Got this email form a friend.
I think this is interesting and like to share it here.
I needed to go to Pudong Airport, so I hurriedly concluded a
meeting and I was looking for a taxi in front of the Meiluo
building. A taxi driver saw me and very professionally came
in a straight line and stopped right in front of me.
Thus followed the story that astonished me greatly as if I had
attended a lively MBA course. In order to faithfully preserve
the intent of the taxi driver, I have tried to reproduce his
original words according to my memory.
"Where do you want to go? Good, the airport. At
Xujiahui, I loved to get business in front of the Meiluo
building. Over here, I only work two places: Meiluo building
and Junyao building. Did you know? Before I picked you
up, I circled around Meiluo building twice before I saw you!
People who come out of office building are definitely not going to
some place nearby ..."
"Oh? You have a method !" I agreed.
"A taxi driver must also have scientific methods," he said.
I was surprised and I got curious: "What scientific
methods?"
"I have to know statistics. I have made detailed
calculations. Let me tell you. I operate the car 17
hours a day, and my hourly cost is 34.5 RMB ..."
"How did you arrive at that?" I asked
"You calculate. I have to pay 380 RMB to the company each
day for the car. The gas is about 210 RMB. I work 17 hours
per day. On an hourly basis, the fixed cost is the 22 RMB
that I give to the taxi company and an average of 12.5 RMB per hour
in gasoline expenses. Isn't that 34.5 RMB?" I was a bit
surprised. I have taken taxis for ten years, but this is the
first time that a taxi driver has calculated the costs this
way. Previously, the taxi drivers all tell me that the cost
per kilometer was 0.3 RMB in addition to the total company fee.
"Costs should not be calculated on a per-kilometer basis.
It should be calculated on an hourly basis. You see, each
meter has a 'review' function through which you can see the details
of the day. I have done a data analysis. The average
time gap between customers is seven minutes. If I started
counting the costs when someone gets in, it is 10 RMB for about 10
minutes. That means each 10 RMB customer takes 17 minutes of
time, which costs 9.8 RMB (4.5 x 17 / 60). This is not making
money! If we say that customers who want to go to Pudong,
Hangzhou or Qingpu are like meals, then a 10 RMB customer is not
even a bite of food. You can only say that this is just a
sprinkle of MSG."
Great! This driver did not sound like a taxi driver.
He seemed more like an accountant. "So what you do
then?" I was even more interested and I continued my
questioning. It looked like I was going to learn something
new on the way to the airport.
"You must not let the customer lead you all over the
place. You decide what you want to do based upon the
location, time and customer." I was very surprised, but this
sounded significant. "Someone said that the taxi driving is a
profession that depends on luck. I don't think so. You
have to stand in the position of the customer and consider things
from the customer's perspective." This sounded very
professional, and very much like many business management teachers
who say "put yourself in others' shoes."
"Let me give you an example. You are at the entrance to a
hospital. There is someone holding some medicine and there is
someone else holding a wash basin. Which person will you pick
up?" I thought about it and I said that I didn't know.
"You take the one with the wash basin. If you have a minor
complaint that you want to be examined and to get some medicine,
you don't usually go to a faraway hospital. Anyone who is carrying
a wash basin has just been discharged from the hospital. When
people enter the hospital, some of them die. Today, someone on the
second floor dies. Tomorrow, someone on the third floor dies.
Those who make it out of the hospital usually have a feeling of
having been given a second life and they recognize the meaning of
life again -- health is the most important thing. So on that day,
that person told me, "Go ... go to Qingpu." He did not even
blink. Would you say that he wanted to take a taxi to People's
Plaza to transfer to the Qingpu line subway? Absolutely
not!"
I began to admire him.
"Let me give you another example. That day at People's
Plaza, three people were waving at me. One was a young woman
who had just finished shopping and was holding some small
bags. Another was a young couple who were out for a
stroll. The third one was a man who wore a silk shirt and a
down jacket and holding a notebook computer bag. I spent
three seconds looking at each person and I stopped in front of the
man without hesitation. When the man got in, he said: '
Yannan Elevated Highway . South North Elevated Highway
...' Before even finishing, he could not help but ask, 'Why
did you stop in front of me without hesitating? There were
two people in front. They wanted to get on as well. I
was too embarrassed to fight with them.' I replied, 'It is
around noon and just a dozen or so minutes before one
o'clock. That young woman must have slipped out at noon to
buy something and I guess that her company must be nearby.
That couple are tourists because they are not
holding anything and they are not going to travel far. You
are going out on business. You are holding a notebook
computer bag, so I can tell that this is business. If you are
going out at this time, I guess that it would not be too
close.' The man said, 'You are right. I'm going to
Baoshan.'"
