Claim's Cabbies Corner. UPDATE! RACIST RUMBLINGS!

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I don't know if the 505 running out of Bournemouth Station is still working. I saw it last in about 2008 and the most recent reference to it anywhere online seems to be 2011, allegedly done half a million miles at that stage.

It had a really short reg as well , as in 2 or 3 letters and one number, of course I can't remember what it was!

Not my picture, but the only one I can find .

[bramz7]

I bet I know exactly who owned that. There was (or is) a massive 505 botherer not far from the station and I think there's Street view images of that 505 taxi outside their house....

[warren t claim]

I fucking despair, I really do. Is this what the trade's come to???

 

 

[warren t claim]

Anyway, here's a few of the many I've had the pleasure of owning or driving over the last few years.

 

 

This is the ex Leicestershire Police Focus I was forced to drive on my return. Lasted well beyond my useage and only died a few months ago.

 

 

Ex Swansea Police. Comprehensively fucked. I weighed it in about six months ago.

 

 

1.8 five speed. Not a bad car really.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[warren t claim]

 

This was a great car. Pity it was cursed with blowing turbo pipes and the local animal population was determined to commit suicide under its wheels.

 

 

Vectra SRi 150. Surprisingly swift and super economical with the DPF removed and EGR blanked off. Smoked more than even I do though.

 

 

Now this Passat was a fucking nightmare. Are you superstitious? Well it was plate number 1313 and totally shit it's gearbox is a way that it couldn't even be pushed with 13.0 miles on the trip meter. To add insult to injury it suffered HGF on the day of my mums funeral. 

[warren t claim]

 

NOT MINE!!!

 

Get a load of this driveway ornament. Shat it's box early in life and was off the road for years. Probably scrapped now.

[warren t claim]

 

Although this has been off the road for a couple of years now you should note that it was a taxi for it's entire life and was never serviced once. Not even an oil change. 

 

[warren t claim]

Can the mods please move this into the open or modern forums so I can add RED HOT MK4 MONDEO ACTION? Thanks in advance. Hugs and kisses xxx

[Hendry]

taxi7.PNG

 

NOT MINE!!!

 

Get a load of this driveway ornament. Shat it's box early in life and was off the road for years. Probably scrapped now.

 

This got its first MOT in 3 and a half years, about 4 months before you posted this photo, and has mot until 20th June 2018

 

Im going to assume it had its gearbox failure in between its MOT in between its MOT in December 2013 and its next one due December 2014, where it had 74,747 miles, latest test in June 2017 it had done 114,014 miles, so assuming it wasnt on the road without an MOT at any point and also assuming this was the first time it shat its gearbox, 114k on a diesel Insignia gearbox before failing is actual pretty good going considering how bad a rep these have for box failure at much lower mileages. 

[Squire_Dawson]

lolz at gearbox failure. One would think that Vauxhall, a firm making cars for well over 100 years, would have had it licked by now. They seem to produce good models for a while and then revert to being incredibly shit.

[Hendry]

lolz at gearbox failure. One would think that Vauxhall, a firm making cars for well over 100 years, would have had it licked by now. They seem to produce good models for a while and then revert to being incredibly shit.

 

With the Insignia I think they got the styling right, and the interiors are a nice place to be, feel quite well screwed together, its everything else thats the problem, theyre unreliable, poor to drive, the economy isnt great, not that cheap to run, the seats are despite looking good, very uncomfortable, they are poorly equipped compared to other cars in the class, the diesel engines are rough and coarse and performance isnt great despite them being 130 and 160 bhp. Then you have Vauxhall stinginess and cost cutting thrown into the mix, which makes them mediocre. 

 

A shame really because they couldve had a very good car on their hands if theyd done it right, because like I say I think they are well styled and the interiors are quite smart. 

 

The mk4 Mondeo is a far far superior car, hence most Insignias were sold very cheaply to companies, hire drive/daily rental and fleets, not that the Mondeos werent but you see far more of them in private hands, bought privately from new and less 2nd hand ones that were ex rental. So the Insignia falls into the same category as modern French stuff like 407/408, Citroen C5s, and the like, only these are much better to drive. 

 

Vectras werent great, but at least they were for the most part reliable and could handle big mileages if you chose the right engines like the 1.8 petrols and the 2.0 DTIs. 

[warren t claim]

Enjoying the read @LightBulbFun?

