RIYADH, 5 November 2006 — Some children tease the drivers, knocking on the windows of their coasters and calling them “Minahi.” For those who do not know, “Minahi” refers to the famous Saudi TV sitcom starring Faiz Al-Maliki. He played a Saudi man in Riyadh who owns a coaster and transports customers for SR2 per passenger. The reality is, however, that a Saudi coaster driver has a lot to put up with for SR2 a person.
With no clear police system organizing them, Saudi drivers in Riyadh’s Al-Batha district find themselves facing a wide range of problems. As there is no bus system in the Saudi capital, the coasters provide transportation for thousands of residents who use them every day to go to work and then to return home in the evening.
Salah Al-Muwallad, 65, says he has been working as a coaster driver in the capital since the 1960s when a ride cost 20 halalas (four guroosh). He starts his day by getting up at 7 a.m. and then waiting his turn in a line of coasters. His vehicle, a 1978 model without airconditioning, accommodates 25 passengers. His route begins in Al-Batha and ends in Olaya; from Olaya, he returns to Al-Batha. When he arrives back in Al-Batha, he joins the line of coasters. The drivers organize themselves in a line next to the sidewalk in front of Al-Batha Central Market. When the driver of the bus at the head of the line has filled his bus, he leaves and the next one moves up. Al-Muwallad is on the job until 11 or 12 every night. He explained that every driver must get the proper documents from the Ministry of Transport. These include his license to work as a coaster driver and also his specified route. Naturally, he must have a valid driver’s license and a valid car registration (istimara) as well. The other requirement is that he must have insurance which covers him and the bus in case of an accident.
Like many other Saudi coaster drivers, Al-Muwallad does not own his vehicle. He rents it from another man for SR140 a day. On his route which takes him back and forth between Al-Batha and Olaya four to five times a day, he earns SR300. And this is for an 18-hour day. Once he has paid the owner of the vehicle, he keeps about SR160 a day.
Al-Muwallad says the traffic police routinely hassle drivers even though all their papers are valid. The reason, according to him, is that those drivers do not have wasta — connections — while others do. “Some officers in the traffic police have relatives who work as coaster drivers. The bus driver calls the policeman and asks him to tell a policeman in the area to move him up in the line. In most cases, the drivers with wasta are left alone while others are given a hard time.” He also mentioned that many drivers who have connections with the traffic police do not have the required documents but still manage to work without any problems.
In addition to the problem of wasta, Al-Muwallad says there is a lot of prejudice in the job. “Sometimes when a police officer stops a driver and then finds that he is from a certain tribe, he lets the driver go. As for the others, they are often given tickets for no good reason or asked to leave the area.”
Al-Muwallad also said there were fat cats with full-time jobs who work as bus drivers in the afternoon. He said he did not have a high school certificate and had a family to support; he wondered why other people with big bank accounts and rental property were forcing him to share a piece of the cake.
“This is all I have,” he said. “I do not have another job and have nine children in Kuwait to feed. What I earn every day is not enough for me to bring my family here to Saudi Arabia.” He points out that he does not own a home and sleeps under bridges. His clothes are left at the laundry and he uses mosque bathrooms whenever nature calls. “I take showers in bathrooms provided by the municipality in parks,” he said.
As if he did not have enough trouble, Al-Muwallad said that passengers were another ordeal. “Some passengers urinate in empty water bottles and leave the bottles in the vehicle. Others tear up parts of the seat,” he said. Sometimes, he said, passengers start quarreling over a seat and he has to intervene. When we asked him about the nationalities of most passengers, he said the majority were from Asian countries but there were Arab passengers as well.
Al-Muwallad said it was unfortunate that many people had a bad image of the coaster drivers, believing them irresponsible, reckless or on drugs. “I have never had an accident,” says Al-Muwallad, saying that all he wanted from this job was to earn an honest living.
He wished that Saudi investors would provide new coasters on an installment basis to drivers and allow them to end up owning the vehicle. This is being done by Abdul Latif Jameel Group in Jeddah. Despite his limited means, Al-Muwallad”s coaster was the only one in Al-Batha that was newly painted and had new upholstery. “Passengers want a comfortable ride,” he added.
