What I found to be great about driving a taxi-
Cash business, no one snitching to the IRS about what they supposedly paid you- no 1099’s. You brought your income home in cash money every day you went out. No one asking the passengers to rate you, if they got from where they were to where they wanted to be- they had no reason to complain.
I never drove a cab. I drove Uber for 10 months. I had a friend who ran an illegal cab in Ny, and did a couple ride-alongs. I’ve driven several cab drivers while doing Uber and talked game. I have to base some of my opinions on guessing and common sense.
My impression is that cab driving could have got you some awful shifts and low pay if you were desperate or a victim type. That cab driving had more potential for a go-getter / hard working type. With the Tips and the Networking possibilities and simply being rewarded more for being a ‘pro’ with actual tangible income and opportunity advantages over the scrubs, rather than just a rating. Particularly before Uber saturated the market with low rate fares.
The differences I see are that Uber is an Ehail system only and a cab has the opportunity to hustle. Also, Uber pays you peanuts whereas my meter runs at $2.50 per mile (hence my user name). Too bad you hacked in NV- it’s different other places.
The two way radios that the cabs had, is something else which is a lot different that Uber. Uber has passengers making all sorts of demands for this music or that music–in the cab biz, passengers listened to the chatter on the cab radio about cabs needed here or there and that was their only listening choice.
cab drivers at least here, were goodwill ambassadors with a wealth of knowledge for visitors seeking one attraction or another. A lot of guys from out of town always wanted taken to local nudie bar establishments- I guess they didn’t have that in Cincinnati or Tulsa or wherever else they were from.
You stated some of the pros. There are some negatives. One big one from the driver’s perspective I feel is the rating and reported issue system. With cab companies if a customer calls and complains because the driver “took ten minutes to get to them” the dispatcher/phone people would just roll their eyes and not even tell the driver because it is a ridiculous complaint when one stop light could take 5 minutes alone.
It is a shame, too. The one advantage that computer/digital/satellite/GPS based call assignment has (note that I do not call it “dispatch”. REAL dispatch requires a human being who knows what he is doing) is that it can put out fifty calls at once.
A dispatcher can talk only to one driver at a time. In fact, one of the pet peeves of most dispatchers was drivers who interrupted when you were talking to another driver. Here, it was the same ones every time. No matter how much you told them, they would keep butting in.
Serious question to cabbies here: How common are female cabbies? I’ve never heard of or seen one in my entire life. Calling this I don’t believe this is a real person. It’s very hard to believe an attractive blond spent 2 years working as a cabby.
Female cab drivers are about 1 in 10. If you’ve never heard or seen them that means you’ve not taken many cabs. Usually female drivers are smart enough to stay away from the “hood”. Where in LA do you usually travel to and from?
Thank you fellow hacks for helping to disseminate information properly. Women do drive cabs, I have lady cabbie friends back home. Rarely are they petite diminutive ladies- tough broads for a tough job.
If your driving a company owned vehicle you don’t have to worry about maintenance, city license, or medallion fees driver just pays gas an lease fee for 24 hr car…I own mine so maintenance is mine but if you keep your car up its not that bad…also my lease fee is only $349 a week for dispatch and company’s commercial insurance…they paid for license fee or medallion or whatever fee to operate
I got assaulted by a drunk doing uber. It was my extra camera that kept me from being the one that got charged…Security cameras have made a big difference since they were put in. As a taxi driver, some nights i will have less than $40 or $50 in cash revenue, the rest will be in credit cards.
Here’s a big difference. Most Uber cars do not smell! I have never been in a Taxi that didn’t smell like someone was living in it. I had a new Prius discount cab take me to pick up a car I bought in Tucson four years ago and it stank. Most of my uber customers say the same thing.
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Right now my Prius has a smell, but I"m trying to fix it. I bought it in June and now that it’s cooler, turn the heat on and I smell warm plastic. All the pax have said yeah you can tell it’s new. lol
I drove a cab for 6 years. Our model was different from yours. We kept the cab 24 hrs, so we always had it. The fee is 95 a day. Plus gas. I financed a 2017, full coverage insurance, phone, and gas included. Added all that up and divide by 30.