What is the average taxi driver salary? How much does a taxi driver earns? Salary, license cost and working conditions?
Not everyone can be a taxi driver in Spain. To be a taxi driver in the country, you must previously meet a series of requirements, in addition to paying the expenses associated with the trade.
Finally, these will be deducted from the total income, but they will not be the only variable that affects what a taxi driver earns in Spain: factors such as the time worked each day, the city or whether it is a taxi driver who owns a license or salaried also come into play in the salary.
Taxi driver salary
These and other elements make it difficult to know exactly how much a taxi driver currently charges in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, or Mallorca, among many others, but there are several sources to which you can turn for estimates.
Thus, according to a study by the Madrid City Council, prepared by Vectio in 2017 and collected by ElDiario.es , a taxi driver who operates his own license could earn about 2,560 euros net per month, an amount that did not include the monthly fee for the license in case it continued to be paid.
This is a figure lower than the 2,210 net euros per month charged by a licensed taxi driver according to Jobted, which points out that a salaried taxi driver earns around 1,870 net euros per month on average.
Taxi driver salary and licence
This portal employment recalls that the experience can greatly influence: a taxi driver with less than 3 years at the wheel could get a salary of 1,190 euros net per month (or 1.175 euros, according to Talent); with 4-9 years of experience, the average salary would be around 1.940€; 10-20 years, it would be around 2.490 euro; and with more than 20 years could expect 2.620 euros.
If you go to other sources to get a rough idea of how much earn a taxi driver in Spain, the amount varies from 1.560 € monthly, according to Glassdoor (basic salary average from just 2 wages of drivers anonymous), up to 4.300 euros of gross income according to labour forum Gowork (would be in 1750 euros of net benefit to the taxi driver employed or in 3.130 euros for the owner of a license, after costs have been deducted).
The requirements to be a taxi driver in Spain include having the driving licence (B1), lack of criminal history, they do not suffer from an infectious diseases, overcome a health examination and psycho-technical test specific mechanical, counting with the title SEO (Compulsory Secondary Education) and be registered as a self-contained, although some aspects may change depending on the city or community.
Taxi driver salary costs revealed
In addition, a person who wants to drive a taxi must pass the city council exam (municipal taxi permit), with dozens of questions about the city and its streets, itineraries, and centres of interest, among other aspects.
Finally, among other procedures and procedures is the taxi license, which in Spain usually has an average price of about 25,000 euros, although it can reach 100,000 euros in cities like Madrid, according to ABC. According to the data of the Institut MetroMetropolitá del Taxi, provided to El Confidencial and collected by ElDiario.es , the average in 2019 was 135,052 euros per license.
As for the conditions in which taxi drivers work, they can dedicate more than 8 hours a day, with a maximum of sixteen taxi hours (they point out that on average they drive between 10 and 12), over 5 days a week, having to rest one day during the week and another day at the weekend.
In addition, taxi drivers should consider direct and indirect expenses: from fuel and repairs to taxes, insurance, social security and distributing benefits in case of employees.