[LightBulbFun]

35 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

Enjoying the read @LightBulbFun?

indeed! especially your bit at the start

On 07/01/2014 at 22:32, warren t claim said:

The last time I drove a licensed vehicle was in 2006 so I thought I'd entertain you with a thread about the taxi shite I drove from 2000 to 2006.

 

The taxi trade and its associated vehicles fascinated me as a small child, a ride in a hack was always seen as a treat and the pleasure of sitting on an FX4 jump seat and watching the driver take us to our destination was always a joy to my nine year old self, watching him either stir the wand like gear lever and seeing the notices on the dash and their dire warnings about the dangers of not pulling off in first or on a double bonus trip the cab would be a column shift auto and have the Dyna tape notice on the instruments about never exceeding 40mph. The private hire trade were a totally different fascination though, they drove Mk3 Cortinas like there was no tomorrow and never ever washed

which very much reminds me of my own childhood  

 

 

although I am bit confused/feeling a bit out of context

 I always thought you had been a taxi/hackney carriage driver since the 1990's at least if not earlier

I know you mentioned in the past driving FX4's and Metro cabs, as well as having an either new, or almost brand new TX1 at one point (and its very brief stint as a vigilante police pursuit vehicle) 

but I dont see any mention of those in this thread? so I have to ask whats the story of those?  

[warren t claim]

1 minute ago, LightBulbFun said:

indeed! especially your bit at the start

which very much reminds me of my own childhood  

 

 

although I am bit confused/feeling a bit out of context

 I always thought you had been a taxi/hackney carriage driver since the 1990's at least if not earlier

I know you mentioned in the past driving FX4's and Metro cabs, as well as having an either new, or almost brand new TX1 at one point (and its very brief stint as a vigilante police pursuit vehicle) 

but I dont see any mention of those in this thread? so I have to ask whats the story of those?  

Nope. Started 24 years ago.

[warren t claim]

I'm only 53 FFS!

[High Jetter]

I've enjoyed reading it, thanks for linking it in the other thread. I really first became aware of the Private Hire trade when working in the parts department of a Jag Rover Triumph dealer, early 1980s. Opposite our garage was a PH firm, most of the drivers had Ovlov 144's. Victor was different though, he had a Triumph 2000 and was a regular customer of mine. A couple of years later a good friend of mine started doing PH, first in a Renner 12 and ending up with a Ford Consul, which was a very nice drive.

I started PH driving in 1987, after taking a practical test where I had to demonstrate that a) I could drive responsibly and b) that I had a good knowledge of the town - these days it's just a theory test and most newer drivers seem to rely on satnav. The firm I was paying subs to had a good rep, an office in town and a 'rank' at an out of town shopping centre, but they (not the council) insisted on white cars, which restricted my options. I got a Mk2 Cavalier 1.3 hatch which served well for a time. Belmonts were very popular on the circuit then, especially the 1.7 dizzle. The above-mentioned friend then started a new firm, and asked me to join at a very preferential introductory rate. The Cav soon lunched it's gearbox soon after that, and I splashed out on a brand-new 2.0d Bluebird. When his business folded, owing me account money, I did about 6 months Hackney licensed, sharing a Mk3 Cavalier which I hated for some reason. I packed it in late 1990 when my Dad died, to take over his launderette business.

Eastbourne has had a limit of 7 years at first plating with a 9 year maximum age since I started, though there is a provision for exceptionally maintained vehicles. Skodas have been very popular, as are Priuses and Avensis estates, but there's a fair assortment of others including Mercs, TX and LEVC.

[warren t claim]

Gotta love the clickbait title change!

As not to totally derail our Mk1 Mondeo thread I'll lob a continuation to my foray as a local taxi fleet owner here. For the benefit of those who've not read my posts on that thread due to having no interest in Ford's family saloon from the early '90s here's a link.

A good question to ask yours truly is whether I'd ever consider building up a rental fleet again and the correct answer is that I nearly did. Here's the story.

Way back in 2003 when I started renting out taxis the vast majority of drivers owned their own cars and there were maybe a dozen lads who rented taxis out mainly to new drivers along with those who wanted fixed price weekly outgoings. Rental fleet sizes varied from 2 cars which is when a driver bought himself a new car and chose to rent his old car out to the large firm with about 25 cars on their fleet.

