Taxi Driver Online

The idea would be to work smarter not longer. I agree that the same work could be done by the same drivers working fewer hours. How many dead hours are there on certain shifts? A business that is worth it's salt should be able to work out how many drivers are required to cover the busy and quiet times. Unfortunatly with the present system of getting as much money from each driver there is no incentive for the owner to actually "work" the system better.
If drivers were employed and the cars owned by the circuit, maybe they would organise things better but whilst they get X amount from each driver regardless, they won't do it.

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Grandad,

I disagree.

Look let's remind ourselves what happens now.

A driver needs to earn X to pay his way. Times become a bit iffy so he has to work longer hours to earn X. So instead of working, say, 5.00am to 17.00pm, he now has to work 5.00am to 19.00pm.

Now that's ok for him, but he is now eating into the work done by the drivers normally working 17.00pm to 5.00am.

So those drivers now have to work 15.00pm to 5.00am to earn their money. Which then eats into the first drivers normal hours, thus effecting his X.

So drivers are now all working longer hours for the same amount, and the hours will increase, again for the same amount, as they take slices of each others work.

My scenario is that by having a maximum working week, all the above goes in reverse.

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IDFIMH

No matter whos right or whos wrong..tis not my intention to bust a gut and work all the hours in the day...been there, done that, got the T-shirt...sometimes less is better both for your mind and soul.

That's easy for PH to work out cos the company can reintroduce a day shift and a night shift and drivers work one or the other instead of the current system of an open shift. Can't see it'll work with HC to be honest. If between certain hours it's quiet nobody is going to want to work them. Here on Sundays it's as dead as a door nail and it use to be the way that you never saw a HC out hardly but now you do cos they are trying to claw back something lost over the weekend and a majority of them here are working the PH systems as well to make their money up.

I still maintain that cos I work weekend nights if I work less hours I will earn less money, simples

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

yup..the sums are simple enough..work less equals earns less

No I don't think so. Work smart, earn more per hour.

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Grandad,

I work Friday and Saturday night. They are our busiest hours. Once midnight has past the HC's are off our system and working the road thus there are less drivers to share the work with and there are more people requiring taxis/ph making it easier to earn what I need. If I worked in the day I'd be competing against at least 120 vehicles plus buses & trains so it takes more hours to earn the same as I do at night. If my hours are cut I will earn less money.

I can see the argument that working smart has but I can't see it working, at least not in the current climate

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

But Toots you are already working smart. You are not working the long hours that some of these others are.

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Grandad,

Oh right, I see

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

We are not dummies...we do work the smart hours, just in some areas of the country the smart hours are not enough, times are harder than they were and customers are cutting back on taxis, often they drive themselves to where they are going and only get a Taxi/Ph to get back home and get a mate to take em back for their car next day..at least thats the trend around here..when the overall amount of available work has dropped by around 20% on this time period last year I do not think it is the right time for the kneejerk reactionarys to be putting the boot into our trade on what is no more than a theory it might save 2 lives a year..infact those two lives might just be saved by the drop in business which means less taxi/ph vehicles on the go nationwide...at smart times or any time.

Lets say we worked smart time, that would put the less smart out of business for lack of a profit..all that would do would increase the amount of work for the reduced national Taxi /Ph fllet which in turn would require us to put in extra hours to cover the shortfall in available taxis. The only way round it to enable us to employ more drivers doing less hours is by a considerable increase in fair prices....this wont wash with the public in these hard times, it'd just drive them away in droves thus perpetuating the problem of Taxi drivers having to work even longer hours to try and eek a living from a further depressed market.

Thats why I feel things are best live as are for now....its not that im greedy or uncaring..just practical and a realist.

Obviously I don't know your area but I can give an example from my own area. We have drivers who will sit all day on the rank in town and get no more than 2 or 3 fares from the rank. They will get a few that come in on the phone but they would get them anyway. Some of them will then go home for tea and come out again in the evening. The only week day evening that has any sort of work is a Tuesday when things can get very busy. But guess what these guys have Tuesday evening off.
Some of them have been in the game for years and see it as a job rather than a business and they set themselves "shifts" and will work them regardless. Now if that is what they want to do then fine but last Tuesday I probably took in 5 hours what some of them took from sitting for 40 hours on the rank.

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Grandad,

Can't see any difference with PH TBH.

Would a driver sit around all day earning nothing when there are rich pickings at other times?

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IDFIMH

The market will operate according to the laws of supply and demand.

If hours are restricted, drivers will work smarter. Additional cars will be licenced to cover the shortfall in supply created by the restrictions.

Your income will settle to a level. You will at that point decide to stay in the trade or not. As always, the efficient operators will survive, the inefficient ones will not.

All areas are not equal...If the work just isnt there then it isnt there and no amount of incredible smartness of operational thinking will make the work miraculously appear, its often not a case of busy on any 2 or 3 days of each and every week or we could work around those busy days, sometimes its more seasonal where it may be a busy 2 or 3 months in which case you have to make hay whilst the sunshines and capitalise on that by working longer hours over a longer period of time simply because it offsets the bad times when theres bugger all to do for months a time too. How can you get around that problem if your restrict driver hours. None of us like working more than we need but often our needs dictate that we have little choice in the issue. maybe the seasonal aspect is more a rural phenomena than a city one, I dont know.

Shame.



I seem to remember a certain Elvis impersonator telling us all when the temporary permits ended, the drivers would rule the roost once more, and take back control from the 'chiselling scum' that were the operators.

Elvis seems to have got it wrong again.