This is what the whole things from yahoo as what centuri had
posted .
Can taxi drivers in Singapore really make as much as S$7,000 a
month?
Yes, according to stories carried
in The
Sunday Times.
But don’t quit your day job yet.
32-year-old Muhammad Hasnor Hashim and 32-year-old Mark Leow, who
have only started driving taxis in the past year, told the paper
they earn S$7,000 and S$6,000 a month,
respectively,
Hasnor reportedly said he earned that hefty amount driving his own
“money-making machine” from 5:30am to 9:30am, 2pm to 6pm and after
dinner until 10pm six days a week. He also drives on Friday and
Saturday nights for extra money, raking in $200 a day even after
deducting $150 for rental and fuel costs, and up to $500 a night on
Fridays and Saturdays.
In Leow’s case, he drives a seven-seater Maxicab for up to 15 hours
a day. His $300 daily income, taking out costs, stems mainly from
shuttling hotel guests, corporate clients and airport passengers —
and many of his trips carry flat rates.
Drivers in Singapore frequently operate on 12-hour shifts, dividing
the day’s rental and fuel with one other cabby who will pull the
other shift. Some drivers, like Hasnor, though will rent for a full
day, giving them the flexibility to decide when to drive out to
ferry passengers.
In the six years he has plied the taxi trade, 49-year-old Jeffrey
Loon said he earns anywhere between $20 and $25 from one hour on
the roads.
Deducting about $100 for fuel and a half-day rental, the day driver
shared that his takings usually come up to at most $200 from a full
12-hour shift, amounting to slightly more than $4,000 a month in
takings, working six days each week.
“If you drive for more than 12 hours a day, you could possibly hit
$6,000 a month, but how long can you sustain that? You really have
to work very hard, and be very disciplined either way,” he
toldYahoo!
Singapore.
Loon also shared his doubt on the viability of taking breaks in
between time on the road, saying he prefers to drive for 12 hours
non-stop and then rest afterward.
“It’s really about sustaining the momentum. Once I stop, I find it
very hard to start again,” he said. “I find the thought of going
back home to rest for two to three hours and having to come out
again very daunting.”
Another 54-year-old cabby, who wanted to be known as Mr Yeo, agreed
with the hourly amount Loon shared.
In the 10 years’ experience he has had driving taxis in Singapore,
Yeo, who drives the 12-hour night shift,
told Yahoo!
Singapore he
earns slightly more than $3,000 a month from working either five-
or six-day weeks.
His takings, he says, average at about $120 a night, after
deducting $40 for diesel and $52 for his share of the
rent.
“I’ve heard of some drivers who work 15 or 16 hours a day, and who
earn about $4,000 to $5,000 a month,” he said. “But on eight hours
a day, I highly doubt it’s possible to earn so much, unless you’re
lucky and always have people waiting for you everywhere you
go!”
Once in awhile, Yeo says he sees better months, with takings
exceeding $4,000 especially at Christmas and New Year. Apart from
that, though, he remains sceptical that it is possible to earn as
much as Hasnor does assuming the latter works just 8 hours a
day.
Blogger and taxi driver James Lim rebutted some of the various points in
the articles.
For example, he said, driving for eight hours a night on a good
day, he can take home about $158 after fuel and rental. In a month
of 25 days of work, his income can come to about $3,000. Even if a
driver does two shifts of 16 hours, he would get about
$5,400.
“But can a single person drive 16 hours a day without breaks for 25
days a month? Impossible, unless he is a robot,” he
said.
This situation seems to be the case even for younger drivers. One
37-year-old cabby whom Yahoo!
Singapore spoke
to, who has been plying the roads for the past five years, earns
roughly between $3,000 and $4,000 a month as well on the night
shift.
“It’s not every day that you can earn,” he said. “The increase in
flag-down fares and surcharges has made things easier for us, but
there aren’t always people around.”
He shared about a fellow taxi driver who had just started out three
months ago, and while that cabby does earn $6,000 a month, he
drives from 7:30am to 2:30am, six days a week.
“I asked him, how are you going to wake up for the next day? You
can’t keep this up, you’ll burn out,” he said, sharing also that he
supplements his income with a small online business selling mobile
accessories.
“If I could find a more stable job, I think I would prefer to stop
being a taxi driver, so that my income will be fixed,” he
added.
Data from the National Taxi Association seems
to also point to the possibility that Hasnor and Lewo may be
one-off success stories in the taxi industry here.
Advisor to the NTA Ang Hin Kee told Yahoo!
