How much do Taxi Drivers earn?

If someone was interested in driving a tax in Dublin,

a) How much would it cost get up and running
AND
b) how much could one expect to earn by working 40-50 hours a week.

Taxi Plate- €6300
Car- any amount??
NCT €90
Meter, printer, sign fitted - best part of €1000 but depends on type of meter/printer
Meter sealed by Metrology dept. - €90
Petrol/Diesel ??
Insurance- ??
Car needs to be serviced more than normal.

If you're looking to earn money, be prepared to work awkward hours. i.e early in the morning when people are going on holidays to work (this would usually be through a base which costs around €70 a week).
Or when people are leaving work 4-7 around the city but bear in mind there are hundreds of other taxis around then too.
Town is busy at the weekend nights and thats where the money is. Its hit and miss really. Some nights are busy and you'll pick up on every corner but other nights are dead.
How much you earn- depends on when and where you are planning on working? Its hard to say really.
Personally i think theres too many taxis but when Im out looking for one theres never enough.
Hope this helps.

I've long been curious about how many hours in a taxi part time (say at nights or weekends) would it take to break even on the initial capital costs. And after this what kind of profit is there to be made.And I ve wondered can it make financial sense for a person with a typical 9 to 5 day job to put a taxi plate on his car and work part time ? I fear the answer is how long is a piece of string.
For someone who might be unsure of whether its the right move can all the gear be leased and if so then how much would it cost ? And can this cost be written off against tax?

As far as I know, Taxi drivers dont charge VAT so as a result, nothing can be written off for tax reasons, I may be wrong but I do recall having a conversation with someone involved in the taxi industry a while back.

As for part time work, its all a matter of cost. You can rent a fully kitted out taxi for around €350 per week (incl insurance), add fuel and other various costs and then its up to you how much you want to work part time to make it worth your while and what you consider worth your while?

This might be the best option to suss it out and see if its for you.

Once you have a fair idea as to what your average earnings will be over a set period, say 6 months, then you can decide if its worth your while buying on, as €300 a week is nearly €16k a year.. thats more than it would cost to buy a plate, car, meter, sign, insurance and all the other various costs.

I've heard Taxi drivers say they earn €1k+ per week if they do the hours and others say they earn €500 per week for the same work.. all depends on how well you know the trade, if you sign up to a company or not and what hours you're prepared to work.

I.C

is there not some exam that must be sat 1st before working?

First of all you have to apply for an SPSV (Small Public Service Vehicle) Drivers Licence which involves at the moment going to your local garda station and filling in the required forms. Background checks are done to establish that you are a fit person to hold one of these licences. Bear in mind that this can take some time - you could be talking about a couple of months.

You then have to sit a PSV test and I gather there are plenty of courses available in Dublin who do this - check out the Taxis Section in the Evening Herald small ads.

Once you get the licence and pass the test you can then work as a taxi/hackney driver.

As regards a vehicle you might be better off thinking about buying a whole package say from someone who is getting out of the business who will be selling a vehicle complete with roof sign, meter, printer.

If you decide to put your own car on the road, you will have to bring it to the NCT centre and it will have to pass two tests the first being a suitability test to make sure that the vehicle is suitable for use as a taxi and then an NCT will be done and just to point out that if the car you intend to use has a current NCT test this is irrelevant as it has to be done again. Another money making racket.

I started my own business last year and I bought a complete package from a guy who was giving up. I am based in the country so things would be a lot different to Dublin.

There is good money to be made from it but naturally I am not going to post earnings up here on the website but it depends on a lot of factors at any given time, e.g. bank holiday weekends are a bonus, coming up to Christmas with parties etc. I rarely work during the day as its quiet enough but definitely I need to do from Thursday to Sunday night to make any sort of decent money - plays havoc with the old social life but thats the price you pay.

Have a look at www.taxiregulator.ie for more information and especially some proposed new regulations that are due to come into force during 2009/2010

redbhoy said:

Car needs to be serviced more than normal.

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Along with having to service a taxi car more you should also be aware of the increased repair and maintance that is needed for a taxi if you buy one instead of hiring / renting one. Examples would be gearboxes going and in some cases means a loss of Income for a weekend if happened on say a Thursday

Irishchappie said:

As far as I know, Taxi drivers dont charge VAT so as a result, nothing can be written off for tax reasons, I may be wrong but ...