This all changed when cars became common rail diesel powered and came with dual mass flywheels, particulate filters and EGR valves along with things like getting a fail for a TPMS, Airbag or EML light. Plenty of lads who had been owner drivers were scared of getting big bills and chose to follow the rental option. This meant that the guy with the fleet of 25 cars managed to grow to having maybe 350 cars out on hire, 90% of which were/are diesel Mondeos.

About five years ago I was having a top level strategy drinking session with a friend who'd just sold his share in a specialised software company for a few million quid. He was pondering on whether starting a taxi firm would be a good idea and wanted my opinion. I told him not to waste his time and money but did suggest the following...

As someone who has been in the trade for a long time I'm keen to notice trends and one thing that I had learned by looking at the intake of new drivers passing through our training school is that the vast majority were of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. About this time my firm made the mistake of thinking that WTC would be the ideal driver to talk to potential new drivers about taxi life and what to expect. Although the firm were pleased about how I deal with personal safety, they were less pleased with my mentoring when I explained the best way to torture a runner or the Warren T Claim guide to extracting a PIN number from someone who's puked in the back.

To be continued...

[warren t claim]

Back to the story.

Before it was explained to me that my talents are probably best used elsewhere I had a flick through the application forms of our new breed of taxi drivers and noticed a couple of common denominators with our aspiring Asians. Firstly, most had only passed their test a year ago, and secondly, they all seemed to have passed in an automatic. This sprayed WD40 on the seized cogs that lurk within my brain. 

Wirral isn't Wimbledon, Wandsworth or Walthamstow. The vast majority of PH cars out there to rent are manuals unlike London minicabs as there's no fucking way any sane fleet owner who runs Mondeos would ever entertain having to deal with between 20 and 350 Ford Powershit autoboxes whilst still maintaining a profit. Even the few that had Passats and Octavias running DSG transmissions were having to bodge them with different oil to keep them on the road. 

I therefore hatched a plan so cunning even Baldrick would spaff in his strides...

[DSdriver]

awaits next installment with interest...

[warren t claim]

On 22/04/2024 at 22:30, warren t claim said:

Back to the story.

Before it was explained to me that my talents are probably best used elsewhere I had a flick through the application forms of our new breed of taxi drivers and noticed a couple of common denominators with our aspiring Asians. Firstly, most had only passed their test a year ago, and secondly, they all seemed to have passed in an automatic. This sprayed WD40 on the seized cogs that lurk within my brain. 

Wirral isn't Wimbledon, Wandsworth or Walthamstow. The vast majority of PH cars out there to rent are manuals unlike London minicabs as there's no fucking way any sane fleet owner who runs Mondeos would ever entertain having to deal with between 20 and 350 Ford Powershit autoboxes whilst still maintaining a profit. Even the few that had Passats and Octavias running DSG transmissions were having to bodge them with different oil to keep them on the road. 

I therefore hatched a plan so cunning even Baldrick would spaff in his strides...

So what was this plan then, Warren?

We noticed that there was a large gap in the growing Asian driver market for hybrid automatics like the Prius and Auris. No taxi rental firm in our area offers these so we hatched our plan.

Rather than go down my previous route of pulling Cat C/D cars straight we'd source our Toyotas either from auction or trade sources. The general idea was to get the bought, plated and rented out ASAP. As we were catering to a niche and captive market we believed that we could charge about £20 a week over the usual £100 rental taxi Mondeo price. After all, the driver will be saving a lot more than that in fuel costs.

Along with renting out we'd also be selling them on the weekly and in this respect we'd be following my tried and trusted previous (and profitable) method of renting the car out for six months first to generate a minimum profit margin of £3000 for every car sold plus another grand added to our initial stand in price of the car. All repair costs could be deferred as extra payments on the end as long as the driver had the work done at the garage my mate had just bought.

Another avenue of opportunity was us entering the insurance credit hire business. I've looked into this in the past and shied away from it due to having to be VAT registered and the fact that it takes a long time to get paid out which were both issues that my partner wasn't worried about as he has the money to be able to afford to wait to get paid. Insurance companies insist on a credit hire car being less than three years old so our plan was to use my Ioniq for that purpose and if it was out I'd just jump into whatever Prius/Aurus was available. At the time I knew a solicitor who was pretty open about the size of the brown envelope he received from his existing credit hire provider and if we were willing to beat their bribe he'd throw the work to us.

To be continued....

[warren t claim]

Update soon. 

[warren t claim]

Here's a question that I often get asked.

