I snatched her handbag...

Some family members have told me not to tell this story.  I'm a little bit embarrassed by it and it came at a time when I was inexperienced and a little naïve about taxi driving.

For a while there I loved Manuka rank.  It seemed to deliver good jobs but gradually I began to realise that I had just been lucky as most jobs are small jobs to the surrounding suburbs.  My two spewers were both from this rank so now I boycott it.

One night during my first couple of months of taxi driving I was waiting there at Manuka rank and a lady, about 55 or older, hobbled towards the taxi.  She got in and asked to be driven to a street in Yarralumla.  As we drove along things were going nicely and then she asked me to clean my windscreen as she couldn't see where she was going.  I did this but then she got all angry and asked me to pull over.  I did so and she started to get out.  I requested payment of the fare and she told me that she wasn't paying the fare and that I had been rude.  As she got out she said, "Sue me!"

It had been a really bad night, I had hardly made any money and something snapped in me.  I should have just let it ride but I got out of the taxi and demanded my $10.  She refused.  And this is where I did the wrong thing.  I grabbed her handbag and in the process she fell over.  As I walked off with her bag, she yelled at me, "My keys are in there."  And then she realised that she could not get up.  She called after me, "Ï'm really sorry, can you help me up and drive me home?"  I approached her, helped her up and led her back into the taxi.

Back in the taxi her whole demeanour changed.  She was quite chatty and friendly.  And then I got the question, it is the question that most foreign taxi drivers hate.  "Which country are you from?" she asked politely.  I was a little bewildered by this question as I had spoken in my broad Australian accent and I thought my blue eyes and brown hair would indicate that I had Anglo-Saxon heritage.  For some reason I lied and responded, "Afghanistan."  I didn't put on a foreign accent, I just spoke normally and in any case, I couldn't even do one foreign accent if my life depended on it.  Then she asked what my name was.  "Muhammed." I responded.  She then asked whether I was Christian or Muslim and I said I was Christian.  She then said that Muhammed was an unusual name for a Christian.  I thought I had been caught out but she ignored it and asked whether I was educated.  I said "No."  She then went on to ask why I don't educate myself to give myself a brighter future.  I replied that I had a wife and two kids to support and that I couldn't afford the time to study as I had to work seven days a week to support them. 

We pulled up at her townhouse and then she said she was so sorry for being so rude.  I responded that there had just been a misunderstanding.  The fare came to about $15.  She pulled out a $50 note and gave it to me saying that maybe I could buy my family a nice meal with the money.  I thanked her and said I will.  I helped her with her bags, taking them to the front door and then she hugged me and wished me all the best.

"People are strange, stranger than strange." - The Doors.  

Taxi driving: how much do we make?

A few times I have had public servants in my taxi asking me how much money I make.  Typically, they are washed up and pissed off APS6 employees who have worked the same job for ten years and are looking for an out.  The first thing I ask them is whether they have a mortgage.  A typical reply is "Yes".  Then I ask them how much they think I make and I indicate that I work approximately 70 hours a week.  Most of them think it would be around $20 an hour and so they say $1500 a week before tax.  This is when I laugh.  Most of them are quite astonished when I say that it works out at about half that.  They very soon start to realise that there is no way they can pay their mortgage as a taxi driver.  Last year I made $38,000, worked 6 nights a week, 11 hours each night, a couple of spewers, ten runners and thirty dickheads.  But most of the time I was having fun.  It certainly beats filing, reading emails, dealing with office politics, pushing paper and just generally doing nothing as an APS6 employee.

So if we look at the average night and day taking of a taxi, I think people will be quite surprised.  Remember that these figures are the total takings of a taxi, and the taxi driver takes half of it.

DAY SHIFT

Monday - $260
Tuesday - $265
Wednesday - $270
Thursday - $275
Friday - $280
Saturday - $220
Sunday - $270

TOTAL: $1840

So if I driver works 7 days a week (77 hours) they will make approximately $920 a week before tax.  After GST is taken out they make $836.  And after PAYG is taken out they make $727 a week.  Not a real good hourly rate when you work 77 hours - approximately $9.50 an hour.  Most drivers work 6 days a week - Monday to Saturday and make approximately $650 after tax is taken out.

NIGHT SHIFT

Night drivers generally fair better because you make better money on a Friday and Saturday night.

Monday - $240
Tuesday - $250
Wednesday - $270
Thursday - $300
Friday - $450
Saturday $425
Sunday - $250

TOTAL: $2185

So if a driver works 7 nights a week (and there are plenty that do) he will make $1092 a week.  After GST and PAYG is taken out he will make approximately $832 a week.  A better hourly rate than a day driver ($832/77 = $10.80).

Drivers in maxi taxis and 7 seaters have dramatically better income on a Friday and Saturday nights.  They can make up to $900 on the meter in a single night.  A few drivers work the maxi taxis and 7-seaters on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights and make the same amount per week as drivers who work six nights in normal taxis.  These are the lucky ones and they usually do some wheeling and dealing to get these nights in these kind of taxis.