Singapore that
in general, most taxi drivers earn slightly more than $2,000 a
month after offsetting rental, fuel and ERP costs.
“Taxi drivers should not push their physical limit by spending more
hours on the road to earn more,” he said. “I spoke with some of the
more experienced taxi drivers and they have indicated that earning
a net income of $6,000 is almost what two drivers take in with
extra hard work. It is hence rather uncommon to achieve that kind
of amount driving alone,” he added.
is this one..........
In "The FlipSide", local blogger Belmont Lay lets loose on local
politics, culture and society. To be taken with a pinch of salt.
Parental permission is advised. In this post, he talks about the
recent media storm over the S$7,000-a-month cabby.
The recent news that taxi drivers are capable of earning big bucks
has not gone down well with Singaporeans.
It was reported by The Sunday
Times on Oct. 28 that two cabbies, Muhammad Hasnor
Hashim and Mark Leow, both 32, earned S$7,000 and S$6,000 a month
respectively as taxi drivers.
While Leow was spared most of the backlash, Muhammad has borne the
brunt of it.
What followed was not surprising: cynicism and backlash from an
incredulous public. (Since then,both the
cabbie and the reporter have
explained their side of the story)
And there are at least five good reasons why such news is bad for
everyone.
1. Fairy tales are different from good news
First and foremost, the S$7k-a-month cabbie news is essentially a
fairy tale. It is about an one-off occurrence, but wasn't presented
as such. And fairy tales aren't the same as good news.
While good news is verifiable with data, fairy tales are based on
word-of-mouth -- which is what it is in this case -- and paints an
overly rosy picture of life in Singapore.
While good news is supposed to make everyone feel better, fairy
tales tend to only make reporters look bad and their editors look
worse.
How?
2.Shoddy reporting
The basic fact is that the news story was written from a poor angle
that disregarded the wider facts and statistics of how much cabbies
really earned.
True, people want to read good news once in a while for a kick. But
they don't want to feel like an idiot reading it. Especially one
written with a pitiful lack of hard data.
Ultimately, what can be gleaned is the dubious underlying message
that anyone can make it given a bit of hard work.
And nobody likes to be told that they are less well-off simply
because they are not hardworking enough.
Not because it is misleading. But because it is simply not
true.
So where does this lead us?
3. Readers' intelligence taken for granted
With a simple back-of-the-hand calculation, any reader
can dismiss the
claim that Muhammad Hasnor Hashim makes "an average of
$7,000 a month working Mondays to Saturdays".
This very fact already takes for granted the intelligence of
readers. Worse, it makes them cynical and suspicious.
And what does it show? It shows shoddy work on the part of the
reporter. Someone who gives short shrift to mathematics. And
ignores common sense.
Because what is the ulterior motive of telling me something so
unbelievable? What is the point of this story?
Is it supposed to make people jealous? Why am I presented a
topsy-turvy view of Singapore?
4. Image of drivers tarnished
The larger implications can be felt almost immediately: the image
of taxi drivers is tarnished as it trivialises the work done by
them.
This point requires a bit of explaining. From the readers'
perspective, what are they supposed to imagine and believe?
That cabbies no doubt work hard driving around a lot but, hey, they
are capable of earning so much more than white-collar
professionals, so it shouldn't be so bad?
Well, that's absolute rubbish.
Cab drivers have it brutally bad. Next time you board a cab, talk
to the driver.
With more than 20,000 cabs plying the road on any given day, they
are fighting for scraps all the time.
And who makes up the bulk of them? The old, the unhealthy and those
who should be retired but cannot because they have a housing loan
to pay or kids to send to school.
5. Takes spotlight off taxi operators
The focus then should be on how much profits taxi operators, such
as ComfortDelGro, derive from the blood, sweat and tears of taxi
drivers.
A much more interesting question a newspaper should be asking is
what market forces are at work to determine the rental rate for
taxis daily.
If COE and housing prices can fluctuate, why not taxi rental
rates?
Where are the statistics? Where are the spokespersons from the
various transport operators?
Think about it: if taxi rental is S$100 a day, that's $2 million
worth of rental collected per day by taxi operators from at least
20,000 taxis.
That's $60 million a month and that sounds like a really
interesting news story.
Silver lining?
The silver lining from this case is that readers overall score much
higher in media literacy than perhaps what the government gives
them credit for.
Following the publication of the $7k-a-month taxi driver, people
have snorted, cast doubts and done their own homework.
Because deep down inside, people do know if anything is too good to
be true, it usually is.
And the last thing they want to read is a fairy tale. In a
newspaper.