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Yes there is no VAT on taxi fares but all expenses incurred in running the taxi (fuel inc VAT, repairs, insurance, licence fees, NCT etc.) would be deductable in calculating your income tax...

Can the cost of the vehicle or the punitive vehicle registration tax VRT be written off or deducted in any way ?

There are some previous threads on 'driving a taxi' which may be relevant. If you use the search option in this forum only you should be able to find same.

sign said:

Can the cost of the vehicle or the punitive vehicle registration tax VRT be written off or deducted in any way ?

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I would have thought that the 'punitive vehicle registration tax VRT' is actually part of the 'cost of the vehicle' but I'm not sure...
As an asset of the 'business' you would be able to depreciate the asset over time and therefore reduce the profit made.
I'll leave it to others to suggest/confirm as to the applicable rate of depreciation per annum and value limits (if applicable).

If someone was thinking of getting into the business, would they not be better off working part-time for a hackney cab company for a while ? No taxi plates or meters required, so I presume the startup costs are a lot less than getting a taxi, or am I being naive ?

lukegriffen said:

If someone was thinking of getting into the business, would they not be better off working part-time for a hackney cab company for a while ? No taxi plates or meters required, so I presume the startup costs are a lot less than getting a taxi, or am I being naive ?

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You still need the SPSVD licence (€15 + three month wait + test). Then you need a car (around €5k?), the suitability test (€90), a hackney licence (€1000 new) and insurance (obviously varies, say €3-5k). Also, I don't think you get away with paying taxi road tax (flat rate of about €88, regular cars would be at least €200 unless you've very little CO2!). Total around €10,000 or more.

So yeh it's a fair bit cheaper than setting up a taxi from scratch, but you're more likely to find a second hand taxi to buy or rent for cheaper. Also, you'll be kicking yourself every time someone tries to flag you down.

Edit: Just realised the date of this, second time I did that today (not here though). Sorry!

A major issue you should consider is the lack of work and SPACE on taxi ranks in Dublin. There was a sit in at the taxi reg's office yesterday afternoon by unhappy drivers, their average daily income is under 80 euro and thats for a 12 hr day minus petrol and other running costs. For more valid info maybe you should talk to a current taxi driver, maybe more than 1 and get their views on how the taxi business is doing and what your hoping to do etc.

ive quite a few friends that drive taxis in dublin and have been driving for years.the presumption is, is that their making load but the reality is very different. they are working a lot more hours for a lot less money.they say that its becoming a part time job .their advice would be to keep your money and not do it. also there must have been at least 3 or 4 protests by taxi drivers complaining that there are too many. but good luck!

United we stand -devided we fall . The taxi business is well devided and has fallen. The authorities would love to see Dublin Bus go this way but somehow everybody joins either siptu or nbru.

A friend of mine who drives a taxi was telling me he makes €1000 or more a week last night but i thought he was having me on. He told me that he cant say it publicly because the other drivers dont want the public knowing that they are earning quite a good living. They want to cut off the trade to new entrants.

So i did a bit of digging today. I was just reading about this on boards.ie. There are some taxi drivers over there who will freely admit what they earn.

Here is one example.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055572252&page=3

Its really upsetting some other drivers. But he has offered to back himself up by posting his accounts if one of them will post theirs to prove they arent earning good money. None of them will. Make of that what you will.

minion said:

A friend of mine who drives a taxi was telling me he makes €1000 or more a week last night but i thought he was having me on. He told me that he cant say it publicly because the other drivers dont want the public knowing that they are earning quite a good living. They want to cut off the trade to new entrants.

So i did a bit of digging today. I was just reading about this on boards.ie. There are some taxi drivers over there who will freely admit what they earn.

Here is one example.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055572252&page=3

Its really upsetting some other drivers. But he has offered to back himself up by posting his accounts if one of them will post theirs to prove they arent earning good money. None of them will. Make of that what you will.

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That's very interesting - have a few friends too that drive taxi's and they appear to be ok for money at the moment

13 people - Wexford to Planet Love, Fairyhouse at the weekend ..........112 miles each way = € 490 total .

if your mate earns a grand a wk. thats before he pays his base 80 to a 100 euro minus diesel 150,insurance and maintenance on car and he's probably doing 60/70hrs a wk.Ho also nct and licence renewel every year, that 1000 is getting smaller is'nt it and now your car can't be over 9yrs old, so if your financing a car that's another 3/400 per month.Sorry pal not a viable buisness anymore cost of keeping car on road clearly outweighs reward.