JEDDAH, 24 November 2004 — If you’re the kind of person who craves danger, limousine driving might just be the thing for you. Unfortunately, most limousine drivers are more interested in making a living than thrillseeking.
Limousine driving has become one of the most dangerous jobs in Jeddah. Drivers face many dangers, including car thefts, robberies, carjackings, and, in some cases, murder. Arab News interviewed some of the drivers to give readers an idea of what it’s like to be behind the wheel and why many of the faretakers are considering saying farewell to increasingly mean streets.
“I have been thinking recently of leaving this job for good because it is not worth the time and the money is not good,” said Iqbal Muhammad, a Pakistani limousine driver. “I was robbed twice by young Saudis. The first time was three years ago when I drove two young Saudis from downtown to the Breman neighborhood east of Jeddah at night. When I arrived to their specified location and asked them to pay, the man in the back put a knife to my neck and demanded all my money. I gave him all my money — SR220 that time.
“The second time — eight months ago — I was robbed by an African gang that took my money and quickly disappeared. In both cases, I reported it to the police, but they’ve had no success in catching them so far. I think it is better to be careful in this job than to depend on police for help.”
“The problem is that we are not respected by people or police,” said Muhammad Mahran, an Egyptian limousine driver. “I’ll give you an example. A reckless driver rear-ended me. When police arrived, they blamed me because I’m a limo driver, and we have a reputation of being bad drivers. Strangely, police put 50 percent of the blame on me. Criminals target us because we are easy to get, and no one cares about justice for us. I regard this job as the most difficult and dangerous because we have to deal with problems every day.”
“Drivers will be fine as long as they avoid driving south at night,” said Fahulrahman Basheer, a Sudanese limousine driver. “I was told that by a police officer. He told me that finding criminals robbing limousine divers is impossible because by the time police arrive to the place, criminals will be far away. In my opinion, criminals find limousine cars easy and available to use it to commit their crime. It happened to many of my friends who were beaten by people — Saudis and non-Saudis. Their cars, money and identification were stolen.”
It’s enough to make a driver think about giving up.
“I have a family back home, and I began to seriously think of finding another profession,” Basheer said. “Lately, I have been reading in the news about murder crimes that happened to limousine drivers, which always makes me think what if it happened to me.”
And sometimes, enough is enough.
“I closed my limousine company after the many losses I was hit with because of crimes,” former limousine company owner Jaber Abdul Razzak told Arab News. “Three of the company cars were stolen. One was never found and two were found but with many parts missing. Since I was losing money, which is the opposite concept of making money when starting a business, I found it easier to save whatever I had left and change my line of business to something safer for my money — and my workers.”
There are worse things than getting robbed or having a car stolen.
“Limousine driving in Jeddah is not safe anymore because they use the cars in criminal activities,” Razzak said. “The most recent case was the two limousine car bombings in Jeddah a few months ago.”
An Arab News reporter stood by Tahlia Street to hail up a limousine to go to south Jeddah at 11 p.m., to see how many drivers would take the fare.
When the reporter informed the driver about his destination, most drivers balked and just drove away. It happened more than 16 times.
Finally, a Saudi limousine driver stopped and agreed to take the reporter to the location south of Jeddah. He told the reporter that regardless of a driver’s nationality, it’s important to be wary of just about everything.
“There are many things to avoid at night, one of them is to take a group of young Saudis with you because there is a chance that they might rob you or steal the car,” the driver said. “Avoid picking up young Saudis and suspicious-looking people from areas like the beach or south of Jeddah. Avoid driving to south Jeddah at night, especially neighborhoods like Karantina, Hindawiya and Ghulail. If the driver chooses to go to south Jeddah, then he should avoid driving the narrow streets and drop the customer on a major one. Avoid picking up single women at night because they are nothing but trouble. The driver has to develop a sixth sense to differentiate between bad customers and good ones. Picking the right customer at the right time and driving him to the right place is the key to avoid robbery in Jeddah.”
