Without going into the fine detail of why, there is a strange situation in the private hire world where you have drivers who are officially self-employed usually working for one operator exclusively. Now, there are good reasons for this sometimes. For a start, it’s sometimes much easier to manage your accounts. You pay out money to one operator and do the jobs they send you. But is that the best way to make the most of your licence? Is it fair that a self-employed driver is limited in this way?
When you get your private hire driver and vehicle licences you are being given the tools to run your own business. Just like any other self-employed person, you should be able to take work from multiple places. The law says you have to work through a private hire operator. Well, just become one then!
There is nothing much stopping any person from becoming a private hire operator as long as they can show the licensing authority they are ‘fit and proper’. If you already have a private hire driver licence, you are already fit and proper. Job done! The rest is usually just a case of filling out a few forms and paying the fee.
How much?
Well here is the thing. Private Hire operator licences are not expensive. In fact, they are very cheap when you think about what they allow you to do. With an operators licence you can accept your own bookings (and then give them to your favourite driver – you). You must follow the rules, of course, but prices for a licences are very often in the low hundreds of pounds for a 5 year licence. They may be as low as £300 which is £60 a year or £5 a month!
Five pounds a month to run your own business! That is a bargain.
So what are the problems?
I think it is a combination of not knowing how easy it is and the slightly daunting task of building your own customer base from scratch. That’s where Fares.Fair comes in. With Fares.Fair, you can keep working for other operators at the same time as advertising your own business directly to customers. This is perfectly valid. And not only is it valid, it’s exactly how it should be for self-employed people. You should take every chance to make the most of your licences and to run your business your way.
So, why not give it a go?
If you need any advice on applying for a licence in your local area, just sign up now for free and we can help.