Bangkok Taxi Drivers Daily Income

[billoutt]

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What is the Daily Income of the average BKK taxi driver ? e. i. Fare + Tips - gas - taxi rental.

Edited May 9, 2013 by Tywais
Changed to standard font

[shaggy1969]

I think that maybe the best people to ask would be Bangkok taxi drivers.

Would also depend on what area of BKK they were working.

What is your guesstimate?

[billoutt]

.Shaggy wrote:

"I think that maybe the best people to ask would be Bangkok taxi drivers.

Would also depend on what area of BKK they were working.

What is your guesstimate?"

I wouldn't be amazed if it were under 1,000 baht a day. As far as asking a driver, what do you think the odds are of recieving an honest answer ?

[Forethat]

I am friends with a taxi driver and his wife. He bought his own taxi last year after saving for years. I "think" he averages something like 1000-1200 baht. On a good day it's 1500, on rare occasions 2000. Considering the rent for a taxi is 5-600 depending on the state of the car and that the fuel comes out of that, it doesn't bring in more than 6-700/day net, and that's probably on the high side...

[I Like Thai]

.Shaggy wrote:

"I think that maybe the best people to ask would be Bangkok taxi drivers.

Would also depend on what area of BKK they were working.

What is your guesstimate?"

I wouldn't be amazed if it were under 1,000 baht a day. As far as asking a driver, what do you think the odds are of recieving an honest answer ?

About the same as receiving a correct answer on a forum

[Fgis]

I guess they get more than enough for spending all day or night in comfortable aircon...

A lot better that working in a rice field right ?

The few axxholes drivers that I met make me feel like they all deserve their buffalo life! Sorry for the good ones..

[shaggy1969]

A few years ago I got into a meter taxi and asked the driver to take me to the airport," no problem " said the driver with a smile.

After a couple hundred meters I noticed that he had not switched the meter on and so I ask him if he could start the meter.

" Meter no work " said the driver....I asked him again,.....again came the reply " meter no work "

So I asked the driver how much it will cost for my journey to the airport...... " 650 baht boss " said the smiling driver.

" No way, that's too much " .Not wanting to be ripped off I decided to call his bluff and I asked my g/f if she had a pen and some paper and if she could write down the name and license of the taxi driver........' Hey presto ' as if by magic the meter started working....figure that out if you can !!!

[Keith67]

A few years ago I got into a meter taxi and asked the driver to take me to the airport," no problem " said the driver with a smile.

After a couple hundred meters I noticed that he had not switched the meter on and so I ask him if he could start the meter.

" Meter no work " said the driver....I asked him again,.....again came the reply " meter no work "

So I asked the driver how much it will cost for my journey to the airport...... " 650 baht boss " said the smiling driver.

" No way, that's too much " .Not wanting to be ripped off I decided to call his bluff and I asked my g/f if she had a pen and some paper and if she could write down the name and license of the taxi driver........' Hey presto ' as if by magic the meter started working....figure that out if you can !!!

A regular story for airport trips or similar destinantions.

[samran]

I ask this question often of taxi drivers.

An averge day they might pull in 1500-1800 baht per shift, of which rental is 600-800 per 12 hour shift depending on the newness of the taxi and LPG another 300-400.

An owner driver can get his repayments down to perhaps 500/day. A smart owner driver then picks out a trusted sidekick to drive the taxi in the downtime, so he might be able to pull another 600-800 baht in rental on top of that. But many perfer not to do it.

[yourauntbob]

The above posts seem to be pretty accurate.

Miss Aunt Bob's friend's husband drove a taxi for a while. He said after expenses he profited around 600-1000 per day. He told me he was able to do this by simply driving around and accepting any and all requests no matter where the person wanted to go. The only exception is if his shift was almost up and they the customer was headed in the opposite direction. By doing this the meter was almost always running and he never had the problem of an empty cab. If onyl more drivers were like him.

[Keith67]

A taxi driver i used all the time when ilived in Bangkok explained that the reason for taxi's not wanting to use meters for airport trips was how long they had to wait for a return fare, if the airport was really busy it could be hours rather than mins, most decide to run back to their local area empty then continue their normal work so the extra is compensation for returning empty.

I told him if they were to do that it would cause them to lose the fare and he said many cab drivers don't like doing airport runs due to heavy traffic and delays so they don't really worry if the fare is not worth it.