What determines whether a VTC licence pays off in Castilla-La Mancha?
There is no single figure that works for everyone, and whoever publishes one is selling something. Five things decide it: the price of each job, the kilometres driven empty, the fixed costs of the vehicle and of being self-employed, the commission of whoever passes you the work, and the hours you really cover. The simulator on the drivers page does the arithmetic with your own figures.
Reviewed on 15 September 2026
Why do we not publish an income figure?
Because we could not keep it. What an authorisation bills depends on the demand in the area, on the time slots covered and on the kilometres accepted, and none of those is decided by a website. A big number attracts whoever leaves after three months speaking badly of you, which is the opposite of useful.
What can be given is what actually happened: how many jobs were done last month in your town and time slot, and what had to be turned down for lack of anyone to run it. With real data and the arithmetic in front of you, the decision is yours and it is a better one.
What goes into the calculation?
On the income side, the closed price of each job and its surcharges. On the cost side: fuel and maintenance per kilometre, private hire insurance and the monthly self-employed contribution, depreciation or financing of the vehicle and of the authorisation itself, and taxes. The simulator on the drivers page uses the real tariff customers are quoted and subtracts the costs, including the approach and empty return kilometres.
Empty kilometres are the item most often underestimated. A fifty-kilometre transfer that means driving back empty is a hundred kilometres of car for one job; chaining a return trip with a passenger changes the result more than any commission negotiation.
What really moves the needle?
Three things, in order. Hours: demand here concentrates on pre-dawn runs to Barajas and on weekend nights, and whoever covers those slots gets more out of the same car. Chaining: two consecutive jobs are worth more than two isolated ones with an empty leg in between. And fixed costs, which get paid whether there is work or not.
Commission matters, but less than it seems next to the three above. It is published here —8% of each job passed to you— and it changes depending on whether you set your own tariff or adopt ours; the conditions are on the fleets page. What there is not is a joining or monthly fee, so a quiet month costs nothing.
And one constraint worth building into the calculation from the start: a VTC authorisation covers intercity transport. In Castilla-La Mancha, a trip that starts and ends inside the same municipality belongs to taxi licences, so your town's internal traffic does not belong in the forecast of anyone holding only a VTC authorisation.
Frequently asked questions
How much do you earn with a VTC licence?
There is no honest answer in the form of a number, because it depends on demand, hours and each operator's costs. The useful way to answer it is to do the arithmetic: the simulator on the drivers page starts from the real tariff, lets you enter your own jobs and kilometres, and also shows what is subtracted.
Is it worth buying a VTC authorisation today?
That decision belongs to the buyer and their accountant: it depends on the market price of the authorisation, on financing and on whether it will be in the hands of a full-time driver or parked half the week. What can be contributed here is the part we know: what moves in the area and on what terms we work.
What about the 80/20 rule?
It is the habitual-use limit: the share of services that may end outside the region where the authorisation is registered. It is measured job by job and is worth keeping in mind when planning, because it conditions which work can be accepted, not just what it pays.
This explains which variables are involved; it is not tax, accounting or legal advice, nor an income forecast. Costs, taxes and the value of an authorisation must be reviewed by your own advisers with your own figures.