00:00 We're here to demonstrate against WIZU because of the rising cost of commission.
00:04 Our fares have come down, price of fuel has gone up, insurances have gone up this year by 25-30%
00:12 but all we've paid to them is too high and we're not saving very much because I've been doing this job for 20 years.
00:19 I was better off 20 years ago than I am now.
00:21 The drivers are what make WIZU. If the drivers weren't here WIZU wouldn't be making our money.
00:26 It's us that go out on the road, do our work, for them to make money.
00:32 We just want it to be fair fare. It's fair for everyone.
00:37 Obviously they're a business, they want to make money, we want to make money.
00:39 But we don't want to lose out, we don't want to be running around for WIZU whilst they're sat in their offices and stuff like that.
00:45 Scraping together hours, not spending time with our families out on the road trying to make a living for ourselves,
00:51 making a decent life for our families. It's not fair. That's why we're here, that's why we're protesting.
00:55 So what they've done is basically what they're saying is that if you do less jobs you'll be paying more on your AGRA,
01:01 which is your fare structure, and if you do more jobs you'll be paying less percentage.
01:05 Less jobs, more percentage. More jobs, less.
01:09 But the trouble is they haven't got no jobs. There's no jobs to do.
01:13 They've got so many drivers that will be out on the streets for you and hours to do our 10 jobs.
01:18 They've got drivers from out of town, you've got Wolverhampton drivers, you've got Bastrop, Calderdale drivers that come and work with Sheffield.
01:24 We're licensed in Sheffield, we're a licensed fee to Sheffield, we pay insurance, that's why we're working in Sheffield, which is a high insurance.
01:31 You've got Wolverhampton drivers, you know, with older cars, we have to buy cars that are CAZ compliant and stuff like that.
01:37 So that's another thing. I've spent money on the cabs recently. I didn't have to, didn't want to, but I had to.
01:43 You know what I mean? So that's part of it, but they're not taking it on the right to conduct this integration.
01:47 There's out of town drivers from Wolverhampton, all different places.
01:49 You've got drivers from Bradford, Leeds, all that coming into our city.
01:56 You've got to do at least, I'd say, about 85 to 100 jobs to see some difference.
02:02 And that's a lot of jobs. You've got to do at least 9, 10 hours.
02:06 And then go home.
02:07 So that's 70 hours a week.
02:09 So, unlike us, we've got flexibility. We've got a school in Cornwall, we've got a car break stand, we've got a bus somewhere.
02:16 Social life.
02:17 We've got our own lives, so the flexibility, that's what we've done.
02:20 So it's gone really hard. So we're only here just to negotiate and just do as a fair structure.
02:26 For example, if we go to Manchester Airport, that job would take us out of here.
02:34 We could only do maybe one trip, two trips in the day.
02:38 That takes a long time.
02:40 Now, Visa's structure is that they've got a number of jobs.
02:44 So how many of the jobs we do, they will take commission from a sliding scale.
02:51 If you do, say, 12, 13 jobs, this starts at 35%.
02:56 Now, that's a staggering amount.
02:58 Now, if I do a Manchester Airport, 85 pounds, Visa used to take 17 pounds of that.
03:05 At 35%, that goes to 29.75.
03:09 So it's a big jump, a big part of it.
03:13 If you take all the costs away, the fuel costs, the insurance, the time spent,
03:18 the driver's left with about 30 pounds for four hours' work.
03:22 That's hardly the minimum wage.
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