JEDDAH, 8 December 2007 — Pickups can often be seen parked in long queues near Saudi public schools (for boys) right around the time for students to go home. For a small fee, these informal livery drivers will give rides to the students, often returning the same day to pick up another load of children.

For two riyals, a student can ride “first class” in the air-conditioned luxury of the vehicle’s cab; for one riyal, they can sit in “economy class”, otherwise known as the bed of the pickup truck.

“I make 20 to 30 riyals per day, which makes a big difference in my budget,” said Ayed Al-Silami, owner of a pickup truck parked in line in front of Jeddah’s Al-Shati School on Makkah Road.

Al-Silami also uses his truck for delivery services at local markets, but every school day around noon he heads over to the school because it’s essentially a guaranteed income for that day. Arab News observed several drivers pick up about 10 students per trip. Although this practice is illegal, the informal school transport business seems to be a growing trend.

Al-Silami, who is in his late 50s, said that during his 15 years of offering rides to students he has seen a big increase in the number of these drivers.

“In the past you could see two or three pickups and now you find more than 20 in a row,” he said.

Salem Al-Garni, a pickup owner in his 40s, said that students have grown so accustomed to using this service that they plan for the expense.

“Sometimes when we get chased away by the traffic police, we hear the kids complaining the next day that they had to walk long distances to reach home because they couldn’t afford a taxi,” said Al-Garni, who added that he sometimes gives the rides for free to the occasional cash-strapped pupil.

The business is so robust that the drivers have organized a system that allows all of them equal time to take kids home. Students have become accustomed to getting into the pickup at the front of the line.

“When a pickup driver finishes his route and wants to go back he has to park at the end of the queue,” said Al-Garni.

Ahmad Al-Kadi, a student at Al-Shati, said that he lives about three kilometers from the school.

“I come to school with my father who drops me on his way to work and I have to manage my own return,” he said, adding that sometimes he doesn’t buy breakfast at school in order to save some money for the ride home.