It’s saddening news to read that the lives of cabbies are getting harder and harder. In these trying times, it was revealed that cab drivers need to fork out $90 a day for rental of the cab. This is exclusive of diesel, meals and miscellaneous expenses.
The monthly cost of being a cab driver is approximately S$3,000. Many drivers are finding it really hard to pay that amount. Seriously, HOW MANY people are earning $3,000 a month pre-tax? Take any middle-income earning white-collar worker with bills to pay. Assuming they had a property loan to pay, amounting to $3,000 a month (this implies a really expensive private condo), they would need to earn approximately $6,000 a month to cover everything and still have cash left over for savings or basic necessities. $6,000 post tax and CPF comes out to about $4,000. Deducting $3,000 for loan payments, you’d be left with a measly $1,000 for saving or worse, more bills like kids’ tuition fees and electricity. How does someone earn $6,000? This chap would have to be a stellar white-collar worker with prolly a honours or masters degree.
For a cab driver to earn $6,000 would require all cab drivers to have bare minimum a honours or masters? You must be joking. Is ComfortDelgro hiring cab drivers or Admin Service Scholars?
The suits at ComfortDelgro (and other cab companies) don’t realise that the BACKBONE of the very existence of the cab business is the lowly cab driver you’re trying to screw. They are the backbone and lifeblood of the company: without them you can’t even exist as a company! As such, shouldn’t they be treated better? IMO cab drivers must be treated like shareholders of the company, and therefore have vested interests in the company.
How to have vested interests? One suggestion is for the rentals to be a percentage of earnings. If cabbies can earn past a benchmark (say $3,000 gross), they earn a stipend plus their percentage cut (say 40%). If they don’t, they just earn their basic cut. Good performers earn more in their cut via higher percentages or bonuses while poor performers get their worth. The cabbies earn, the company earns. They suffer, you suffer. That’s how a company ought to treat their lifeblood and backbone.
By slapping cabbies with a flat fee shows a cruel lack of empathy for your staff. Frankly it’s similar to illegal migrant workers in sweatshops: they earned basic wage then were charged “rent, meals and agency fees” and end up with nothing or even bigger debts to perpetuate the sweatshop shackling.
Is ComfortDelgro (and other cabbie companies) a sweatshop?