Have you ever worked for Uber, and if so what is it like because I've thought about it and want to know the pitfalls?

Funny you should ask that because I have.

I would strongly advise that you don't try your hand at working Uber at any airport though. The airport regulars are an elite club with spare phones so when a driver gets a fare from say Manchester airport to somewhere like Skipton, they phone their mates back at the airport when they drop the passenger off and get their friends to log into their account back at the airport so they'll be high up the queue when they return. Uber do have a feature called Rematch for airport jobs though. This means that if you're dropping off at an airport you'll automatically go to the top of the queue  for the next job from that airport.

Be prepared for students and the younger millennials to One Star you without notice just because they didn't like your choice of radio station. ALWAYS carry an aux cable and phone chargers, especially Apple with you. As I have unlimited everything on my phone contract I made sure that my mobile hotspot was always turned on and without the need for a password as I could offer free Wi-Fi which the punters loved.

Expect to be treated like shit by overseas students, especially those from China. Not only won't they think twice about requesting a trip from the middle of a busy roundabout, they'll also refuse to say hello, goodbye and thank you!

Think before you accept a job! Although Uber do have vague KPIs, outside of London they're not expecting you to agree to every job you're offered. Uber are actually a lot more concerned about the % of jobs that you cancel after accepting. 

My current firm has a racial split of about 75% white to 25% Asian. At least twice a day I'll hear a punter say "Thank fuck you're not a Paki." On a similar note. Once I had an Uber job to Oldham and when I parked up in a busy area three Asian Uber drivers approached my car to inform me to "Fuck off out of here you white cunt! This is our area."

If you're short of cash then Uber gives you the facility to cash out your earnings up to six times a day. I've never been paid late by Uber. Money in the bank bang on time.

Uber has surge pricing when it's busy. This means that they'll jack up the ride costs by something like 2.3 x normal rate. Most punters are too clever to pay this amount meaning that the app goes quiet. You may get lucky a few times a weekend though.

As an experienced taxi driver, I do find Uber a bit of a lonely way to work. I've always had the Holy Trinity of driver, passenger, and operator, and working with Uber removes the latter.

Understand that there's a distinct hierarchy within the taxi trade. 1. Hackney. 2. Local private hire. 3. Uber. 4. Wolverhampton plated Uber. 

Expect this to be a huge culture shock to you. Driving commercially in a strange area in sometimes stressful conditions takes some getting used to. 

Regardless of what their induction film will tell you, working Uber isn't totally safe and without risk. Yes, you won't be carrying the sort of cash that I have to but remember that no in (and sometimes out) of car altercation that Evil Warren has had to intervene in has been the result of an attempted robbery. OK, with Uber you can eliminate the runner aspect which I'll admit is a decent % of aggro, but you'll still have to deal with domestics and punters fighting amongst themselves. Expect to have to restore order and eject passengers maybe three times a year depending on your attitude. Some drivers are so uptight and straight laced they bring trouble to themselves. I run a pretty easy going taxi with only two rules, 1. Pay the fare. 2. Don't make a mess.  Although there's no fucking way I'll let a punter in who's carrying a glass of Lagre, JD and Coke, if they look sensible enough I'll let them in holding a bottle of Bud. 

Drugs and how to deal with them. Expect the vast majority of evening economy punters to be either under the influence or using your taxi to go and score. Weed fucking stinks your car out and the last thing you need is your next passenger reporting you to Uber for being a stoner. They'll ban you from the platform faster than you can say Hotboxing. Time to open all the windows after they've exited and treat your car to a good spray from that £5 blast can air freshener. If they stink of green the second they get in I say as an icebreaker, "Fucking hell lads! That Stardog smells strong!" and half open the windows. They always laugh. Punters on coke I manage differently. Lads under the influence of a gram of 85% Creatine/ 15% Charlie can sometimes be a tad volatile, especially in a group. If a few of them get in the car and they all seem to be dealing with runny noses I'll open by saying something like "FFS boys! You need to be having a word with your grafter if his work's making you sniff that hard!" This almost always makes them laugh and starts the banter flowing. I'll follow that up with saying that I'm not their dad or the police and if they want to finish their bag off in the back then I'll be looking the other way. Cokeheads NEVER spill any or make a mess!

 

[warren t claim]

Remember this MG6 from this thread?

 

Apparently it cost £350 for the ball joint and brake shoes!

