Over the course of the year, the private hire car industry has seen extreme fluctuations in its performance due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With the country slowly easing back to normalcy, can these drivers expect the same to happen to them?
“I earned around $500 a day (before CoVID-19), but I only earn around $250 now,” says Law Teck Choon, 53, who has been working as a full-time Grab Driver for the past three years to feed his family of four.
Photo from Evan Law
Mr Law getting ready to start his day’s drive at the usual 7:15am timing.
Circuit Breaker Situation
Since Singapore’s Circuit Breaker (CB) measures to combat the impact of Covid-19 kicked in, private-hire drivers like Mr Law have experienced a major reduction in their income.
Source: Ministry of Trade & Industry Estimates
According to statistics from the Ministry of Trade & Industry, The
Circuit Breaker measures from 7 April to 1 June is estimated to have reduced Singapore’s 2020 GDP by 2.2%. In nominal terms, the total economic cost of the CB measures to the Singapore economy is estimated at around $11 billion.
As part of the Circuit Breaker measures, a large number of Singaporeans have been bound to their homes. This has affected the supply of customers that use grab-hailing app services such as Grab, GoJek or Ryde, resulting in a drastic decrease in demand for their services.
Lesser passengers, lesser income
“There is practically no one around, less than 10 bookings per day”, says Mohd Faizal Osman, 38, a full-time Grab driver since November 2018.
Due to the dry spell season caused by the lockdown, Mr Osman mentioned that he had resorted to working additional jobs such as a parcel and delivery personnel to make ends meet.
Like Mr Osman, other drivers had also resorted to finding alternatives to adapt to the reduction in demand for Point-to-Point (P2) transportation services. Mr Ramalingan Kulanthivel, a ComfortDelGro taxi driver for 6 years took a 70 percent fall in earnings. To sustain, he became a transport ambassador - where he ensures that commuters abide to safe distancing measures when taking public transport.
Gradual recovery
As restrictions eased during Phase One, P2Ps were slowly getting back on their feet as Singaporeans were allowed to travel back to their places of work.
Unfortunately, the relief of some commuting restrictions did not bring much business for those in the ride-hailing industry.
“I could only get passengers from housing areas and markets,” Mr Law said, “but I still needed to wait a long time before finding them.
This was because a select few businesses and services were allowed to slowly resume activities at their workplaces. Most retail outlets and other personal services were still not allowed to re-open in Phase One.
From passenger pickup to food delivery
The pandemic situation also posed an additional challenge, as most Singaporeans were losing their jobs - leading to a hunt for alternative sources of income. These alternatives came in the form of delivery riders, safe distancing ambassadors and private hire drivers.
In a CNA article, it was stated that food delivery company Deliveroo saw an 80 per cent increase in rider applications in the month of April, and welcomed over 1,000 riders to the fleet “to meet the growing demand for food delivery” during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ho Yong Sern Winson, a current Grab driver for 4 years in his late 40s, was one of those who transitioned to the food delivery industry and thanked GrabFood for its existence. He mentioned that even though there was a low number of people travelling, there was a high amount that were using food delivery services. Thus, he moved from picking up passengers to picking up food orders.
The cost of being a private hire driver
Another factor that contributed to Mr Ho’s temporary career switch were the costs that one incurs as a Grab driver. Fees such as rental, fuel, parking and toll take up a chunk of their income and requires them to carefully plan out their expenses.
Mr Osman sets a target for himself of getting a daily profit of $300 dollars per day, to cover fixed costs such as car rental and commission fees, such as Grab’s 20% commission. There are also variable costs that can fluctuate such as petrol, cashcard and servicing fees.
For drivers like Mr Osman and Mr Ho, the duration of a typical day's work lasts between 10-12 hours on average to generate a profit that is just enough to feed their families.
Photo from Evan Law
Mr Law prefers to drive around the town area as there are usually more passengers to pick up there.
In Mr Osman’s case, he starts his work “from 7.30am and breaks for lunch anywhere from 10am to 11am.” The rest of his day will consist of separate block shifts with breaks in between, until his last shift at 11pm at night.
The both of them have accepted that the long hours are required in order to make the day’s work worth it. If they do not meet these hours, they may not be able to sustain a profit.
Government’s aid to tide through the times
To aid in easing the situation for private hire drivers, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) put into place a $73 million Special Relief Fund (SRF) to help active full-time taxi and Private Hire Car (PHC) drivers defray business costs. The fund was eligible for active full-time taxi and PHC drivers, who could receive up to $20 per vehicle per day for three months.
Photo from Audi Khalid/FB
At the peak of Covid 19’s impact, many Singaporeans formed long queues to claim the financial aid the Government was providing.
Grab partnered with the government towards the SRF, by piloting a programme that allows driver-partners coping with the decrease in ride demand, to supplement their earnings by making food and parcel deliveries during off peak hours.
In addition, as part of the government’s resilience budget, self-employed persons were awarded $1000 a month for 9 months, as part of the measures to support them.
Mr Law was eligible to receive all the funds and mentioned that they did help but were only enough to cover the maintenance fee. He also felt that the support from the government only provided temporary aid and did not provide him with financial security in the long run.
Not as bad as it seems
Despite what seems to be a daunting line of work, Mr Law says that some of the passengers he meets make the job more tolerable.
“There was a time when a passenger just gave me a bag of potato chips that she bought from her grocery shopping after asking if I had eaten yet” Mr Law warmly recalls from one of his trips during a night drive.
The kindness is not one-sided on Reddit, a community forum, as users explain how they go the extra mile to ensure comfort when there are passengers in their cars.
Source: Reddit
Mr Law also admits to suggesting his passengers make little requests to ensure an enjoyable trip.
He is grateful to those who still opt for private hire drivers and feels that it is the least he can do for them as they are doing him a favour more than he is doing them a service.
“I try to be nice to my drivers because I can always tell that they’ve had a longer day than me.” says Aaron Chia, 20, a Grab user who has accumulated over 1000 trips on his app.
Mr Chia takes a Grab ride for the most part of his week to commute to school due to the long distance he has to travel from his home in Lorong Chuan to his school in Dover. He also does so as he feels that it is still a risk to take public transport and be exposed to the virus.
Connecting through community
On top of loyal customers, the existence of online community groups also helped to cope with the demanding job.
Mr Law, along with Mr Ho and other drivers like Ong Kian Meng Simon, who frequents 13-hour shifts, are part of an online Facebook group called ‘Grab Kakis’ - an official community group hosted by Grab.
The now 5,933 members strong collective was created on 27 February, 2018, with the purpose of creating a safe community for Grab drivers to connect with one another and learn more about the industry.
Photo from Evan Law
What started from an online community forum developed into a close knitted friend group.
“We actually support and motivate each other.” says Mr Law, who sends and receives messages like Don’t worry, tomorrow will be a better day. He says that the group especially helped during the CB period when many drivers were on the brink of jumping ship.
Out of the 5.9k members, Mr Law developed a closer relationship with 10 of them, including Mr Ong and Mr Ho. When they complete their shifts, they will end their day by meeting up for supper. Through these meetups and occasional fishing sessions, they feel that their “bond gets stronger day by day”.
Photo from Evan Law
Mr Law feels that being a driver is like fishing as one needs patience to endure long trips and wait before a catch happens.
Even with the many challenges that the private hire industry faced this year, drivers like Mr Ong doubt they will ever stop being one anytime soon.
“I think the most important criteria for this job is you need to love to drive. If you don’t like to drive, especially for long hours, I think you will give up within 1 month. So if you love to drive, then you can sustain for a long time.”
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