{"id":17743,"date":"2025-02-14T06:38:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T05:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/its-hard-to-survive-why-uk-private-hire-drivers-are-striking-on-valentines-day\/"},"modified":"2025-02-14T06:38:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T05:38:46","slug":"its-hard-to-survive-why-uk-private-hire-drivers-are-striking-on-valentines-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/14\/its-hard-to-survive-why-uk-private-hire-drivers-are-striking-on-valentines-day\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s hard to survive\u2019: why UK private hire drivers are striking on Valentine\u2019s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 200 drivers got in touch with the Guardian to share their views on the industrial action<\/p>\n

When Simon Waite began working as a private hire driver in 2017, it gave him the flexibility and income to spend time with his children, then aged five, 12 and 18. \u201cOne of the reasons I loved Uber was because I could now go to the school plays, my son\u2019s football, I could earn my money around life,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But over the past few years, Waite, a 41-year-old in Hertfordshire, says he has to spend dramatically more time on the road to earn a living. To make \u00a31,000 a week a couple of years ago it took about 50 hours, he says, whereas now it\u2019s about 70 hours \u2013 with most drivers needing to pay insurance, tax, vehicle fees and upkeep, fuel, licenses, rent, bills and living costs.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nAbout 200 drivers got in touch with the Guardian to share their views on the industrial action
\nWhen Simon Waite began working as a private hire driver in 2017, it gave him the flexibility and income to spend time with his children, then aged five, 12 and 18. \u201cOne of the reasons I loved Uber was because I could now go to the school plays, my son\u2019s football, I could earn my money around life,\u201d he says.
\nBut over the past few years, Waite, a 41-year-old in Hertfordshire, says he has to spend dramatically more time on the road to earn a living. To make \u00a31,000 a week a couple of years ago it took about 50 hours, he says, whereas now it\u2019s about 70 hours \u2013 with most drivers needing to pay insurance, tax, vehicle fees and upkeep, fuel, licenses, rent, bills and living costs. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About 200 drivers got in touch with the Guardian to share their views on the industrial action When Simon Waite began working as a private hire driver in 2017, it gave him the flexibility and income to spend time with his children, then aged five, 12 and 18. \u201cOne of the reasons I loved Uber …<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s hard to survive\u2019: why UK private hire drivers are striking on Valentine\u2019s Day<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17743"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}