Comments for Gustav's Mindshare

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Gustav

Gustav — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:45:32 +0000

@Patrik Thanks for the great comment! Really awesome info and detail.

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:28:27 +0000

I would say that about 80 to 90 percent of all car owners drive themselves and usally during daytime. In Taxi Stockholm we have 1538 cars and about 900 something “åkare” so as you can understand most åkare have only one car. We have 5-6 “åkare” with more than 10 cars and one has 40 and one with 27 cars.
The commision to the drivers is 36% plus 13% vacation salary and on top of that we have somthing called Fora wich is the “tjänstepension” extra pension saving paid by the empoyer about 3-4 percent. Taxi Stockholm is the only taxicompany that has “kollectivavtal” and this agreement is garanteeing the driver a minimum salary of 17500 sek for 40 hour of work per week. Every carowner has to comply with this if they wish to remain in Taxi Stockholm.
The sum paid by the carowner to Taxi Stockholm every month is 8100 SEK + 2.85% of what the car makes every month + 25% vat(moms).
Every car makes 4-8% profit before tax if there is a low level of damages to the car. If you or your driver causes or is considered to be casusing an accident you have to pay about 9000 sek + 25%vat to the isurance company. You pay 965 sek for insurance every month. So with these expences you relly have to be driving yourself to make money and you take a huge risk if you employ the wrong person.

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Johnny Warström

Johnny Warström — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:42:56 +0000

Intressant post! Var inne lite och tänkte kring det här när jag skrev http://blog.warstrom.se/2011/01/taxikondomerna.html

Vad finns det för andra möjligheter tror du?

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Ryan Graves

Ryan Graves — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 18:29:28 +0000

Great post Gustav. Very interesting looking at different Taxi markets. They all have their challenges & quirks for sure.

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Gustav

Gustav — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 09:43:53 +0000

Thanks Andres, I actually don’t know the licensing situation, I didn’t get the impression that it was very difficult though. Will have to ask next time! Maybe someone reading this knows?

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Andres

Andres — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 08:02:38 +0000

Cool post, great to read about things you use all the time but don’t know much about.

What’s the licensing situation like? In a lot of cities just getting a license for a car is like being able to print money and they can go for 10s if not 100s of thousands of dollars and dictates a lot of the market.

Also, are cab prices set by the city/state?

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Fredrik

Fredrik — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:55:10 +0000

It is not only the dispatch that makes it worth the fee, but also the trademark itself. A lot of people wouldn’t use other companies than “the big 3″ in Stockholm. Which leaves Taxi I Stockholm, Taxi Södermalm and so on to tourists who hasn’t heard of the Stockholm taxi situation with “friåkare” and their prices.

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Gustav

Gustav — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:44:11 +0000

@K Fully agree with this. As a full time job, it is really poor. As a way to spend you Friday and Saturday night, making extra cash with a car you owned anyway, It probably matches many other activities in SEK/h (if you disregards the risks).

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by Things I read on 2nd January 2011 | I’m George’s Blog

Things I read on 2nd January 2011 | I’m George’s Blog — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:40:45 +0000

[...] The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works [...]

Comment on The hobby economist – How Taxi Stockholm really works by K

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 23:30:56 +0000

The revenue per month would be pretty low for an illegal car – you can have the car making money only 4 hours per day as opposed to say 16-24 for a legitimate taxi (it’s not purely a consequence of no dispatch matching supply and demand – perceived difference in quality of service means illegal cabs are only for the drunk and the desperate).

Even during that time you will have a lower occupancy than say a Taxi Stockholm car, as:

- The Stockholm car will have at least a small chance to get matched with a new customer after dropping off the customer, while the illegal taxi will have to drive back from the residential areas empty.

- More importantly, the illegal taxi will only be considered in two situations:
a) If there are no legitimate taxis available – typically only the case at extreme peak hours, or
b) Medborgarplatsen (price-sensitive drunks, availability of parking means you have the opportunity to negotiate price in advance)

Under a) you have considerably fewer fares per night even during your limited time window for doing business, under b) you make considerably less money per fare reducing the advantage of not having to pay a dispatch fee.

Finally I would argue that the driver of an illegal taxi would either need to own the car himself or compensate the owner of the car, so he’s really only getting out of paying the Taxi Stockholm membership fee.

Conclusion – I’m not quitting my day job to drive illegal taxis. It may be a good way to make a maximum of SEK 4-500 per night before costs IF
- you have a car standing around and
- some time to kill on a Friday night, but that’s about it.