Any private hire / taxi drivers out there? Model S or 3?

[r3flex]

I've been hit really hard this COVID. I was an Amazon delivery driver in March. Got robbed. Fired because I got robbed. Then slapped with a charge of all the goods stolen. I'm firing this though.

Now I'm planning to become a private hire driver in London. Because of my current financial *sugar* storm, I'm trying to minimise costs as much as possible, while maximising potential profits.

I've figured the best way to do this is to buy a Tesla Model S pre-2017 with Free Supercharging. No congestion charge, cheaper to run, and again, free supercharging.

Any Private hire /taxi Tesla drivers out there that would like to share their opinion, please let me know

Or if you aren't, what's your opinion on this?

Would i be better of with a 2019 better-built model 3 with less Milage? Is Milage an issue with teslas?

Thanks

 

[NorfolkMustard]

Good luck. I think I’d go with an S. Bigger boot for airport transfer luggage etc, slightly longer warranty.

don’t count on free supercharging as technically it’s against the supercharging terms to use them for any commercial use.

 

[BK11SBY]

Mileage is not as much of an issue, however constantly Supercharging will start to affect the battery eventually, either by software throttling or by degradation. These cars including batteries will last if cared for. At around £7-8 to charge, I'd factor in charging at home over night, Supercharging when required.
Good luck
P.S Model S will have more room for Private Hire work.

 

[Medved_77]

I'm not a taxi driver however I was supercharging next to a model S in Edinburgh over the weekend that was a private hire cab. I thought what an excellent choice of vehicle that would be in that trade.

You may find the model 3 boot too small if you're doing airport runs but the S is a good size. As you're doing a lot of miles I think you'd find the free supercharging very attractive although the 17 Model S will charge slower than a new model 3.

Can't comment on reliability but I'm sure an S owner will be along to help you soon.

Good luck with the new career!

 

[r3flex]

Good luck. I think I’d go with an S. Bigger boot for airport transfer luggage etc, slightly longer warranty.

don’t count on free supercharging as technically it’s against the supercharging terms to use them for any commercial use.

Ahh, that makes sense. I knew it was too good to be true

Buying it second hand, a warranty would only come if bought from Tesla directly right? Hmmm. I'd have to think about it because - from Telsa, they remove free supercharging at resale. The only way to get free SC is private resale. But as you say. It'll probably be pointles.

So private resale, potential free supercharging for a while.

Or Telsa used inventory. Up to standard plus warranty. I'll have a think about it

 

[r3flex]

Mileage is not as much of an issue, however constantly Supercharging will start to affect the battery eventually, either by software throttling or by degradation. These cars including batteries will last if cared for. At around £7-8 to charge, I'd factor in charging at home over night, Supercharging when required.
Good luck
P.S Model S will have more room for Private Hire work.

Ahh i was planning to rely on Supercharging. I live in a new build flat. Got it as they were completing the build early 2019 with a promise of electric charging stations in certain parking bays, which never came through. My closest one would be on the side of a semi main road but im not confident leaving it over night there

Was planing to use supercharging while on a break.

Lets say i did get it. Used supercharging 3 times a week, every week for a year. How many miles am I losing? 20 a year?

 

[r3flex]

I'm not a taxi driver however I was supercharging next to a model S in Edinburgh over the weekend that was a private hire cab. I thought what an excellent choice of vehicle that would be in that trade.

You may find the model 3 boot too small if you're doing airport runs but the S is a good size. As you're doing a lot of miles I think you'd find the free supercharging very attractive although the 17 Model S will charge slower than a new model 3.

Can't comment on reliability but I'm sure an S owner will be along to help you soon.

Good luck with the new career!

Exactly why I'm getting it. Especially being in London with the ULEZ and Congestion charges. Its a no brainer. (also tesla is the dream car) thanks for the advice! I live between Heathrow and central. I used to work in Heathrow actually, so airport runs will be a must. Model S it is!

It shouldn't be more than 5 min slower, right

 

[gangzoom]

Because of my current financial *sugar* storm, I'm trying to minimise costs as much as possible, while maximising potential profits.

I've figured the best way to do this is to buy a Tesla Model S

Sorry to hear about your situation but just take a step back and look at what your saying.

I don't think I have ever seen anyone rationise a Tesla as a way to minimise costs.

