JEDDAH — It’s been sitting downstairs outside my house now for three days. I was supposed to drive it 14 hours a day for three days. I spent a few hours in it the first day and called it quits for the day.
The next day I had to struggle with myself to get back into it and try it again for a few hours. The third day almost didn’t happen. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate the car itself, I just hate the way everyone treats me when I drive it.
The man that gave me the car warned me about what would happen when I got behind that wheel, therefore I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. He said, “No one will respect you. You’ll find that many people will target you for abuse. You will be cussed at, harassed, physically threatened and cheated. There is an 80 to 90 percent chance that you’ll be hit by another car, and the police will blame you for it even if it’s not your fault. Believe me, this is not for you, but if you insist, you can try.”
“Well, why isn’t it for me?” I asked. After all, he knew nothing about me other than the fact that I am a Saudi man standing in his office, hoping he would let me rent a limousine from him. His simple answer was: “You are a Saudi. Saudis don’t make good limousine drivers.”
With Saudization of the limousine industry right around the corner, I was curious to find out why. “I brought on ten Saudi drivers to drive for me. As a result, I am out well over SR 14,000. They leased the cars from me for three days, but kept them for as long as a month. When I went to the police, they made me sign a paper that said they will bring my taxis back only if I agree not to prosecute the drivers for auto theft. They said any money owed to me would have to be collected in civil court.”
“Apart from that, what future is there in limousine driving for Saudis? There are no promotional opportunities, no raises, no healthcare benefits, no vacation time, no housing allowance, not even a gas allowance. If you come to work, you will probably make money, if you don’t you will make nothing. Sometimes the drivers end up owing the company money after driving the whole shift”, the limousine company manager said.
He continued to explain that in Jeddah, there are over 300 limousine companies operating close to 50,000 cars that are rented by those who drive them. The company I rented the car from, rents the car to a driver for SR 125 per day.
So the first SR 125 including tips goes to the limousine company, all money after that goes to the driver. The normal driver working a non-stop 14-hour day makes an average of SR 50 per day over the SR 125. However, there are times when a driver goes out to drive the entire shift and does not make the money to cover the lease.
“Most Saudis have a hard time working non-stop for 14 hours in the heat fighting traffic. For single men, this is not a problem. But most people that come to drive are married and have family commitments throughout the day that take away from the time a driver needs to be on the road to turn a profit. The limousine business is a very inflexible and unforgiving business”, he continued.
While in California studying, I owned and operated a small taxi business, so I knew what life for a taxi driver in California was like, and it was nowhere near as harsh as what this man described. I wanted to try it for myself. So off I went with one of the company’s limousines.
During the ten minute drive to the compound where I live, I was cut off three times, honked at several times, suffered at least two obscene gestures from other drivers and was almost forced onto the sidewalk once.
People were so aggressive toward me that I found myself having to become aggressive and downright pushy and rude, otherwise there was no getting anywhere.
I don’t know who started the aggressiveness back in the days when limousines were first introduced, but this feud between limousine drivers and other drivers has been going on for decades.
One driver compared the intolerance and aggression between taxi drivers and others to the intolerance between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. (To be continued)
- Arab News Features19 June 2003
