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About LinkBacksI pay every damn penny as a PAYE worker. You openly admit that a proportion of taxi drivers aren't declaring full taxes. Guess who has the moral high ground on this? (Clue: it's not tax dodging taxi drivers.)Originally Posted by CrapCountry.ie
I pay every damn penny as a PAYE worker. You openly admit that a proportion of taxi drivers aren't declaring full taxes. Guess who has the moral high ground on this? (Clue: it's not tax dodging taxi drivers.)
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Are you so naive you think everyone in cash work declares all? Me thinks if your paying on every penny its just sour grapes. Hope your getting rode
Surely the market will sort this out.
The 17k drivers must be making some sort of living or they wouldn't be on the road.
Once a couple of thousand more drivers come on stream, some taxis drivers won't be able to pay their costs and make a living.
Once this occurs drivers will start to quit.
Taxi driving will become a minimum wage job.
There is still a living to be made by working ferocious hours,70 to 80 hours a week according to many drivers,including split shifts for covering am and pm rush hours, plus weekend shifts including Friday night and most of Saturday,up to 4am in major towns and cities.
The appeal of taxi driving is the independence and enjoyment of self employment. Many people are unsuited to working for others and many who are so suited eventually tire of being bossed,even by good bosses.
The economics of taxi driving has two peculiar characteristics. First,many customers,especially tourists and the naive,do not know what market fares shoukl be on journeys. For an unregulated pricing system to work,as with hackneys,the customers should be knowledgeable about unregulated fares,but since many are not,they need to be protected by fare regulation.
Second,since taxis make so little money now outside of rush hour and weekend night trade,they are not in an economic position to allow customers to bargain down fares. This is similar to the paradox of nearly perfect competition in barber shops preventing an efficient low consumer price. There are far too many barbershops and customers are loyal,so if any one shop tried price discounting below the going market rate,it would not attract enough new customers to make up for the discount in the price.
Even though many newcomers are still entering the trade,many are leaving it. Those entering it may include many newly unemployed people who are hoping against the odds that they can scrape a living from it.
Eventually, an equilibrium will be reached,maybe when even the 70 plus hours a week drivers can't make a modest living and start to leave the trade. This could take a few years given rocketing unemployment rates.
As for regulation of numbers,the market should be free to allow drivers the freedom to be self employed in my opinion.
However,there are problems with air pollution caused by taxis cruising the streets for business and economic inefficiency from a chronic oversupply of taxis. One possible alternative to the free market is an Australian system that in some cities allows a monopoly on the radio cabs,with a single company handling all calls. This would improve the efficiency of how taxis are distributed around a city,as taxi use studies could help optimise for the highest utilisation rates. At all times,taxis in different locations could be informed by a computerised system where to go to optimise their chances of getting a fare.
For such a system to be introduced here,compensation would have to be paid to radio cab companies forced to leave the business. THe number of taxis would fall off,forced by increased efficiency in utilisation rates.
"A minimum wage job", thats the bit i dont like, the way you nonchalantly say this. What if some regulator took over your business model, and a few yeards down the road its a minimum wage?
I'm genuinely curious as to why people don't switch jobs though if it's got that bad? I honestly find it strange. I know with farming there are emotional reasons for persevering but why do people stick with taxi driving?
[edit]I actually just saw the last line of your post now. But if taxi driving earns less than minimum wage then surely even McDonalds or the dole is more attractive?[/edit]
Minimum wage jobs are jobs that most people can do with little training.
The only reason taxi drivers used to make high wages was because of the limit on their numbers.
There's a lot worse minimum wage jobs than taxi driving.
I'm not naive at all. That's why I raised the issue. I don't think any thread of taxi drivers whining (and god knows they're interminable) should go without mention of their tax dodging ways.
Neg rep for you for your coarseness though.
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It's unfortunate but it's happening to all sorts of professions these days. Accountants, Architects, Bankers, Builders, etc. thousands of workers will never find work in their chosen sector again.
Personally, i am a driver. I have worked taxiing, deliveries, courier work, chauffeur. I am actively seeking something else in a driving role. Its what i did since i left school, 20 odd years ago.
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