Nausea

4:00am — the trip to the bathroom. Nausea drove me there — and yes, I threw up. Ugh… the memory, that feeling in my throat… then round two at 8:00am. So today is a day at home. A day when there would have been work and appointments for FLINTAXI: the taximeter calibration centre and an insurance consultation after school.

Maybe I'll briefly recap what's happened lately. I officially activated my business licence on 4 March 2025, which means all the associated contributions are now due. I've sorted everything for the car, received confirmation from the WKO, and I'm still waiting for the confirmation from the transport authority so I can register the car as a taxi. I've finally also decided on insurance for the car (and passengers) — it took approximately 8–9 consultations over the last 1–2 months to make a good choice.

I notice right now that my head is so scrambled I can't even remember what happened when. I'm somehow living day to day and yes, I'm doing okay, but I'm always running at full speed — I'm not really living right now? I mean, I'm constantly working in my head — during the day, falling asleep, while sleeping, dreaming, waking up (reaching for the important emails first thing). By the way, since 1 March 2025 I've also been driving taxi for another operator to gain experience before starting my own company. The plan was 1 April 2025 for my launch, but right now I feel extremely drained and all kinds of doubts are coming up.

Yesterday I calculated again what I can earn and what my fixed costs are — and I ended up €4,000 in the minus by year's end. And I calculated €100 per driving day, which doesn't always work out, especially when you don't have time to drive. I haven't found another FLINTA* person with a taxi licence who wants to drive for FLINTAXI yet, so I asked a former acquaintance/friendly chauffeur whether he wants to use the car to generate income while I'm at school. Otherwise I'd be paying insurance and parking etc. with the car just sitting there. He didn't pass the taxi exam on the first try, so that's still taking a bit longer.

Was that the right decision? The last two weekends I drove for Uber and earned roughly €12–15 per hour — before fuel costs. I was driving after 10pm and on Sundays, but double pay — forget it. I have doubts about whether driving with the Uber app can even cover all the costs. Over two weekends I made a maximum of €500 in revenue (including tips), which extrapolated to a month is €1,000. Insurance, parking, wallbox, electricity, car costs, vignette, ÖAMTC, cash register, bank account, website/domain costs etc. — none of that will ever be covered by €1,000 monthly income.

So big doubts are creeping in. And maybe fear? What if I get heavily into debt? What if I can't drive myself one day? Will I find someone who wants to drive for my company? Will that cost more in wages than the person brings in? Then I'd go even deeper into debt? I'm already in debt from the preparations. Is there really enough demand for a dedicated FLINTA* taxi? I drove on weekends and plenty of girls just booked through Uber anyway. Taximeter prices are definitely fairer, I have to say. Sure, the customer saves a few euros, and I did get €1–5 tip at almost every ride (THANK YOU for that!), but Uber takes 18% from every ride — almost a fifth. I don't want to bash Uber, because Uber gives many people the opportunity to earn income and gives customers a kind of security. I also don't want to compete with another app. I just want to expand the market. And get more FLINTA* people behind the wheel. The job can be fun and can provide a bit of pocket money alongside studies. You always end up in interesting conversations, or you enjoy the silence while driving in this hectic world. For me those were hours of calm, because I wasn't on my phone — haha.

Last Saturday night I had a birthday girl (21) and her friend in the car (shoutout to Stella) — I gave out my first business cards because they were so happy to be riding with a woman, and they had just told me about an unpleasant encounter with a man at the bar where I picked them up. The fare was €6, she handed me a €10, and when her friend said "hey, the ride is €6" she just said: "yeah, but I want to give a tenner!" — Happy Birthday again!!

Don't even know why I feel weird giving out my business cards, but once someone asked for one and I didn't have any yet — oops. I think it's because the website isn't online yet and isn't fully finished. I'm still looking for help with that.

So what else… I just hope I don't lose the joy of it all, even if the preparations are really hard. I've been trying for months to get help with the website, but unfortunately nobody can implement the GPS location feature I need — where passengers can send their location if they don't know their pickup address. An acquaintance wanted to take it on but then didn't really work on it. Only when I tried to motivate him with taxi vouchers did things start moving, but it was taking too long and I wasn't confident in the outcome. So I'm casting my net again and in the worst case will hire a professional. Some people I've asked don't respond or say they don't have capacity. I find that really sad. Given how much I'm doubting everything, I can't really justify spending money on "luxury" features. That's frustrating too.

Something else I noticed while driving at night: where do you go to the toilet? I often wondered that. I can drink while driving, but I had my backpack with gym clothes in the boot — and what if a family with luggage had needed to get to the airport? The backpack probably shouldn't have been there. You can't really put anything on the passenger seat either because sometimes four people get in. But I wanted to put muesli bars there, or my iPad — because I see bookings and registrations better on a larger screen, and I need to check and approve registrations and sort them into FLINTA* or Male.

Now I'm feeling a bit sick again… I think for a blog post this is enough for now. Feel free to ask me anything. I'm unfortunately sliding towards burnout, which is why the launch maybe shouldn't be 1 April after all — maybe I need a holiday over the Easter break without a phone or laptop, otherwise I'll fall apart…