Claim's Cabbies Corner. Repo Revenge.

[Warren t claim]

I’d love to have seen the miscreant’s face. Did he pay up straight away or did you call Evil Warren?

sadly it was a middle class lady in her late 30s who ran into her agreeable house pissed in the small hours.

I did bang like fuck on the door back then but got no answer. Mindful of the fact that she's an ABC1 lady with a £300,000 house and plod may not automatically take my side in such a conflict, I rang the number on the job and it went through to the lady at the pick up address. I explained the situation to her and she promised to get her mate to ring the office to pay tomorrow. I gave the number to our accounts dept to chase up but heard nothing of it.

As you can imagine, I was positively 'beading' when I saw the address pop up on my screen. To my slight dismay, a man left the house and got in the back of my car. I hit the central locking and before pulling away I start innocently chatting about his wife and her friend at L**** ****n and he says that she's often getting drunk there. That's when I drop the bombshell of the fact she owes me a tenner after doing a runner into their house! He starts to get a bit defensive and says that I must have made a mistake. I ask him to phone his wife and get her to come out to see me. He agrees and phones her. He explains the situation to her over the phone. Now, I can only hear one half of the conversation, but his last line was "I'll give the driver £10 and we'll talk about this later?" He pays me my money and I take him to his destination.

The only other attempted non payer I've had in the last year was three girls in their early 20s who I picked up from a shit part of Liverpool (Wavertree) going to a shit part of Birkenhead. En route I belled Ian the operator wondering why this wasn't a cash up front job. He replied that she'd used us 250 times so far without a problem which was good enough for me. The journey went well enough with them being chatty and singing along to the radio so I thought all was well. When we arrive at the destination, and for reasons I can't explain why, I unlocked the doors before getting paid, and all three ran off down a short alleyway before splitting up.

FUCK! I call Ian at the office and as he knows both myself and Evil Warren he is reluctant to give me the address that's she's been picked up from a couple of hundred times, but offers me a solution. He says that although he's got an idea up his sleeve, I can have a Speke Airport take out in half an hour to compensate me. Fair enough.

I'm heading off to the airport pick up when my phone rings, it's Ian telling me to go to the junction of Duke St and Beckwith St to meet a young lady who's going to give me £20! Apparently, he blagged her by leaving a voicemail message to her saying that as she was a regular passenger he knew her address and had reported it to the police and they were on their way to question her! It worked and she shit herself and found my money.

When I met her she was incredibly sorry and blamed her mates for dropping her in it, and by the look on her face I was inclined to believe her. I gave her a short lecture about choosing her friends more wisely before going to do my airport run.

[brandersnatch]

I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at the later conversation.

[Warren t claim]

OK then, let's talk about the money. If you are currently employed by the Inland Revenue may I take the opportunity to remind you that all my taxi, bailiff, and bike instructor threads are mainly fact but with a bit of fiction thrown in so make of this what you will.

What a fucking day!

Had loads of bills to cover and I'm home at last £470 to the better! Now, before you all spit out your shepherd's pie, quit your current job, and source yourself a Mk2 Granada 2.1D with a taxi pack I feel I should elaborate on the above figure.

I left Chez_Claim 21 hours ago and other than an hour for brunch, I've worked solidly the entire time. I've been lucky enough to be busy for the whole shift, and when I wasn't being allocated jobs I was bidding for anything on my datahead and running a fair few miles to cover work. I follow the mantra of "if my wheels 'aint turning then I 'aint earning," When the system is ticking over the old saying of "do things others won't and you'll achieve things others can't" is especially true. It helps having a car that costs 7.5p per mile in petrol to operate meaning pretty much all jobs are worth running for.

Is it safe for someone to drive for nearly 21 hours straight? I hear you ask. The answer to that has to be definite it pretends on the driver. I'll admit that my last job was almost all motorway and I used my active lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control to the full. Quite often, when I've had to cover a large bill, I've done one of my famous Le Mans 24 hour shifts. My record (non chemically assisted) shift was done on a bank holiday whilst working for Frank when I worked for 32 hours! This wasn't through greed or desperation, it was through company necessity because nearly all the other drivers didn't bother turning up.

Plenty of times I'll leave home only to return 20 odd hours later but then I'll have maybe a four hour in car siesta. This is when I'll find somewhere quiet to park up, lob Classic FM on the radio at a low volume, recline the seat and put my electric blanket (heated seat) on its lowest setting and drift away. Maybe it's because I spent years sleeping in trucks, but I can really sleep soundly in a vehicle if I want to.

Back soon. Fetching another well-earned beer! x

[Warren t claim]

Let us turn back the clock 19 years and see how my income and expenditure have evolved over nearly two decades.

When I started my weekly outgoings were as follows.

