They dont care that others are willing to work hard and do those extra hours because they want to make money - they just care that they now have to get up off their asses and work for a change.:

TaximanMartin. you in full time employment, you make close to six
hundred on a Saturday night in Dublin , not to mention Fri and Sun.
You must be paying a fortune in Tax in your combined income. How
much are you paying. My insurance in €972 a year. when I started
years ago it was €3000. I taxi in waterford county. Nothing happening
here during the days just at weekends. Because I am rural I can clock
up 20 miles just to go pick up someone going three miles. Whats this new
invention you have diverting you mobile to a pool of drivers. Wow! I thought
drivers were doing that for years. Also almost everwhere in Waterford and
county drivers dont charge call out fees, often a 40% reduction. My question
for you is why are there almost 500,000 unimployed if there is loads of work
in the taxi industry. Give us a break you believing your own bullsh*t . Why
dont you give one of your nontaxi job to someone who needs if if your earning
a fortune in the Taxi. I have no idea what drivers are earning in Dublin but
certainly not here. But if anything your putting yourself up as some hungry
fecker and surely your not telling the tax man your combined income.

As I said I can only speak for Dublin.
There's part of your problem right there. Instead of trying to figure out ways of making more money yourself, you call someone who is maximizing their income a hungry bastard.

If you cared less about what I make and spent the time on how you can make more you might figure out how to increase your income.

Taxipete29

Just to say anyone only making €200 on a saturday is defo doing something wrong.

Im going to be quite honest here, 18 months ago I could make 400 for 14 hours on a sat, more if there was something big on in the city.

The best night I ever had was St Stephans Day 2006, €870 for 18 and a half hours work. That was Tariff 2 all day, no break and was hardly empty.

Last saturday I made €310 for 15 hours. Thats pretty standard these days, sometimes I get a little more, i rarely get less unless Im really unlucky.
I have a base radio, I have quite a few regulars who only ring me, I hand out my number all over the place and I go looking for work. I know how to use my car.

I am not getting into this argument but if I was earning that kind of money every week on top of normal job, I wouldnt be wasting my time on other drivers who are never going to believe me. I would be sitting back and just laughing at them and enjoying my above average lifestyle. Something just doesnt ring true to me about some of the claims made here.

samsham

http://taxieire.lefora.com

Terrontress

So what have we learned?

If we listen to taxi drivers we see that taxi driving in Ireland is poorly paid, has unsocial hours, isn't an ideal choice.

Welcome to the rest of the world!

samsham

your obviously not paying attention
These taxi drivers are saying there
earning €600 on a Saturday night.
Come on wake up!

Terrontress

samsham wrote: »

your obviously not paying attention
These taxi drivers are saying there
earning €600 on a Saturday night.
Come on wake up!

Yes, but they aren't, are they? Maybe they are! Some may be but if everyone was then the roads would not all be blocked up by taxis like it is at present.

amtaxi

samsham wrote: »

your obviously not paying attention
These taxi drivers are saying there
earning €600 on a Saturday night.
Come on wake up!

Have never earned that much money for a saturday night! Worked last Fri, Sat and Sun night and didn't make that much in total!!

roy123456789

jack90210 wrote: »

Lots of racism and threats against the regulator on that forum. Pretty shocking.

Hello Jack, can you point out these posts to me and I will delete them, the admin and mods do our best to keep on top of this type of post and apologise if something we missed offended you.

Things are pretty bad in the Taxi business at present and so tempers run high, with blame being cast in all directions.

Unless, like taximanmartin you have another job and only work the busiest nights, it is difficult to make ends meet in this business,

(no need to tell me, I am trying to find a full time job... I wish to quit the business)

Please try and refrain from casting all 27,500 taxi drivers into one "clan", we are all different, with differing views and opinions and different ideas about how to make it better.

The forum is a vehicle for airing those views and all of those views are welcome.

If taximanmartin was indeed banned, then I can assure you it was merited.