Memory is a bad CFO
After a twelve-hour shift your brain will insist you "did fine". Maybe you did. Maybe three unpaid waits and a dead airport return erased the morning's wins. Without a log you are steering by mood. Mood is not a business metric.
A trip log turns the day into rows: time, distance, wait, fare, note. Even forty trips a week is enough to see which corridors pay and which only feel busy. Busy and profitable are cousins, not twins. The northern suburbs can look glamorous while Midrand shuttle work quietly prints better hourly yield after fuel.
MyTaxi stores trips in IndexedDB on the device. Nothing syncs to our servers because we do not need it to. Your competitive edge is your own pattern recognition, not our dashboard.
Hourly yield after the boring costs
Gross fares lie cheerfully. Subtract fuel for the empty reposition, tolls, parking at the mall pickup, and the twenty minutes you sat outside a complex with the engine on. What remains, divided by hours worked, is closer to truth.
Once a week, skim the log and mark dogs: trips that looked short but ate half an hour at a boom. Mark stars: airport runs with clean handovers. Adjust where you position at 15:00 on Fridays. This is not hustle poetry. It is operations.
If you work multiple platforms, still keep one personal log. Platforms optimise for their marketplace. You optimise for your rent.
Talking to passengers with numbers
When someone asks for a discount mid-ride, a log-backed sense of your floor helps you answer without panic. You do not need to show the phone. You need to know that this corridor at this hour usually clears X after costs. If their offer sits under your floor, decline politely or offer a shorter drop that still works.
Numbers also help with tips and extras. Luggage help, child seats, and late-night premiums are easier to name when you already speak in line items: base, distance, wait.
The R299 question without the hard sell
The driver plan is optional infrastructure. Seven days free to see if the habit sticks, then R299 a month. If you already log meticulously in a notebook, you may not need it. If you keep meaning to start and never do, a dedicated desk can be the nudge.
Checkout uses PayFast when keys are connected; otherwise the interface says checkout is coming online rather than failing silently. Either way, the estimate tool remains usable. We would rather show a clear "coming online" state than a broken payment form.
A weekly review ritual that takes twelve minutes
Sunday evening or Monday morning: open the trip list, scan totals, and write three lines in your notes app — best corridor, worst wait trap, one change for next week. That is enough. Overcomplicating review is how review dies.
Share nothing publicly unless you want to. The point of local storage is that your earnings patterns are yours. When you eventually speak to a bookkeeper, you will already know which weeks were real.
Fuel, maintenance, and the invisible hour
Track fuel roughly even if you hate spreadsheets. A photo of the pump total plus odometer once a day is enough. Maintenance days are part of the job's true hourly rate whether you like it or not. If a tyre week destroys cash, your "good" fare week was not as good as the trip list suggested.
Empty kilometres are the invisible hour. Repositioning to a mall, returning from the airport without a backhaul, or hunting surge that never arrives — log a quick note when an empty leg was painful. Patterns appear. Maybe you should stage differently at 16:00. Maybe certain surge screenshots are bait.
The point is not to become an accountant in the front seat. The point is to stop lying to yourself politely.
Turning logs into quotes clients trust
Corporate and hotel clients love drivers who sound specific. "Sandton to OR Tambo mornings are usually in this band; evenings add wait" is more credible than "airport is four hundred". Your log supplies the band. You supply the manners.
When you raise prices after fuel jumps, show the reason once. People accept transparent adjustments more than silent creep. Likewise, if you discount a loyal customer, note it so you know your true average yield on that relationship.
A ninety-day experiment
Try this for ninety days. Log every paid trip with the minimum fields. Once a week, write three lines of review. Do not change your whole life in week one. Only change positioning based on what the log screams twice or more.
At day thirty, compare your felt sense of earnings with the arithmetic. Most drivers discover a surprise corridor — either a hidden winner or a romantic loser. At day sixty, adjust quotes on the losers or stop sitting there. At day ninety, decide whether the driver plan is worth R299 for keeping the habit productised, or whether your notebook discipline is already enough.
Either decision is adult. The failure mode is neither logging nor deciding — just hoping. Hope is not a yield strategy in Gauteng traffic. Numbers are kinder than optimism when rent is due.
If you mentor a newer driver, teach the log before you teach the secret pins. Pins change. The habit of measuring does not.
FAQ
Do I need the paid driver plan?
Riders use estimates free. The driver plan (R299/month after a 7-day trial) is for people who want the habit supported as a product — same maths, clearer commitment.
What should I note each trip?
Corridor, kilometres, wait, total, and one plain sentence. Optional: fuel stop or toll.
Can this replace SARS records?
No. It is a personal operational log. Keep proper accounting advice for tax.