I am a 35 years old citycab night shift relief. I recently turn
full time after driving part time for 4 years.
Instead of telling the normal pick up here and there, I’m going
to blog about the dark side of a night shift cab driver. I should
have been complained by paxs, but I’m still in the trade. Yet like
most cab drivers, I have no place to go to if I can’t drive a cab
anymore. So please pan chance.
Let intro a bit why I become a taxi driver. I’m a ‘O’ level with
a official tested IQ of 158. OK, first part reality – ‘O’ level +
35 years old = max. 2K salary(- cpf = 1.6K cash) which is not
enough for my family of 3 living in a 3 room flat. Second part, I’m
a natural facial, body language reader. It is so good that I can
know 95% if you are lying over the phone detecting from the
frequency of your tone (unless you are trained to cover your tone).
In other words, I am a code reader. It also becomes a curse when
put me in an office politic environment. Night shift is
GOOD for me, because it is dark and I don’t
need to see the pax faces. They’re picked, alighted, finish. Simple
business that I don’t need to think so much. I only need to think
about how to maximize the profit using the shortest hours.
Lucky for me, my math is also good. Whereas experienced drivers
based on their experience, time and location to pick up the paxs, I
incuded number of ‘green’ cabs, estimated market on the road, and
probability in my calculation as well. Example, Labour day night,
Tue, 1st of May – no one working, no one clubbing, no one go
shopping (because of the long weekends.) Everywhere, super long
‘green’ cab queue. Probability + some luck, I managed to hit $205
for a 6 hours work. Ability to read the situation and adjust is the
key.
Whereas normal nights when most drivers know where to go, I
become a “normal” driver again.
I am a rogue driver because I don’t share. Other drivers are my
competitors. Of course, respect and manner is another thing, which
I still got.
