A taxi driver earns S$9858 per month before expenses; how much are you earning?
Singapore January 22nd, 2008
Apparently, taxi drivers are earning the big bucks now. Since the fare hike in December, taxi drivers are raking in daily earnings of $318. It was not mentioned if that’s before paying for rental, but I’d presume so. Assuming a typical rental rate of about $96, a full diesel tank of about $40 and miscellaneous stuffs at $12, that’s about $148 off for expenses, which means the daily earnings is about $170. If the taxi driver works for 31 days in a month, his earnings is about S$5270. If his rental is only S$70 per day, we are looking at S$6076 per month! That’s a lot of money! And it’s nett earnings! (Ed: Do taxi drivers pay for their own CPF?)
Gosh! What I am doing in school?! Shouldn’t I be out there earning my $5k per month? By the way, I wonder if the tax man did his homework? We are looking at a potential annual income of about S$60,000. Are the taxi driers declaring their taxes correctly?
Or wait! Was there something wrong with the report or did someone sabo our minister?
THE recent taxi fare hike may have just put a lid on a cab crunch which was threatening to boil over.
If preliminary findings are anything to go by, Transport Minister Raymond Lim said the fare revision last month was ‘effective’ in meeting the increasing demand of taxis in the Central Business District (CBD).
Based on figures taken four weeks after the Dec 18 fare hike, Mr Lim said waiting times in the city area during peak hours have ‘gone down substantially’.
Mr Lim revealed that commuters in the city only have to wait for up to 6 minutes for a cab, significantly less than the 5 to 22 minutes before the fare hike.
Waiting times at the Suntec City taxi stands - said to be the worst performing of the lot - have been cut drastically from 22 minutes to 4 minutes.
While some cabbies have complained that passengers are not flagging taxis, Mr Lim said their earnings have however gone up.
Based on figures provided by ComfortDelGro, Singapore’s biggest taxi operator, cabbies are pocketing about $11 more a day, earning about $318.
Mr Lim was responding to questions from MP for Tampines GRC Ms Irene Ng and MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC Mr Baey Yam Keng in Parliament.
Mr Lim also allayed Ms Ng’s fears, saying that the extra surcharges for cabs plying the city areas would not pinch the supply in the suburbs.
The Transport Minister assured the House that the Land Transport Authority would continue to monitor the situation over the next 3 to 4 months and work with taxi operators and associations.
Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 22nd January 2008
About
Wow, haha. I think we should all go be taxi drivers already.
That’s interesting, because the cabbies might be milking us for our sympathy, since we’re all “Ohh dear how ever are you going to find yourself business now you poor soul”. If this is what’s going on behind the curtain, then…
Well I can’t do anything. But yeah, interesting possibility. Hurhur.
Mr Lim told you that all this information is based on preliminary findings and based on figures provided by ComfortDelGro (one company only - the biggest). They can choose taxi drivers that are really earn that average amount per day. If they take data from the computerised meter readings, you should see all earnings (from zero to the highest). Did that number comes from all taxi drivers or a portion of the drivers? Did they take the upper band of the earnings? If so, this would exclude low or zero earnings. Whatever method used will affect the average. We need the data, show me the data. Don’t give me the final numbers.
It has come to a point that whatever statistics that our esteemed ministers quoted, we should take them a whole mountain of salt. Say what!! I should trust you, show me real data first and then maybe, just maybe, I can trust you.
I don’t think they use only 1 tank of disel a day lei? Maybe more, I am not sure. Have to find out the mileage per litre of diesel and how much they drive in order to earn that 318.
Finally, I don’t think you should calculate for 31 days. 20 days are more reasonable? I mean you also don’t work 31 days right!
They sure they can rely just on 1 tank of fuel to run around Singapore for 24 hours? Have they ever tried that?
Sure or not?
I should go drive taxi. Anyone want to be my relief driver?
A typical taxi driver needs to pump at least S$100 of petrol per day. I have asked this many times randomly to a taxi driver, so minus another $1800.
Something just does not compute lah…
Sharp drop of 80% in waiting time is likely to come from a rather substantial drop in passengers…so how can it lead to a jump in income for all cabbies?
I suspect the devil is in the details and they are not presenting all the facts to us
Diesel folks, diesel. But cost does come up to between $80 to $100 a day. Taxi rentals range between $90 (toyota crown) and $135 (Mercedes).
All in, a raxi driver that drives a full day should STILL be able to cover his costs by evening.
Everything after that is pure profit PROVIDED that the driver does not pick and choose his customers.
I am a moron, yet I am not convinced by what I heard from the Minister. And I wonder whether we are sincerely and honestly informed by our leaders or are they leading us by our noses.
Btw, Iras will be able to give us an ‘accurate’ answer, when the cabbies file their income taxes for the Year2008. Can Iras enlighten us when data becomes available?
Especially for new taxi models (which you see most of the time), the taxi rentals are usually $96 and up. Assuming an average taxi rental of $100 per day and $100 diesel used per day, that makes the taxi operating costs $200 per day. So they make $318-$200 a day. If they work full 30 days per month and drive from 6.00am to 4.00pm (assuming 10 hours each day), they make $3540. If they work like office staff, 5 days a week only, their earnings will be about $2360.
If your current job pays more than $2360 by working 5-days per week, you are better off doing what you are doing now. Taxi drivers do not have sick leave, annual leave and CPF (they pay their own). They also do not enjoy company paid insurance.
Taxi drivers job is really not rosy nor cosy.