How much money are you projecting to make a day? Whats your competition like? Why cannot a Nissan Leaf work for you if the total miles are low? Whats the cost pay back on a £1k Prius that can do 50mpg and be working none stop versus a £30k+ Tesla that you have to stop to charge? What's going to happen when the MCU fails and you have to £2k for fix?

Bare in mind from 2025 all cars will have to pay the congestion charge even a Model S.

I hope you work out your job situation but buying a £30k car is rarely the answer to anyones financial problems.

 

[gangzoom]

Exactly why I'm getting it. Especially being in London with the ULEZ and Congestion charges. Its a no brainer. (also tesla is the dream car) thanks for the advice! I live between Heathrow and central. I used to work in Heathrow actually, so airport runs will be a must. Model S it is!

It shouldn't be more than 5 min slower, right

It sounds like you are getting carried away with potentially owing your 'dream car' rather than the actual financial reality of things.

How busy are airport runs at the moment anyways? And if owing a Model S was such a financial no brainer why haven't all air port shuttle services switches to them years ago?

The Prius seems to be the default car of choice for Private hire drivers these days, and I suspect for good reason.

 

[gangzoom]

Was planing to use supercharging while on a break.

Lets say i did get it. Used supercharging 3 times a week, every week for a year. How many miles am I losing? 20 a year?

Without home charging you will be supercharging it EVERY day, not 3 times a week. If you are doing so little miles not to need to charge it daily I cannot see how you can make the car pay back your initial investment- unless your ferrying around royalty.

Supercharging so much will also kill the battery, all Tesla have an built in counter will start reducing the speed of supercharging once you have done a certain amount. This reduced limit is for the life of the car, and cannot be reset.

Effectively it means instead of taking 40 minutes to charge from 10-80%, it'll now take 2hrs. Thats an additional 1hr+ you are not earning.

Seriously do the maths properly on this before you waste your precious money on this idea.

 

[MrBadger]

You need to put a call out to @m3gt2

 

[tonyj01]

Hi all,

Reflex - look up Tesloop. USA Tesla based taxi service.

see this blog Tesloop's High Mileage Teslas — Tesloop

Anecdotal from me - the rated range of the car is only a calculation, I have a 2016 MS (includes lifetime supercharging) and the rated has gone down from 340 miles at 100% to around 330. But nobody drives 330 miles straight out, you need a biological break, even with passengers !

Also, look up taxis in Amsterdam - very many are Teslas.

Tony

 

[pgkevet]

Different ways of viewing range. 300 miles is really only 150 miles when planning on returning and when the return journey is through a supercharger desert. You also have to consider how busy some supercharger sites may be. A two car queue and that's an extra hour or so sitting idle before you even get to start charging. It may well mean adding to startup costs with CCS conversion or a Chademo adapter.

 

[Jason71]

Hi all,

Reflex - look up Tesloop. USA Tesla based taxi service.

see this blog Tesloop's High Mileage Teslas — Tesloop

Anecdotal from me - the rated range of the car is only a calculation, I have a 2016 MS (includes lifetime supercharging) and the rated has gone down from 340 miles at 100% to around 330. But nobody drives 330 miles straight out, you need a biological break, even with passengers !

Also, look up taxis in Amsterdam - very many are Teslas.

Tony

schiphol airport banned non EV taxis from the airport and model S was the only decent range decent size EV at the time so all the drivers got them. With the free supercharging the financials worked out as well. until Tesla caught on and kicked them all off free supercharging for using it for commercial charging. I think Tesla did actually build a special bank of superchargers right at the airport for them ( well to stop them clogging up the other ones in Amsterdam) but they have to pay to use it.

 

[m3gt2]

I wouldn't advise buying a Tesla for hire and reward if you are only starting out. What if you don't like the job? You will have loads of competition in London and they will all be struggling following the pandemic. If they are working for a bigger company such as uber you will have lower running costs but massive financial payments. If you plan doing it on your own you will need to build a customer base which will take a long time. I'd suggest renting a car to see if you like it initially and then if you do and you have the work look at getting your own vehicle. The supercharging I'd great if you are doing long distances but I'd say it'll be off limited benefits strong London so as mentioned a leaf mast be a more profitable vehicle plus many other options are coming all the time. I personally think investing £40k+ on something you haven't tried in this climate is suicide but long term if you like the job and the work justifies it they are amazing cars. If you want to ask any questions I'll be happy to help

 

[r3flex]

I don't think I have ever seen anyone rationise a Tesla as a way to minimise costs.

