Down Time

People often ask why I don’t own/operate a cab plate. Besides the prohibitive purchase cost this would entail endless driving hours year round and maximum stress keeping the vehicle operational. Plus those unforseen events like accidents, repairs, driver reliability or any down time which means having the vehicle off the road and losing money. In short, there’s always something going wrong with cabs.

Last night I arrived to start work (I’m back in a heavy routine relieving a driver on leave) to find the vehicle wouldn’t start. After screwing around for an hour trying this and that with the gas supply, the cab operator stopped work and returned to give me his vehicle in order I could commence work.

Friday night is the busiest shift of the week, the night no driver or operator wants to be off the road. For me the lost time mattered little as I’d already started late and was resigned to making a modest wage anyway. However with my cab operator needing every dollar available - not that he pressures me for maximum pay-ins, ‘whatever you can pay’ he always says - being off the road on a Friday night is a financial disaster.

So it was depressing at the end of my shift this morning to find him still working on the disabled cab. The gas converter needed replacing and had taken over seven hours to get ready for the day shift at 3am. Scratch one lost shift of maximum returns. Heavens knows how he’d enlisted a serviceman and the parts after hours but he’d done it, at great expense too. Cabs; it’s less stressful simply driving the bloody things.

Comments

[Walter]

Yeah, back when, I always found it better to lease a taxi then try to buy one. I'm curious though, you don't have a flat per shift charge for leasing a cab?

[djk]

What do you think of the option of leasing a night plate taxi by the week.That way you could start at 12:00noon and finish before midnight,also noon to 3:00pm is busier than midnight to 3:00am (except Friday & Saturday)

[Aurelius]

When I drove, the most successful owner I knew was a mechanic, and so were his two sons. I always figured that was the way to be a successful owner - keep some of the biggest problems with cab-owning "in-house".

[adrian]

Walter and djk, weekly/monthly leasing is an option I sometimes consider, until recalling periods of endless shifts like present. The demands changes the passenger or traffic dynamic in a negative sense and IMO reduces safety and health. That said, I might just do it sometime on a trial basis. Otherwise as a bailee driver, leasing per shift, the fee depends on the night.
Aurelius, exactly right.