How you can make a side or full-time business driving taxi for the Amish.
This is a common question. A lot of folks are curious about driving for the Amish.
Why don’t the Amish own cars?
The Amish believe that owning a car could lead to tearing apart a family, the church and the community. People who own cars tend to be away from home too much. And cars make the community more scattered.
Therefore many Amish hired non-Amish drivers to transport them to places outside of the 10, 15 mile limit that they would usually travel in their buggies. You may be thinking to yourself now, why don’t they just order an Uber?
Some New Order Amish will use cell phones and pagers, but most Old Order Amish will not. So that option for them just moves right out the door. They can’t use a phone to order an Uber.
So what do they do next? Well, that’s where you come into play, but now how do you get started with something like this? Especially if you don’t know anybody that’s in the Amish community, or if you don’t know anybody that’s already in the business of doing this.
And I was reading a few articles online of guys that actually do this full time and what they suggested or what they did was simply went up and they asked them, they’d go to their local Amish communities that are in their area. And they’d say, “Hey, do you guys need a driver? Now, most of them didn’t already have a driver. So they were already in like that.”
Now some of them did have a driver and what they would do was negotiate with them saying, “Hey, we can give you a better price per mile than what your current driver is charging you” and things like that.
Is it profitable to drive for the Amish?
But the real key question here is, is this gonna be worth my time and energy to do? Now I was reading up and most of them said that they would charge about a dollar on average per mile, that they drove. And then they would charge about seven to $12 per hour for waiting time. Waiting time means if you had to take them to the doctors, or if you had to take them to the grocery store, you will be sitting there in the car, waiting on them.
Also, you may be thinking to yourself, how much am I gonna be able to work? Am I gonna be able to drive every single day, every other day, how many hours, a day, things like that.
And on this article I was reading this guy, does it full time. He also made it very clear that he lives in Pennsylvania, which has a huge Amish community. And he said that last year he recorded 3,600 hours worth of work.
He said, he’s getting paid about $22/hour on average, whenever you calculate the miles drove and the waiting time. So that means that he made $79,000 last year by simply driving for these Amish communities. But he also stated that there are a lot of differences from doing this as a side gig to a full-time job.
Can I make a living driving for the Amish full-time?
If you’re gonna do this as a full-time job, there are registration costs and fees that you have to pay.
- The first thing that you have to get is commercial driving insurance. Now he said that cost him about $1,500 a year.
- And then you have to get a department of transportation registration that costs $40.
- And then you also need to put the registration label on your vehicle as well as keep a first aid kit and fire extinguisher in the vehicle at all times.
- And then the last thing that he had to get was a public utility commission permit, which was $350. And it’s renewed annually.
So now what are some of my thoughts and opinions about doing this?
If you’re gonna go the route of making this a full-time job, the first thing you need to do is you need to see what all registration and fees that you have to take care of and make sure that you’re on top of that. The second thing that I think you need to do is you need to be on your “A” game. And what I mean by that is a lot of Amish families are all about referrals. If this Amish family thinks you’re a very good driver, you’re there on time every single day. Well then they’re gonna refer you to the next family and so on and so on.
If you’re gonna do this more as a side gig, it’d be perfect for high school students or college students, especially if you need some money on the side, the only bad thing with it is it’s, you’re kind of on call at all times.
If this family needs to go to the doctors right now, well, then you gotta go and pick ’em up. If they need to go to the grocery, then you gotta go. Now that’s, what’s kind of the downside with doing this versus Uber with Uber, you can kind of cancel or quit at any time. If you don’t wanna work today, then you don’t have to work. And things like that with all that being said, I hope you learned something new today. I’m sure many of you never realized that there are actually people that drive Amish families around.
Do People Make Money as Amish Taxi Drivers?
The short answer: yes. In just three counties in Pennsylvania, it’s estimated there are 300 drivers who offer rides for pay to the Amish residents, according to a recent survey.
Many locals become drivers because they’re laid off from other work, they’re disabled, or they’re simply looking for extra income to supplement their retirement checks. Payment comes in the form of money, bartered items, gifts and help around the house, according to Bonnie Huzinec, who has been driving the Amish for years, told the Post-Gazette.
Is It Legal?
Some drivers aren’t properly licensed and, at least in Pennsylvania, there have been repeated crackdowns over the years. Public Utilities Commission (PUC) agents even forced a group of Amish on their way to a funeral to get out of an unlicensed van in an unfamiliar community and beg their way home. Generally, drivers receive warnings first, but if they don’t cease operations, they could face $1,000 fines.
An “Amish taxi” is typically a 14-passenger van, according to LancasterOnline.com, and to be legal in Pennsylvania drivers need to pay $350 for para-transit certification. They also need to use a vehicle that’s less than eight years old and obtain commercial liability insurance. In addition, drivers require a medical examiner’s certificate if they’ll be driving more than eight passengers at a time. Drivers can be fined for having outdated child car seats or other safety violations.
Despite the expensive regulations, which can cost drivers thousands of dollars per year, there is apparently enough business to justify the costs of becoming licensed. PUC Press Secretary Jennifer Kocher says that of the 105 certified para-transit carriers in Lancaster County, 94 are licensed as taxis for “persons whose personal convictions prevent them from owning and/or operating motor vehicles.”
But there are even more Amish taxis operating illegally in Lancaster County. The crackdowns on these unlicensed operators, while meant to make the industry safer, are not popular with many of the Amish. Passengers face being put out on the side of the highway unexpectedly, and presumably paying more for rides as drivers are all brought into compliance with the costly regulations.
Will You Start an Amish Taxi Service?
If you decide to run an Amish taxi, you can probably get by with the most minimal liability policy that the law requires, since the Amish generally don’t sue people. The laws vary by state, so legal compliance in your area may be more or less expensive than the examples given for Pennsylvania.
According to AmishAmerica.com, there are Old Order Amish communities living in 30 states and in parts of Canada. You can use their Amish State Guide to determine if there are enough potential clients near you to consider starting a taxi service. Here are the states with more than 20 church districts:
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Indiana
- Wisconsin
- New York
- Illinois
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Iowa
- Missouri
Many traditional Mennonites also pay for rides rather than owning cars. You can use the church locator map on MennoniteUSA.com to find information on congregations near you. Since many Mennonites do drive, you’ll have to investigate to see if the communities near you use drivers regularly.
To promote your taxi service, place ads in local papers read by the Amish (I used to see the ads regularly in Michigan). It is also common to put a business card or notice in Amish phone booths, according to Clif Bushnell. He gave rides to the Amish for decades and wrote a book about his experiences.
