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Sunday, April 03, 2005
Roperos: Taxi drivers’ dilemma
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
What does a cab driver do when caught in a vise-grip of an economic dilemma?
One who deeply regretted their not being united in order to protect themselves from the current economic pressures that they are being subjected to have told me this tale of woe. He said that at the rate the price of gasoline is going upwards, and the way the taxi operators are increasing the daily rent per unit, they are feeling the mounting economic pressure driving them against the wall, especially those with families.
“Just think of this, sir,” said the driver in Cebuano, “when the new meters were re-sealed about a month ago, the price of gasoline was only P28 a liter.
Today, it is P31 per liter. On top of it, the taxi operators decided to increase the rental per unit of their taxi just because they paid more than P1,000 for the resealing of the meters.”
The driver said that the operators spent an average of about P1,500 for the adjustment, re-installation and resealing of the meters. But the average increase in rent ranges from P50 to P60. If so, recovery of the P1,500 resealing cost would only take a month based on a P50/day day rent.
Under such circumstance, operators are unduly being unfair to the taxi drivers many of whom could barely take home an average of P150 net day.
If one has a family of five to support, with the three children being of school age, the P150 or P200 net take home earning (after the P700-P800 average rent, P700-P800 cost of gasoline, P50 for meals, and P30 for car wash are deducted) would really not be enough.
How can P150 or P200 be enough, when a family of five would consume at least two kilos of corn grit or rice a day, the “skinned” No. 16 corn grit being priced now at from P16-P18 per kilo, and rice from P20-P24 per kilo? What about viand, and allowance for the three children?
I am only talking here of the medium-size taxi driver’s family. But most of the drivers I have asked own to having extended families that includes in-laws who come to look for jobs in the city. Then there’s payment for the TV set or cell phone bought on installment—which is now part of the bare minimum good life in the city.
But going back to “taxi driving” as a means of livelihood, my informant claims that jeepney drivers are faring better. The new taxi fare, with P30 flag down and P2.50 per 300 meters, is driving a good percentage of the riding public to the cheaper means of commuting.
Under the prevailing circumstance into which the taxi drivers have obviously been caught in, there is need for an urgent remedy.
The taxi-commuting public, I believe, are lucky in that the taxi drivers are not organized, and are incapable of starting a strike. With our estimated 5,000 taxi units operating in the city, what would happen if the drivers would do so? And what would the operators do, in the face of the reality that they are obviously the ones profiting from the dilemma?
Someone, somehow, among our high officials should, stand and extend a helping hand to our beleaguered taxi drivers. And the taxi operators, too, should not hide behind the rationale of the so-called rising cost of spare parts to make more money than their drivers who are, for all intents and purposes, doing the dirty job that they (the operators), might live luxuriously.
Sharing one’s good fortune is what Christ’s resurrection also seeks.
(April 3, 2005 issue)
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