Uneconomical Taxi's
Discussion
glasgowrob said:
grkify said:
Got a few 64 plate mercedes c class pottering around by me guessing there leased as 30k for a taxi seems excessive. When everyone else has 10 year old diesels
not really, plenty of vw shuttles and transporters running about with a bit of spec, thats north of 40k for a tarted up van
It's very rare that any of these drivers with newer Mercedes make any money these days, unless they have a lucrative contract usually within London.
Trouble is because taxi/private drivers are known bulls
tters it's hard to work out fact from fiction. 
Often you'll get a retired gent (ex cop/public service) with a bundle of cash who will by a new Merc/Audi and potter around but not make any real profit and he will drive the car for 10 years until it's time to retire proper and probably sell it to another mug who wants to have a go.
The only people who make money are the medium to large operators who "rent" their cars to unskilled hard of thinking morons. Or operators who take a 10%/30% cut off every job, like what I did for 8 years.
Now I am free from all that s
t! 
>reaches for cold beer and puts feet in the sand< ahhhh
GTIR said:
The newer Mercedes are generally driven by unskilled, low paid, drivers who work 20 hours a day just to make a living. They are often the basic spec (200, 220) models with cloth/half man made leather seats and leased by their bosses for about £250/£300.
Really? This based on factual knowledge?It's just that a very good friend of mine is a taxi driver, he has financed his car directly, it is a Toyota Auris. With an almost non-existent deposit he managed to get the car for £220 a month. He is covering between 45,000 and 50,000 miles a year.
He is looking to change the Toyota this year and I would love to know where you could get any Mercedes for between £250 and £300 a month with a lot of mileage for a taxi driver to be able to use it effectively as a work tool, so any chance you could point me in the direction of the company that will supply one for the money you have suggested?
Thanks.
JetskiJezz said:
GTIR said:
The newer Mercedes are generally driven by unskilled, low paid, drivers who work 20 hours a day just to make a living. They are often the basic spec (200, 220) models with cloth/half man made leather seats and leased by their bosses for about £250/£300.
Really? This based on factual knowledge?It's just that a very good friend of mine is a taxi driver, he has financed his car directly, it is a Toyota Auris. With an almost non-existent deposit he managed to get the car for £220 a month. He is covering between 45,000 and 50,000 miles a year.
He is looking to change the Toyota this year and I would love to know where you could get any Mercedes for between £250 and £300 a month with a lot of mileage for a taxi driver to be able to use it effectively as a work tool, so any chance you could point me in the direction of the company that will supply one for the money you have suggested?
Thanks.
However. The larger taxi/private hire companies get bulk discount (I am talking in London in this example) because they buy so many, Addison lee for example have 4000 cars, mostly Mercedes - cars, vans, MPV.
So no, he may not be able to get one at that exact price but I never suggested he could. You assumed.
My quote also says "The only people who make money are the medium to large operators who "rent" their cars to unskilled hard of thinking morons." (Ok, maybe the moron bit was uncalled for!)
I also said the vast majority of taxi/private hire drivers do not make any profit, due to silly mileages, massive competition, economy, and slim margins.
And yes, I do know this from first hand experience as if you bothered to read my post, instead of getting your knickers in a twist, I also said "Or operators who take a 10%/30% cut off every job, like what I did for 8 years."
You are welcome.
As an aside. The only way your "friend" should buy his car is to buy it outright as the max mileage lease or HP companies go to is around 40k pa, and I did that in six months.
- Unless he clocks the car of course but that never happens in the taxi biz.
* It does of course. If it didn't there would be far less taxi/private hire cars on the road.
GTIR said:
That price is based on a fixed mileage and the cars are usually moved on after 6/9/12 months. There are plenty of specialist lease company's that do good deals on those sorts of cars, maybe not at that particular price range.
That was exactly what I was trying to say, yes there are plenty of lease companies doing short-term leases on Mercedes and the like, but never seen any of the price range you suggested.skyrover said:
Blakewater said:
skyrover said:
Challo said:
skyrover said:
Every single one of those yellow New York crown vic taxi's has a 4.6 litre V8 under the bonnet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Crown_Victoria#2...