Rental of Pug 405 Diesel. £80.
Base rent to the company. £90.
Car insurance. £44.
Total fixed costs. £214.

IIRC, back then diesel was 70p per litre and at best, the 405 in its poor state of health probably managed 40mpg.

Back then our company charged £2 for the first mile and £1 per mile thereafter.

I remember on my first ever shift I made, more through blind luck and ignorance than skill, £113 and that was a Wednesday night.

On weekends back then I used to split my shift into three cash targets. 6pm to 11pm, £50. 11pm to 2am, £50. 2am to 4am, £50. In those days "doing the two," ie, clearing £200 on a Friday or Saturday night, was an achievement.

The way we worked weekends then was different to how it is now due to changes in society, we had twice as many pubs open in 2002 meaning we had plenty of pre 11pm pub to pub jobs and also this was a time before 24 hour drinking and the clubs chucked out at 2am. Nowadays, if I want to make big money on a weekend, a 4am finish is just a pipe dream!

Shit! I've just noticed I need another beer! Back soon. x

[Warren t claim]

According to the Measuring Worth calculator, £214 in 2002 is the equivalent to roughly £350 today so let's see how things compare today.

There's a fair bit more choice in rental taxis available today but as my 405 was a fucking shit heap I'll quote the cheapest you can rent in my area today, that'd be an eight to ten year old Focus, Mondeo, Astra or Insignia. £90 seems to be about right to get behind the wheel of one of those beauties.

Base rent is calculated slightly differently these days. A driver now pays £105 a week plus 5p per trip (Bob a job)

Our firm stopped the company block insurance a few years ago meaning that new drivers after a weekly policy have to go to County Insurance who broker a taxi policy for a company called Collingwood and they vary premiums according to age and experience. They load a new driver's weekly premium by 50% for the first 12 (I think) weeks and what I've heard is after the 50% loading goes about £65 a week is pretty typical.

So lets do the maths.

Car. £90.
Base rent, £120 (approx)
Insurance. £65.

This gives us a total of £275, or an adjusted for inflation saving of £75.

To take this further let us explore how much fares have changed in the last 19 years.

A direct comparison isn't quite as straightforward as you might think. Back then we had the flat £2+£1 tariff both day and night 7 days a week, today we have night rate and weekend rate to consider so I'll list them all.

Day rate. £3.60 for the first mile and £1.65 per mile thereafter.
Night rate £4.10 for the first mile and £1.65 per mile thereafter.
Sat night up to 11pm. £4.60 for first mile and £1.85 per mile thereafter.
Sat night after 11pm. £5.10 for first mile and £1.85 per mile thereafter.

I suppose on an average weekend night a driver can expect to net maybe £280 to £350 depending on how hard/smart he is willing to work.

I'm really romping through these lagers tonight! x

[Warren t claim]

So then Warren, does the job pay well then?

An interesting question. To some yes but to others no.

Earlier today I made a rare trip to the office because I needed a cheap 12v to USB charging bullet and while there I bumped into another driver who I didn't know who was handing his set in and letting the entire office know that they can shove their job up their collective arses.

Curious to know what the score was I asked the other driver what his plans were. He proudly told me that he had a HGV licence and was off to work for a company in Skelmersdale for the princely sum of £11.25 an hour. I told him that I also have my HGV ticket and he said the company he's off to is crying out for drivers as they've sacked all the agency lads. My interest aroused I dug about a bit more. It turns out that he's got a 50 hour a week contract working days at a firm I've done agency work for in the past. The penny dropped for me then and it looks like he'll be doing Class 2 work. Fair enough, but it's all tail lift and pump truck shit which I know some people can handle but this fella was in his mid to late 50s and didn't look in shape enough for that kind of job.

Now his gross weekly will be £562.50. I've no idea how much that'll be after tax and NI but I'll assume maybe £425? Skelmersdale is probably a 50 mile round trip plus tunnel. He has a Passat that'll do 50mpg so that's £6 plus £2.40 tunnel tolls if he has a fastag. He'll be left with £380 a week if he's lucky.

I dunno about you but I think I'd rather stay put on the cabs.

[LynehamHerc]

I think that I'd rather be a plumber...

[Warren t claim]

I think that I'd rather be a plumber...

Would you have a Transit Custom with an H20*** vanity plate?

[LynehamHerc]

I haven't really given it any thought.

I suppose I'd have to spend some of my money on fripperies like that though to show how loaded I was. Pimlico Plumbers springs to mind.

[Warren t claim]

I haven't really given it any thought.

I suppose I'd have to spend some of my money on fripperies like that though to show how loaded I was. Pimlico Plumbers springs to mind.

That's only the owner who's loaded and he looks like a Stars In Their Eyes Rod Stewart.