Work when you want / need / can. Just login and logout via the computer in your car, to the mobile job allocation system, anytime, any day, for as long or as little time as you decide.
With the open-shift arrangement, you get flexible access to the constant operating, 24/7 running, taxi system, with the company you have signed up with.
Then… When you have the money… a cash-flow, to pay overheads and personal needs… go back to college studies… or, more usually… don’t do the study bit… and ‘have-a-life’… but for me, for now, it is the former.
For the above driver flexibility to work, the company to offer an open-shift arrangement needs a fair number of cars, of which the majority will run on round-the-clock, set-hour shifts (allowing the stability of service for the customers and the company controllers).
If the company is small, then set hours on set shifts only, are more the usual. Also, if a small company, the system is more likely to be a basic press-to-talk, two-way radio banter set-up… then you’ll need a good memory or a little quick-to-hand notepad.
The app systems are the latest… evolving the info and interactions to take the jobs and charge the monies… They should demand a new rule of thumb, being… To look out the window.
The datapad does not continually distract driving-priority responsibilities… but it tries… time and time and time again… progress?
Costs and overheads bring any attraction of the flexibility of hours, or swift access to cash-flow, to a far more serious business structure issue.
You are fed jobs, nearest car, first in any area queue, by the system and all the payments you collect. Payments may be dockets if on an account, but are mostly cash paid at the end of each job.
If you drive a company-owned vehicle, you have no worries regarding car costs and get an agreed percentage of the takings for your working time.
If you are required to be self-employed, then the fares you collect, the total takings, are yours for the keeping… by keeping, I mean initially, collecting… by collecting, I mean gathering… by gathering I refer to time and effort to reach around £410 in a week… to give away as business overheads, just to stay in the job.
Car rent (or owner repair/depreciation) with insurance can be around £165 / week. Office rent around £175 / week. Fuel to burn, in order to raise those two values, is around £70… = around £410.
Once you have gathered that money, you can then continue working to gather for your own living costs.
As owner-driver, there are wear and tear average cash-flow payouts on tyres, brakes and servicing. Then the occasional chunky cash-flow bills such as when the car’s dual-mass flywheel needs replacing, clutch and all, to which the bill is around £750. A breakdown due to injectors or fuel pump, is an instant off-road situation, bringing in no income and a possible bill up to £1000. A short-term, ready-to-go hire vehicle and insurance come in at between £150 to £195 a week to continue in business.
If your car is off the road, you are not earning, however, there still are/can be, serious costs flying at you… the weekly office payment (up to £180 a week), the passenger grade insurance (around £30-£60 a week), the immovable dates of car tax, MOT test, compliance test, plate renewal, lalala.
Even on weeks that the car incurs no bills, the reality is that money needs to be set aside for your next, newer and not-so-worn-out car.
The newer technology of hybrids and electric would need sums to be worked out according to make, model, battery type and electric obtaining… both cost and mileage coverage… It’s cool to arrive in the street quietly… the environment (local pollution) is healthier.
Take all that into account and note that as the expenses are increasing, compared to previous years, it creates a dent in the profit margin.
This dent means more hours driving to get the same income compared to the previous years… That’s the wrong way around… With more years you are supposed to get an increase in income… at least up with inflation… but easily not so…
Welcome to the saga of staying in business with a job as a private hire driver.
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