Mr M, 47, was a former senior sales and marketing manager at an electronics MNC for nine years before he was retrenched in 2009. Married with a wife and twin teenage sons, he tried his hand at being a financial advisor for a year before deciding to become a taxi driver. He has been running his taxi service since 2011. He survived a heart-attack in late 2012 and now has four stents in his heart. His philosophy on life is now to live well, stay healthy and to share his real-life experiences. In his first post on Taxi Talk this week, he speaks about the ups and downs of being a taxi driver.
Taxi driving is a hard life as I work long hours of between 14 – 16 hours each day. On a typical week, I clock about 80 – 100 hours on the road.
It’s a job of “no choice of choices” as I shared with my fellow colleagues who have suffered the same fate as me and were also retrenched. Initially, it was tough going as my retrenchment benefits payout didn’t last me more than six months. I also became depressed and felt a deep sense of betrayal, self-denial and hopelessness.
I never imagined I would turn to running my own taxi as a full-time job. From a comfy $7,000/month job, I was relegated to earning a mere $2,000/month. My family’s lifestyle had to be adjusted, with steep cost-cutting measures ranging from eating more home cooked food, buying cheaper groceries, less time and money spent shopping, less TV and no holidays.
The initial job loss made the whole family very nervous. Nonetheless, I assured them that as the father and head of the family, we would overcome all adversity and I would strive to give them a good life and education. My kids were apprehensive and had their doubts about my new job -- whether I could cope with the job change, the difference in status, the safety of driving on the roads, and dealing with difficult customers.
Almost everyday, I would share with them my many encounters with customers and their stories and experiences, and how they could learn from these stories. After a few weeks of driving on the job, I had proved to them that all their doubts and worries were unfounded. They have since stopped worrying for me and re-focussed back on their studies.
Spending your entire day on the road can be stressful. Road bullying by heavy trucks, coping with peak hour traffic jams, accidents, dealing with unreasonable, unruly or drunk passengers are all part of a day’s work.
But with the strong support of my faith, hope and love from my family, I picked up the courage to inject new energy into my job and to think and act positively.
Despite working longer hours, I also learnt that being a taxi driver allowed me to adopt flexible time arrangement with family and friends. I began to enjoy picking up, meeting and talking to many different customers each day.
I also began to wear different hats for different purposes – tour guide, listener, consultant, counselor, story-teller, adviser, food expert and motivator.
Eventually I treated every day as a learning journey, sharing my life experiences with my customers while learning new skills of engaging customers on a wide array of topics.
Smart taxi driving is also about good time discipline and management, good local knowledge of roads as well as being able to take advantage of new technologies such as using GPS or iPhone apps. While on the road, I also take charge of my own health, listening to “new age” music to de-stress while trying to exercise regularly, eating a proper diet and having sufficient good rest.
I now try to maintain a positive and honest attitude, empathise and manage my customers’ expectations, as well as provide good customer support and services. “Driving is my business, communication is my hobby” is my new personal motto.
In this column, I will be sharing more about my daily encounters with my customers and my own personal reflections about life in Singapore. I hope to have your support. See you in my next column.
