Private Hire Taxi Companies In The UK & The REAL Truth

With today's technology, majority of private hire taxi companies use modern technology of data heads connected to a CB radio for communication. To the average customer this is a fantastic piece of hardware to be found in a private hire taxi.

However there are actual reasons apart from the most common excuses, that by using the data heads this prevents customer details being overheard on the CB airwaves. The truth behind these data heads goes beyond what most people know even the drivers themselves, data heads are an easy way for private hire companies to control the work and jobs each independent driver receives. The best data heads can enable managers of private hire companies to control which driver earns the quickest and the most in a period of time or days. Lets look at this a bit more simpler, the data programs allows managers to input the mileage rate their company charges a customer, this then enables the software at the time a customer booking a journey by phone, email, fax or letter to automatically work out the adverage fare the actual booking would cost, yes this is how the operator also can tell you how much a journey would cost you if you choose to travel by their firm.

With the software automatically working out the adverage fare rate, private hire managers/Directors can also pre determin what rate a driver will earn in a set time period, this is also handy for new drivers as it is common in the industry, when a new driver starts he or she seems to be constantly busy and earns a great income for a set period of time, the normal time period a private hire company will feed a new driver is about 2 weeks, this is like a drug to most drivers since your earning and touching real money with each booking and all the bookings earn you over £5.00 a time, this easy software program is used by private hire companies to get you addicted in a sense to the job at hand.

This is why when you ask a new driver how busy it is, he or she will normally response by saying its busy as hell, however if you ask another driver the same day who's been with the company or trade a period of time your answer will be considerably different like, its dead.

Lets also look at the modern technology further, data heads also have GPS this enable the driver to find his way in case he or she is in an area that is unfamiliar to themselves. We all know that GPS can be selected to take the shortest routes or the fastest routes, this is what also causes a lot of arguments with the driver whom uses the GPS on a journey as your most likely to be taken the longest route rather than shortest, also the private hire company can track the drivers whereabouts at anytime and this is set to be used in the future, by the Government (more about that at a later time.)

Ever thought when you made a complaint about your taxi being late that the operator wasn't really bothered by your annoyance of being let down?

The simple true reason is that the private hire company customer is really the private hire driver that pays them weekly for the data head and bookings they receive, it is in real terms the private hire driver who you are the true real customer too, and usual is beyond their fault that you have had to complain about the taxi arriving late.

You see the private hire taxi companies are actually sales agents / franchise companies in which they advertise a telephone number and deliver leaflets to your home or work to gain bookings for their clients the licensed private hire taxi drivers,

The real answer is No, dont get me wrong, its great for the customer to have a low set fare to the airport but to the driver who relies on the income he or she earns daily they are a nitemare. Most set fares are set to be competative to bring more customers to book airport runs via the private hire company, this in turns creates jobs for the self employed private hire driver, however lets take a look at set fares to the airport, the driver has probably been sat almost an hour before he got your booking, not only does he have to take fuel into account, there are normally airport parking fee's he will have to pay to drop you off at a terminal or collect you from a terminal, these fees are not normally included in the set fare so many drivers will try and con you into paying the additional fee. Most airport runs will take the driver away from their licensed area this prevents them from picking another booking once you have arrived at the airport terminal so in a sense the private hire driver will now have to travel all the way back to the boundary of his or her private hire license before they can await for another booking and depending on the area of coverage they could be waiting longer than the adverage hour or so. In each booking the driver recieves he or she has to deduct the following costs rental of the vehicle, fuel, track ( the fee the private hire company charges to supply bookings to the driver) his or her private hire drivers license fee, insurance, accountants fees and his or her taxes, this is all deducted before the driver can actually keep any of the money he or she has earnt in the booking whether it be an airport set fare, account fare or a local £2.00 booking to the corner shop. So airport fees are great for the customer but to the private hire driver they are a nitemare and are mostly avoided if possible hence why sometimes your stood waiting for your taxi to the airport with your suitcases at the front door but no sight of the private hire taxi or the driver.

The real winners in the so called "money making industry" is the private hire companies that charge drivers on a average £100 a week track, but there is also another true winner and that is the Council since they have a guarantied year income from each and every driver and vehicle that is licensed to trade in the private hire industry. Lets do a quick sum, a private hire driver pays a private hire company a weekly track of £100 a week, that means the private hire company automatically receives from one driver alone £5'200 a year, now if you times that by a large town company that has over 400 drivers the income for the private hire company a year would be £208'0000 and that's just from the drivers, that income doesn't include Business accounts users that private hire companies would be taking a profit from an average is 10% off the drivers fare, but truthfully its likely to be a lot more since account work is usual the bottom rate fare just so the private hire company got the business.

Now lets look at the other silent partner people often forget to think about in the private hire taxi industry the Council.. The Council is the only Official body to issue license be that a license to drive a private hire car or the actual vehicle that is used. An average license fee for a vehicle is £250.00 a year and the private hire license for the driver ranges from £60-150 a year depending on the period he or she wishes their license to last for. On most Councils there are no limit to the number of Vehicle licenses nor driver licenses that the council can issue so basically they can issue as many as they seem fit, the Council aren't interested in the drivers income that would be affected by the increase of drivers as their main contact in the industry is the private hire companies, yep you have got it, the private hire companies would say theres too much demand for work and the Council obviously will issue more licenses because they for one have nothing to loose by doing so. So lets have a quick sum on the Council profits lets say each license for the vehicle costs £250 a year for one vehicle, now say that there are 1'000 vehicles licensed that means the Council yearly profit £250'000 just for the vehicle and lets look at the drivers and take an average fee of £100 for 2 years license that means the Council would take £100'000 a year in driver license fees that's a total profit income of £350'000 a year for just 1'000 licensed drivers and vehicles, and in large City alone the average number of licensed drivers is well over 2'500 and that's an yearly profit of around £825'000 just for the private hire taxi companies alone.

Did you know that having the datahead on the dashboard was actually illegal and a DVLA offence, just like having your sat nav on your windscreen.. the only way the vehicle passes the MOT test is because it's removed before the vehicle is submitted for it test. The Council know this loophole all to well, but since denial is bliss they won't put a stop to it ..!

Many people believe that Private Hire cars are Taxis and have the same legal rights as such, this is far from the truth, Private Hire Taxis/Cars/Minibuses have to be pre booked in advance via licensed Operator or commonly know as mentioned before a sales booking agent / franchise company. By simply flagging down a Private hire licensed car and asking them to take you to your destination immediatly voids their insurance policy as they are not insured to do such a booking without being placed via the licensed operator.

This would mean that in an unfortunate accident while travelling within the private hire car without pre booking through a licensed operator ( which are two different licenses ) you would not be able to claim for any injuries sustained by such.

The differance between hackney and private hire taxis are that the hackneys are also a differant license which however does include a taxi operators license within the conditions of the license, which means they can be legally flagged down and booked from the street, phone etc.

So the next time your desperate to get home, make sure if your booking a private hire taxi to PRE book for your safety..