In Orlando last year booked a couple of private taxi's. One was a Lincoln Navigator and the other a Chevy Suburban. Not exactly fuel efficient http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Crown_Victoria#2...
Edited by skyrover on Tuesday 30th December 10:29
JetskiJezz said:
GTIR said:
That price is based on a fixed mileage and the cars are usually moved on after 6/9/12 months. There are plenty of specialist lease company's that do good deals on those sorts of cars, maybe not at that particular price range.
That was exactly what I was trying to say, yes there are plenty of lease companies doing short-term leases on Mercedes and the like, but never seen any of the price range you suggested.
I went in a 2010 Audi S4 whilst out visiting family in West Yorkshire, it had milltech system that sounded great. I asked the driver about the fuel consumption and he said it's not that much different to the 2.0cdti insignia because all the jobs in the that area were short journeys in town mostly in traffic. Fair play I say
GTIR said:
The newer Mercedes are generally driven by unskilled, low paid, drivers who work 20 hours a day just to make a living. They are often the basic spec (200, 220) models with cloth/half man made leather seats and leased by their bosses for about £250/£300.
It's very rare that any of these drivers with newer Mercedes make any money these days, unless they have a lucrative contract usually within London.
Trouble is because taxi/private drivers are known bullstters it's hard to work out fact from fiction.
Often you'll get a retired gent (ex cop/public service) with a bundle of cash who will by a new Merc/Audi and potter around but not make any real profit and he will drive the car for 10 years until it's time to retire proper and probably sell it to another mug who wants to have a go.
The only people who make money are the medium to large operators who "rent" their cars to unskilled hard of thinking morons. Or operators who take a 10%/30% cut off every job, like what I did for 8 years.
Now I am free from all that st!
>reaches for cold beer and puts feet in the sand< ahhhh
depends on what you define making a living, It's very rare that any of these drivers with newer Mercedes make any money these days, unless they have a lucrative contract usually within London.
Trouble is because taxi/private drivers are known bulls
tters it's hard to work out fact from fiction. Often you'll get a retired gent (ex cop/public service) with a bundle of cash who will by a new Merc/Audi and potter around but not make any real profit and he will drive the car for 10 years until it's time to retire proper and probably sell it to another mug who wants to have a go.
The only people who make money are the medium to large operators who "rent" their cars to unskilled hard of thinking morons. Or operators who take a 10%/30% cut off every job, like what I did for 8 years.
Now I am free from all that s
t! >reaches for cold beer and puts feet in the sand< ahhhh
for an unskilled job if your willing to look outside the box and be open to taking things other than local circuit work on theres still good money to be made in the taxi trade.
wish i could find a nice mercy for £250/300 a month, i'm double that for a slightly specced caddy maxi ;( £250 a month would get you a bog stock Skoda Rapid over 5 years at a push
glasgowrob said:
depends on what you define making a living,
for an unskilled job if your willing to look outside the box and be open to taking things other than local circuit work on theres still good money to be made in the taxi trade.
wish i could find a nice mercy for £250/300 a month, i'm double that for a slightly specced caddy maxi ;( £250 a month would get you a bog stock Skoda Rapid over 5 years at a push
the people who seem to do the best from the taxi trade are those on the cusp of also being a coach firm i.e. mixture of 8+1 and 16 +1 vehicles plus the odd care run the 8+1s as PHVs and the 16 +1s a PCVs but take on a variety of contract work (special needs school runs using accessible vehicles which can then rapidly be put back into minibus format), contracts for the employment agencies as well as airport runs and the like and don;lt do a huge amount of ordainary pHV work bar perhaps taking the local old dears shopping and to appointments if they live / have their pCV operating centre in a village or on the outskirts of a town for an unskilled job if your willing to look outside the box and be open to taking things other than local circuit work on theres still good money to be made in the taxi trade.
wish i could find a nice mercy for £250/300 a month, i'm double that for a slightly specced caddy maxi ;( £250 a month would get you a bog stock Skoda Rapid over 5 years at a push
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