1881 Census - Occupation Car Owner

[Duck]

On an 1881 census I've been looking at, the head of the household gives his occupaton as Car Owner.  It's puzzled me, what exactly does he mean?  Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

Simon

[hepburn]

Carriage..Hackne,Hansom ?

[Ruskie]

Is the word clearly “owner” or might it be something else?
Have you seen the image or just a transcript?
What was his occupation on other censuses?

[Davedrave]

There are numerous instances in this census in the Liverpool area of “car owners” and in at least one case the word “cab” has been added as an annotation, so hepburn’s suggestions look right.

Added:

In 1891 the term appears to be confined, with very few exceptions, to the same area, so it looks like a local useage of the term.

[ShaunJ]

A car owner/proprietor in this context and at that time seems to be someone who has one or more small passenger carriages available for hire - presumably on an hourly or day rate, with driver provided. I say 'small' to distinguish them from coaches.

Reading newspaper references a "car" could be hired from a stand; different from a Hackney cab which could be hailed.

1881 Gore's Liverpool directory lumps them in with coach proprietors.

Looking at some of these names in the 1881 census, "car proprietor" or "car and bus proprietor" does seem to be generally overwritten as "Cab Owner" for trade classification purposes. So it must have been a thin dividing line. "Car" slightly more prestigious then "Cab" perhaps.

[Duck]

Is the word clearly “owner” or might it be something else?
Have you seen the image or just a transcript?
What was his occupation on other censuses?

I've seen the image more than once, but I'll go and hve another look at it.  I once had a feller describe his occupation on the 1911 census as Car Driver, it turned out he was a tram driver in Blackpool

[Duck]

Many thanks everyone, it is a lot clearer now

Kind regards

Simon