There are various types of work a taxi driver can do such as airport transfers, picking up and taking people to pubs, restaurants and clubs and then bringing them home, picking up shoppers along with their weekly shop from the supermarket or waiting at a taxi rank for a customer to arrive and take them home. However, should a taxi driver focus on a particular type of work?

Well, especially in the current economic climate due to the pandemic, it could be argued that there are unlikely to be many taxi drivers who can afford to only deal with certain jobs. We suspect that the majority of taxi drivers are prepared to take on most types of jobs as they prefer the variety as well as the income they earn.

If you were to concentrate on just doing airport transfers in a normal year without any restrictions being in place due to COVID-19 then, unless you are very fortunate, you are unlikely to be busy throughout the year. This is because the busiest period is going to be when people take a holiday i.e. April through to early September. It is during this period when families tend to go overseas on holiday so may need a taxi to get them to the airport and to pick them up from the airport when they fly back into the UK. A potential downside of doing airport transfers is that you may need to be up at 2.30am to pick up your customer and get them to the airport for 4.00am to catch a flight out of the UK at 6.00am. On a positive note, you may be able to charge a premium for such journeys and holidaymakers tend to be good tippers. You would also need to not mind about making long journeys as you could be taking them to an airport that is a couple of hours distant.

If you were to concentrate on taking people to pubs, clubs and restaurants then these are going to be short journeys. Again, people tend to tip well having had a good night out. However, do bear in mind that you are likely to encounter some passengers who have had one too many drinks as a result of which someone could be sick in your taxi thus, potentially, putting you off the road for a few hours until you clean the vehicle out.

Picking shoppers up from the supermarket along with their groceries is going to take place in sociable hours. However, do bear in mind that, unless you are very lucky, shoppers do not tend to be big tippers.

You may prefer sitting at a taxi rank waiting for a fare-paying passenger to approach you as this may give you a few minutes breather between jobs.

Ultimately, the decision about the type of work you take on is yours if you are a self-employed taxi driver. We suspect that most taxi drivers will be content to take on a variety of jobs – especially in the current economic climate.