Taxi Driver Salaries

[erolb]

How much does a taxi (non black cab) earn roughly per week, if he were to work a mixture of days and nights?

Cheers

[muppetdave]

Intrigued to know the same of a black-cabbie!

[jains15]

Dunno, but it'll cost you £50 if you vomit in this thread

[WorAl]

Apparently (just asked a taxi driver) about £400 per week for a 60 hour shift

[smartie]

I bet the owner/drivers dont pay a lot of tax though!!

[williamp]

when I was a financial advisor in London I worked with a few black cabbies. There was a big difference between declared and undeclared earnings.

Unofficially, some of them who worked hard, at night and got some airport runs had the equivilent of £50k per year they needed to save....

[N88]

Roughly £6,475 a year

[WorAl]

Genuine question coming up.

N88 said:

Roughly £6,475 a year

Is that the maximum before paying tax per chance? How is NI charged against that?

[jbudgie]

If you put the hours in and keep busy ,then it pays pretty well.

[toast boy]

When I used to deal with taxi drivers in the bank they used to say they earned anywhere between 20 and 40k. However, when asked what they paid tax on to get a loan it declined to "err... aboot 10k mate"

[GG89]

There is so many taxis on the road these days with people losing jobs and going into this to pay the bills. Having spoken to a few drivers over the year they all have the same conclusion, it's really not great.

[GilbertGutbucket]

On a fair and average circuit, nowadays a 5x 10 hour shifts with a saloon car will gross c.£400/£600 per week. On average, a 6/7/8 Seater MPV will do £100/£200 a week more, so relativley speaking, the cost of a diesel MPV pays for itself.

A £600/50 hour week = £12.00/hour. Take away costs of Diesel Fuel = £60.00+, Radio/Circuit Rent = £110.00/week, Car License, Driver License, MOT's, Private Hire Insurance, Medicals, Servicing/Maintainence and you'll be lucky to clear the minimum wage but in general your (expensive) household motoring expenses will be covered by your trade.

Private Hire/ minicabbing used to be good but not nowadays.

[GilbertGutbucket]

Just to add that 17 years ago the same £400/£600 a week was easily atainable but overheads were 75% less.

[N88]

WorAl said:

Genuine question coming up.

N88 said:

Roughly £6,475 a year

Is that the maximum before paying tax per chance? How is NI charged against that?

Yep, £6,475 is your personal allowance before you start to pay income tax (generally speaking).

They'll then pay Class 2 NIC at a certain amount per week, currently £2.40 I think. And then Class 4 NIC they'll pay 8% on any profits over £5,715, up to a maximum of £43,875 (personal allowance + upper earnings threshold of £37,400).

See all those exams were definately worth it!

[GTIR]

Judging by the miserable bastids at the local rank, not enough!

[Taffer]

GG89 said:

There is so many taxis on the road these days with people losing jobs and going into this to pay the bills. Having spoken to a few drivers over the year they all have the same conclusion, it's really not great.

Yep - in Glasgow there is no cap on private hire licences (unlike black cabs), and the council seem to be handing them out like sweeties. As a result, there are hundreds more cabs on the road than say, five years ago, and little difference in business (possibly less in this economic climate) to go around, so most are having a hard time. Black cab plates are around £30k (and the same again to buy a new cab), so it's not exactly easy to buy into.

[JakesterUK]

A pal is a London cabbie who used to just work 2-3 nights a week and lived well from that, he now has to do 5-6 nights a week to earn the same money so I'd say the days of it being a 'good little earner' are gone.

[john_p]

Also worth checking into local council rules regarding age and specification of vehicles as this may necessitate buying or leasing a new car every few years (either option with its own cost implications on servicing, tax etc)

[GTIR]

With regard to age of vehicle it's only when you first get you taxi licence that you'll need a modern car, typically less than 3-5 years old. After that you can drive and old junker, and they do.

Personally, from experience, I'd get an multi seater private hire.

[Taffer]

GTIR said:

With regard to age of vehicle it's only when you first get you taxi licence that you'll need a modern car, typically less than 3-5 years old. After that you can drive and old junker, and they do.

Personally, from experience, I'd get an multi seater private hire.

Again, Glasgow City Council defies logic here - they do not allow cabs over 7 years old to be registered as private hire vehicles. Doesn't matter if it's a pristine 10-year old 5-series that's sailed through its MOT and taxi inspections, you wouldn't be allowed to taxi it in Glasgow.

Either the licencing board are brainwashed with the 'old cars are crap' mantra, or they have business interests in the firms supplying Skoda Octavias, etc. to the taxi industry. Given its reputation, I'm betting on the latter!

EDIT: Oh yes, forgot to mention, Glasgow black cabs can be any age at all - good to see some consistency, eh?

Edited by Taffer on Saturday 23 October 12:52