r/Glasgow Tools

It's not actually because of tax. Well in some cases it will be, but in the majority of cases it's nothing to do with hiding the money. Even with cash, drivers can't really hide from the tax man anymore as every job is logged in computers and apps these days. All it takes is a click of a mouse and the tax man has the driver's job history be it cash or be it card.

The problem with cards is that the firms take the payments and hold it for up to a week (in some cases longer). While that might not sound like a big deal (like 'wait till the end of their month for wages like everybody else'), the issue actually is without getting paid today, there is a chance you can't work tomorrow. If all the takings keep coming in by card, then before the driver reaches the payout day he'll probably not have enough money available for that daily fuel cost (or a bunch of other things that they might need instant money for - puncture repair, blown bulb, quick hoover or car wash).

Even Uber, who takes cards 100% of the time, recognised this particular problem and now allow drivers to cash out their balance with an instant bank transfer up to 5 times per day.

I used to work with the local firms and taking cards was brutal. There were shifts I would go home with nothing in my pocket because the little bit of cash I took had to go back in the fuel tank. Drivers these days don't make big bucks and pretty much live week to week hoping that nothing ever goes wrong and that they take enough cash to be able to keep running for the rest of the week while being able to eat.

You would think then that moving over to Uber would be horrible for drivers that detested taking cards, right? But, no. Since moving over to Uber I don't have that same worry and am completely happy taking card payments on every single job because doing so doesn't come with the risk of getting skint mid-week like it did with the local legacy firms.