EVEN with their income declining by up to 50%, older taxi drivers continue to persevere and defend their livelihood.
Utusan Malaysia reported that the main challenge faced by these drivers has been the rising competition from e-hailing services over the past 10 years.
Taxi driver Adnan Abdul Rahman, 72, from Klang, said he is confident there was still demand for taxis.
“On average, I only earn a gross income of around RM50 a day, which is equivalent to five passengers. I even get as low as RM10 a day sometimes.
“It’s concerning, but the income is entirely for me as my children are grown up,” he said.
Adnan said due to his age, he has no other choice but to continue driving a taxi to make a living.
“Sometimes, there are requests to send customers to distant places. Like last month, there was a customer who asked to be sent to Kuala Selangor and I only charged him RM60.
“I can’t charge expensively for fear of customers refusing my service,” said Adnan, who has been driving for 20 years.
Solehan Suratman, 63, said he continues driving a taxi instead of becoming an e-hailing driver because he is no longer able to “chase trips”, unlike in his youth.
“If the car inspection day is near, I will spend RM600 to change tyres, black oil and brakes. The expense is only once a year.
“But when it comes to maintenance costs, I only spend more than RM100 a year. It’s my own car; there’s no need to pay rent to any company,” said Solehan.
He hopes the government wiThe above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.ll provide petrol subsidies to taxi drivers to reduce their daily operating costs.
