Taking a taxi the other day and chatting to the driver, John... he was reminiscing ...
"When I started in this job over 30 years ago, I was employed full time, the car was provided for me and all I had to do was pick up the jobs"
He went on...
"Today, I own this car, it's my personal insurance... and I pay my own taxes, the only thing the company provides is a list of jobs, in the form of an email. If I want the job I reply to the email, on my blackberry [he shows me the latest blackberry], it's really good deal - I'm self-employed, I take holiday when I want it.... The other funny thing is that because it MY car, I take a lot more care of it. You see young guys today in company cars, and hire cars and they drive them to death".
I asked him, "what standards do the company set for you?"... John went on...
"I have to have a dark car, Black or Blue, and it has to be a Merc (E-Class), Volvo (S70), BMW, or an Audi, the car can't be more than 5 years old, oh and it has to have a service annually. The list gets updated every year, and its my job to make sure that I'm following the rules."
"The other thing I need to do, is my driver proficiency training once a year, at that I learn new driving techniques, we review accident data from the previous year and basically become safer and smarter driver, that's subsidized by the taxi agency"
Intrigued I asked him "Does the company, help you out and offer you any more deals?"
"Yes we get a special negotiated rate on insurance, and also on the cars, the other good thing is that because I'm self-employed I can claim a large part of the tax I've paid against my personal company it works out really well - I just hate having to file taxes every year", he said laughing to himself.
I wondered how long it would be, before we're all 'self-employed'.... our tools of the trade, the Laptop & phone becoming our 'own'?
Posts