How much money are you projecting to make a day? Whats your competition like? Why cannot a Nissan Leaf work for you if the total miles are low? Whats the cost pay back on a £1k Prius that can do 50mpg and be working none stop versus a £30k+ Tesla that you have to stop to charge? What's going to happen when the MCU fails and you have to £2k for fix?

Bare in mind from 2025 all cars will have to pay the congestion charge even a Model S.

I hope you work out your job situation but buying a £30k car is rarely the answer to anyone's financial problems.

Haha it is.. extreme i know. The way i look at it is; I will get a Tesla in the future so instead of getting a Prius or an alternative, for the meantime, why not save the cost of the Prius and just go for it?

That's one aspect. The others are saving on the running costs. Based of 5 days a week and the current £15 congestion charge. I'll be saving £3,900 a year. Or £15,600 until I'll have to pay congestion in 2025. I'm not exactly sure on the savings with charging v petrol. I know a Prius at 122p per L (the price when I checked) will cost me £8.96 per 100 miles. I didn't check the charging because there are too many variables but I know there will be savings there too.

With the earnings, there are 2 guys on youtube that give great info on mileage, time worked, and pay for the day. They also live in London, so my results should be at worst similar to theirs. I say at worst because they mostly stay out of the congestion zone in order to save on costs. But being inside it, will take advantage of the surge, plus less competition.

Anyway, with all the data I've collected from them, it averages out per day to:

Mileage: 82.9
Pay: £127.96
Shift Duration: 5 hours 18 minutes

Because of my situation, ill probably be maxing out the allotted uber time for a while. Wich is 10hrs per day, maybe switch to other apps. At the lower end, I'm hoping to make £200 per day.

This falls back to me justifying it. Am i willing to pay £30k to increase my yearly earnings by £20k? yeah

 

[r3flex]

It sounds like you are getting carried away with potentially owing your 'dream car' rather than the actual financial reality of things.

How busy are airport runs at the moment anyways? And if owing a Model S was such a financial no brainer why haven't all air port shuttle services switches to them years ago?

There's definitely some of that dream car wish and maybe that's the reason im justifying it? Maybe. I don't think so. The numbers I've run say I'll make it back in savings around a year and a half in.

I'm sure airport runs are close to zero tbh. I'll probably be more in central. Though, this is the direction I'm heading in, I won't get there for another 2-3 months with licenses etc to do. So I'm hoping the world will be somewhat back to normal then

 

[NorfolkMustard]

I looked briefly at Uber driving, just for the odd hour or so if I'm bored of an evening/weekend, but it seems much more onerous compared to the US.

Much less likely to get people just doing it for a couple of hours a week over here compared to there.

You have to go through Taxi/private hire regulations/licensing by local council (in each council you want to pick-up in I think?) and extra insurance.

 

[r3flex]

Without home charging you will be supercharging it EVERY day, not 3 times a week. If you are doing so little miles not to need to charge it daily I cannot see how you can make the car pay back your initial investment- unless your ferrying around royalty.

Supercharging so much will also kill the battery, all Tesla have an built in counter will start reducing the speed of supercharging once you have done a certain amount. This reduced limit is for the life of the car, and cannot be reset.

Effectively it means instead of taking 40 minutes to charge from 10-80%, it'll now take 2hrs. Thats an additional 1hr+ you are not earning.

Seriously do the maths properly on this before you waste your precious money on this idea.

I've done a lot of maths on the milage and earnings side.. i guess I've neglected the battery. I'm looking to do around 150 miles a day so hopefully, charge one every two days.

Ahhh sh*t. I didn't know about that counter thing. Thanks. I'll have to look into charging at a neighbours or something. How are those parking charges on battery degradation? there's a parking lot 3 min walk from me with one. Will it hurt?

 

[r3flex]

I wouldn't advise buying a Tesla for hire and reward if you are only starting out. What if you don't like the job? You will have loads of competition in London and they will all be struggling following the pandemic.

Cheers for the advice. I think this is the best. Renting a car and testing the waters. Yeah.. this pandemic has thrown a wrench in everything. It's been a plan of mine to start for a while. I was meant to work amazon and save for the tesla. Now that I have no other option, I thought it was best to go ba*ls to the wall. But I don't want to end up back at square one that's for sure. This is great advice thanks. I'll rent and build from there