[mk2_craig]

10 hours ago, warren t claim said:

Remember this MG6

Yup. Are you getting it back?

[warren t claim]

13 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

Yup. Are you getting it back?

Probably not. The MG6 was far from the worst car that I've ever worked as a taxi but the Kia is earning me more money. That particular MG6 is running tyres that are much more low profile than the other two MG6s he owns and I've had to replace no less than eight tyres in four months. Only one through the expected wear, the other seven due to pothole induced blowouts.

As an Autoshite experiment in the running of a car that was never popular in the first place that has very limited parts supply in the very demanding use that being a taxi is I can honestly say that the MG6 acquitted itself well. It never failed to proceed in my tenure and was pretty good on fuel. 

All this begs the question, why are you talking about that MG here Warren when it's got a separate thread and why is it perched on the back of your Transit recovery truck?

Well, answering these questions gives me the chance to seamlessly slide into another chapter of CCC. Namely trade insurance for fleet owners, or more to the point, the total lack of insurance firms willing to offer trade insurance to fleet owners so they can jockey their cars around. 

Back when I ran a fleet I made the token gesture of trying to get a trader's policy so I could collect my cars for servicing and such and when I was asked by the brokers what the nature of my business was they all point blank refused to cover a fleet of licenced vehicles. The reason given to me was that the insurance companies were worried that they'd be driven for hire and reward on the policy. Even the insurance company that used to provide my £10000 bailiff bond policy and vehicle repossession road risks (itself a VERY narrow market!) knocked me back. This wasn't the disaster it might have been as at the time I was on the block insurance for the taxi firm I worked for and had a copy of their certificate of insurance that was incredibly ambiguous to the point of not naming either cars or drivers covered!

Fast forward more years than I'd like to to 2024 and it seems that the situation is just as bad with no insurance firm offering cover. Although Tradex, my current motor trade insurance provider, won't allow me to list licenced vehicles on my policy, they do allow me to drive them for non taxi purposes as long as they're not registered to me. When I told the lad who I rent the Kia/MG from that I've got a trader's policy I got elevated in status from "just another punter" to "useful to keep happy". 

This means that ten days ago when the MG needed to go in for passing work he phoned me asking if I could drive it to the garage he uses. No problem for me, even though it's no longer showing as insured on the MID. Last Friday he asked me to collect it for him after it'd had £350 of brake pads and ball joints as the garage wanted it off their premises ASAP and could I collect it before 2pm as the MGs owner is going on holiday then. I turn up at 1pm only to be told by the garage that the MG won't start as the battery is so dead that even charging it has no effect. This is strange as it never had any battery problems when I had it. I phone the owner to explain that it won't start and he sounds dismayed explaining that he's going to miss his holiday because the MG has to be moved right now and to do that he'll have to go and source a new battery. I ask him if he wants me to winch it on the back of my recovery truck and take it back to the car park behind his flat. He sounds elated and tells me that he didn't know that I own a recovery truck! My status has now been bumped up from "useful to keep happy" to "my favourite punter who can have whatever car he wants from my fleet."

[bangernomics]

It’s amazing how many friends you get when you have a trade policy/car movement device/workshop ramp that you never knew you had.


Gzongenflatch

[Jenson Velcro]

It’s probably been mentioned before over the years but I’ve just binge watched the short series ‘The Driver’ on Freevee. I couldn’t help but think that WTC had a role in, or perhaps co-wrote the shows.

[UltraWomble]

On 26/04/2024 at 21:42, warren t claim said:

 

Understand that there's a distinct hierarchy within the taxi trade. 1. Hackney. 2. Local private hire. 3. Uber. 4. Wolverhampton plated Uber. 

 

 

Had to get out of my car at the traffic lights in Bridge to piss on this Wolverhampton plated Uber

[warren t claim]

7 hours ago, UltraWomble said:

 

Had to get out of my car at the traffic lights in Bridge to piss on this Wolverhampton plated Uber

The thing is that Labour have pledged to outlaw cross border hiring if they win the next election. This'll put 99% or drivers flying the Wolverhampton flag of convenience out of work.

[warren t claim]

12 hours ago, Jenson Velcro said:

It’s probably been mentioned before over the years but I’ve just binge watched the short series ‘The Driver’ on Freevee. I couldn’t help but think that WTC had a role in, or perhaps co-wrote the shows.

Fact can sometimes be stranger than fiction.