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I waited at a very long taxi queue at the Raffles Quay taxi stand at 12:05 a.m. this morning (23/1/08) and at 12:45 a.m. it was my turn, one passenger boarded my taxi. “Indus Road, please.” It was a 10 minute drive. “How much?”, she asked. “$7.20 inclusive of mid night surcharge, thank you”, I replied. She thanked me before leaving my taxi. For that 50 minutes, my business was $7.20. Please tell me how could I earn $318.00?
It is because they did not tell us everything. And I think that Mr Lim probably knew about it and he somehow “forgot” to tell us the exact details. ComfortDelGro probably knew about how the figures come about.
How much do cabbies really earn? (TodayOnline - 25 Jan 2008)
“And it was, but as ComfortDelGro has since clarified, $318 accounts for a taxi’s takings over two shifts.
With most taxis shared between two drivers, to defray costs and working hours, the average daily takings for each cabbie — before deducting rent and petrol costs — would work out to $159. Minus expenses, this would mean the average driver pockets about $85 a day.”
Can you see how the figures were so grossly misrepresented just to paint a nice and beautiful picture for the taxi drivers. The difference between $318 and $85 cannot be a “honest mistake”, right?
So, the $318 earning are for two drivers. And Mr Lim provided the impression that it was one driver, or is he trying to say that the earnings are for one taxi.
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Yes, Comfort Delgro is really misled all public about taxi drivers earning… If you calculate the earning of just $85 per day, the poor driver need to driver at least 12 Hrs. That is only $7 per hours….
When comparing to office worker working 44hrs per week that will be only $1232 per month.
And he has to contribute to the CPF….
[…] A taxi driver earns S$9858 per month before expenses; how much are you earning? […]
i dont want study liao
i want to become taxi driver
I am a 36 yo and I am a housewife after my second child which was about 3 years ago, now I just got my Taxi VL. Still thinking whether to get a job or drive taxi??? Headache….
If a taxi driver drives continuosly for 12 hours everyday like a laborer, he can get between 3 to 4k nett provided he worked everyday of the month. He doesnt have sick leave, annual leave or CPF. More imptly, he doesnt have a life. He got to stop to sneak into public toilets and worried he get fined for illegal parking.
To be alert for 12 hours is different from 8 hours of working for people, becos a worker can relax during work when he is tired, whereas the taxi driver concentrates 12 hours on the road. A worker goes home and has time to do his thing, and saturday and sunday is free time. A worker has got career path, market value with experience and the potential of increased pay every year.
Finally, a worker earning $2,500 excluding CPF and bonuses is far better paid than a taxi driver getting $3,500. A worker works 40 hours a week for that sum, a taxi driver works 80 over hours to get the same returns, without annual and sick leave entitlement.
I forgot to mention, to earn $9,858 gross (not counting expenses) a taxi driver got to work 24 hours on the road for 30 days non-stop. Also the amount $9,858 is gross before taking into consideration expenses of rental and petrol, approx $4,000 pm. Hence, the nett amount for 2 shifts should be about $6,000 or $3,000 nett per shift.
This is the accurate picture that high level people should convey the info.
Thus to say that taxi drivers get $9,858 is a gross misinformation.
Will the writer of this post please come forward. If you assume that taxi drivers can make 5k a month, I will be most willing to handover the taxi for you to try just 1 day and if you can really make 318 as what the media claim, will pay you dollar for dollar meaning you will get 318 x 2 = 636. Deal?
Paparazzi will always be a paparazzi as this is their job to conjour tales into make believe tales so idiots will buy their newspapers and keep them in their job security.
Depending on the car model, the cost of hiring and maintaining a taxi should be far less than $50 per day. It is raised to $70/$100+ becos on the assumption that the hirer can rent the taxi out. therefore, the hire fees is calculated for 2 round-the-clock hirers in order to get maximum profits. (many hirers who uses the taxi for the whole day, still got to pay the full rate meant for 2 shifts.) The attractive margins have resulted in a number of new entrants rushing in for the pot of gold.
Since it is the taxi hire fees, up to $100++ per day and going UP that is making the taxi drivers worked hard for the companies, one solution to get a better deal is get together to form a separate co-operative where taxi drivers CHIP in to set up their own company. This reduces the hire costs as well provides year end rebates from the profits made.
Interested, please contact me;
yourbossboss@hotmail.com
When a tenant of a shop rakes in good money, does his life improves exponentially?
If say he rakes in $3,000 per month to feed his family. And the following year with an economic boom, his monthly profits increased to $6,000 per month. The landlord, well aware of the boom, could raise his rent by an additional $3,000. Hence despite working harder in serving additional customers and getting $3,000 more takings, the tenant still takes home $3,000.
The landlord has the right to cream off his additional $3,000 profits. By owning the premises he is in a position of control to raise rental as he sees fit. The tenant do not have any control. The relationship between a taxi operator and the hirer is similar. While the operator may laugh his way to the bank, the hirer has to work doubly hard to service increasing rental.
Taxi passengers are just a bunch of useless bums. To make matter worst, LTA & MOT are another idiotic department who doesn’t know what is it like being behind a wheel for 15 hrs on the road.
I used to hate taxi drivers for that longer route taken, over-charging, being choosy in preference to long distance rather than short distance and after I had taken to taxi driving, and still love this job as it has a flexible time of my own, I now understand why taxi drivers behaves this way. Don’t shift the blame to taxi drivers… it’s YOU the passengers that doesn’t appreciate taxi because you are too pampered by the damn Government of Singapore.
Come and try taxi driving before you complain and whine like a dog!
Im looking for a Comfort hirer.Living in Woodlands st 41 area.Any shift can negociates.Please contact me at dark_trinity.punk@hotmail.com.Thank you.
Opps sry…e-mail.dark_trinity.punk@hotmail.com