"Are those people wearing pajamas in front of supermarkets or
subway stations going to travel far? Are they going to the
airport? The airport is not going to let them enter."
That makes sense! I was liking this more and more.
"Many drivers complain that business is tough and the price of
gas has gone up. They are trying to pin the cause down on other
people. If you keep pinning the cause on other people, you will
never get any better. You must look at yourself to see where
the problem is." This sounds very familiar. It seems like "If you
cannot change the world, then you should change yourself" or
perhaps a pirated copy of Steven Covey's "Circles of Influence and
Concern." "One time, on Nandan Road , someone flagged me down
and wanted to go to Tianlin. Later on, someone else flagged me down
on Nandan Road and he also wanted to go to Tianlin. So I
asked, 'How come all you people who come out on Nandan Road want to
go to Tianlin?' He said, 'There is a public bus depot at
Nandan Road . We all take the public bus from Pudong to
there, and then we take the taxi to Tianlin. So I understood.
For example, you look at the road that we just passed. There are no
offices, no hotels, nothing. Just a public bus station. Those
people who flag down taxis there are mostly people who just got off
the public bus, and they look for the shortest road for a
taxi. People who flag down taxis here will usually ride not
more than 15 RMB."
"Therefore, I say that the attitude determines
everything!" I have heard dozens of company CEO's say that,
but this was the first time that I heard a taxi driver say
that.
"We need to use scientific methods and statistics to conduct
business.
Those people who wait at the subway exits every day for business
will never make money. How are you going to provide for your wife
and kids at 500 RMB a month? This is murder? This is slowly
murdering your whole family. You must arm yourself with knowledge.
You have to learn knowledge to become a smart person. A smart
person learns knowledge in order to become a very smart person. A
very smart person learns knowledge in order to become a
genius."
"One time, a person wanted a taxi in order to get to the train
station. I asked him how he wanted to go. He told me
how to get there. I said that was slow. I said to get on the
elevated highway and go this other way. He said that it was a
longer way. I said, 'No problem. You have experience because you go
that way frequently. It costs you 50 RMB. If you go my way, I will
turn off the meter when it reaches 50 RMB. You can just pay me 50
RMB. Anything more is mine. If you go your way, it will take 50
minutes. If I go my way, it will take 25 minutes.' So in the end,
we went my way.
We traveled an additional four kilometers but 25 minutes
quicker. I accepted only 50 RMB. The customer was very delighted
for saving about 10 RMB. This extra four kilometers cost me just
over 1 RMB in gas. So I have swapped 1 RMB for 25 extra minutes of
my time. As I just said, my hourly cost is 34.5 RMB. It was quite
worthwhile for me!"
"In a public taxi company, an ordinary driver takes three to
four thousand RMB home per month. The good driver can get around
five thousand. The top driver can get seven thousand RMB. Out
of the 20,000 drivers, there are about two to three who can make
more than 8,000 RMB a month. I am one of those two or three.
Furthermore, it is very stable without too much fluctuation."
Great! By this point, I admired this taxi driver more and
more.
"I often say that I am a happy driver. Some people say, 'That's
because you earn a lot of money. Of course, you must be happy.' I
tell them, 'You are wrong. This is because I have a happy and
active mind, and that is why I make a lot of money.'"
What a wonderful way to put it!
"You have to appreciate the beauty that your work brings.
Stuck in a traffic jam at People's Plaza, many drivers complain,
'Oh, there's a traffic jam again! What rotten luck!' You must not
be like that. You should try to experience the beauty of the
city. There are many pretty girls passing by. There are many
tall modern buildings; although you cannot afford them, you can
still enjoy them with an appreciative look. While driving to
the airport, you can look at the greenery on both sides. In
the winter, it is white. How beautiful! Look at the
meter -- it is more than 100 RMB. That is even more
beautiful! Each job has its own beauty. We need to
learn how to experience that beauty in our work."
"Ten years ago, I was a general instructor at Johnson's.
Eight years ago, I had been the department manager for three
different departments. I quit because there was no point in
making three or five thousand a month. I decided to become a taxi
driver. I want to be a happy driver. Ha ha ha ..."
When we arrived at the airport, I gave him my business card and
said, "Are you interested in coming this Friday to my office and
explain to the Microsoft workers about how you operate your taxi?
You can treat it as if your meter is running at 60 kilometers per
hour. I will pay you for the time that you talk to us. Give me a
call."
Then I began to write down his lively MBA lecture on the
airplane.
“It is your attitude, not your aptitude, which determines your
altitude in life.”
he sounds like chairman mao.