Yeung Kam Ming, 55, has been working as a taxi driver for almost 25 years. He started in 1981 when the economy was better, and business was good. “I chose to drive taxis because it gave me free time and flexibility in my job,” he says. “Also when I started, business was very good!”
Lai Hoi Ping, 57, agrees. He was a minibus driver before he began driving taxis and the flexibility was a huge draw – the routes for the minibus were fixed but as a driver he can venture wherever he wishes. Both drivers are Urban taxi drivers (the red cabs we all know and love) although Yeung spends most of his time driving around Kowloon and Lai is based in Wanchai.
Their lives don’t seem very different – they enjoy their jobs and take pride in their livelihoods, though, as Lai says, “Business was better in the years before. I used to have around 40 passengers a day, now I only have 30.” For some drivers, especially those working the night shift, the situation is worse, because, according to Lai, not many people are out at night anymore. This wasn’t always the case though. “Working for the night shift, revenue used to be much higher than the day so more people preferred to work in the nights,” he says. Now better transport links and the abundance of overnight minibuses have cut into night-shift business.
Yeung echoes these views. He also has about 30 passengers a day, again less than previously. “Most people don’t want to spend the money for a taxi, and secondly the transportation system is much better these days. Now they also have things like air-conditioning, before they didn’t, so they take public transport more,” he says. And he mentions that the nature of night shift can cause family problems. He worked as a night shift driver for a while, and it left him feeling very isolated from his loved ones.
Wong Yiu Bor, 42, who drives one of the 50 cabs on Lantau island also speaks of a ‘special shift’: “You rent the cab for the whole 24 hours and, if you work hard enough, you could probably work for that entire time. The rent for a special shift is usually more than the day shift (which is more than the night shift) which means you do have to work much harder to make ends meet or even earn more. I worked special shifts, but it was just too exhausting.”
Chan Shu Sang, 54, and Yeung have both discovered that life as a taxi driver isn’t easy. Both have back problems and have been to doctors for many months but sitting in a taxi all day doesn’t help. Lai too had back problems and uses acupuncture to help ease the pain. Yet there are rewards for being recognized as a good taxi driver. Last year Lai, driving during the morning rush hour, was hailed by a businessman. However he noticed an elderly man with physical disabilities also waiting for a taxi. Lai ignored the businessman and picked up the elderly man instead. The man’s family were so happy with Lai’s consideration, they wrote a letter of commendation to the Transport Department and now he has a special nameplate that lists him as a quality taxi driver.
All drivers have had memorable experiences, some good and some bad, but all agree the worst is rude passengers. Chan, who works in the new territories, once picked up a drug addict who, unbeknownst to him, was being chased by the police. As the cops approached the cab, the passenger swallowed bags of drugs he was carrying and which would be evidence against him. Eventually after a struggle the police managed to arrest him and take him off to the police station. “When they said they were going, I said ‘No wait, stop. You’ve got to pay the fare, first!’” laughs Chan.
Yeung’s longest drive was with two tourists from Taiwan in the early ’80s. “During that time, some Taiwanese people could still not enter the mainland – so the longest drive I ever made was taking two Taiwanese from Kowloon to the border so that they could ‘see’ China. It took almost an hour. Actually Hong Kong is not that big but I did do the return journey as well,” he says.
Talking with the drivers, some are more political than others; Wong and Chan hold some strong opinions. Wong, after an incident with a passenger who was a teacher, thinks the education system in Hong Kong is in need of a serious boost. “If the teachers themselves don’t know how to express themselves clearly and be polite, how can we expect our children to be polite and be able to communicate with others well?” he asks. Chan, as the chairman for his taxi association, has often spoken to the government about many of the taxi drivers’ concerns. In fact, he proposed banning smoking in taxis in 1995, and was happy when the government introduced the new smoking ban at the beginning of this year.
Certainly not all taxi drivers agree with his viewpoint: Yeung has many friends who smoke and he says they aren’t happy about the ban. “Sometimes they get really desperate for a cigarette and they can’t smoke. I had breakfast the other day with some friends, and they were all taking about this smoking ban, they are very unhappy about it and feel like they’ve lost some freedoms. Some of them even like smoking in the toilet but they can’t do that anymore!” he says.
A topic that raises a lot of contention among the drivers is discount taxis. Because the economy has worsened, many taxi companies offer to pick clients up from their home or office and charge them 10-20% less than the meter rate. “Before 1997 the economy was very good and we actually got to choose our customers, it was very good business. If someone wanted to go from Causeway Bay to Wanchai we may not have taken them as a customer as it would have been the minimum fare,” says Yeung. Now, however, it’s every driver for himself. Competition is fierce, and often taxis will cut each other off to get to a customer says Lai, and that is how many accidents happen.
Lai’s main problem with discount taxis is that they corrode fair competition: if there was no discount service, he says, people would still need to take taxis. Discounting could also lead to other illegal practices. “There is a danger of helping customers to cheat their companies. As far as I know, many of the customers taking these discount taxis will ask for a receipt and claim back the fare from their companies. If the fare is $100, they only pay $70-$80 and claim the full $100 from the company. That’s illegal.” Taxi drivers have taken their concerns to the Transport Department, asking for regulation but little is being done, says Chan. He has been keen to take it up with the government, because taxis in the new territories, working in a smaller area and with fewer passengers a day (about 20), might be more affected by such practices.
Another concern is that younger drivers, worried about making money, tend to be more aggressive and competitive than other drivers. Wong, however, disagrees. “There might be one or two cases, but not all young drivers are aggressive and rude,” he says. “In fact 96% of all drivers on Lantau belong to the Lantau Taxi Association and we have guidelines that we follow to allow things to work smoothly.”
The monthly income for taxi drivers varies from as little as $6,000-$7,000 a month to as much as $9,000 and most drivers prefer that their wives work to help support the family. Because he owns his taxi, Lai’s income is at the higher end. Although he does not pay rent to an external company, he is still paying off the loan for his business. He says he purchased his cab licence for $400,000 years ago but now to own a licence can cost in the region of $3 million. For those who can’t afford such a hefty price tag, it means working long shifts, and not taking many days off. Wong says he takes maybe one or two days off in a month because the more he works, the more he earns. Yeung agrees – he would rather work non-stop than take any breaks to eat or rest because it means more income.
Although their lives are hard, most taxi drivers are genuinely interested in providing what they see as a valuable service to the population of Hong Kong, even if they have to deal with rude and bargaining customers. Perhaps we should take a cue from the tourists and be more courteous when travelling in cabs; after all, behind that wheel is another person much like ourselves. |
