summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2009-07-21 10:30 am
summercomfort) wrote2009-07-21 10:30 am
Things I learned from Taxi Drivers pt.3*
Last blomit for today. My uncle says that Beijing Taxi Drivers are a sight unto themselves, because they can talk your ear off about anything.
About the business
- There are about 200 taxi companies in Beijing. They are mostly the same, with slightly different fees. To be a driver, you basically call around until you find a company that has a fleet taxi that needs a driver
- You have to sign a 5 year contract with the company. The fine for breaking the contract is 20,000 rmb.
- The cost of all the expenses comes out to 400rmb each day, so a driver needs to work 16 hours a day to make a profit of 200 rmb. The average income for cab drivers is 300 rmb.
- There's not that much more money to be made in the unlicensed taxi business, because you've gotta keep a low profile, so you just drive around the neighborhood for 10rmb rides, and only a few hours a day.
- They have monthly training sessions where they talk about new policies, strategies for dealing with lawsuits, etc.
- For the year before the Olympics, there was an additional monthly session that talked about various foreign customs. These sessions took out 3 hours driving time from the drivers.
- The fare machine on each car needs to be checked-in every 10 days, wherein you go to the company headquarters, it downloads all the data, and is licensed out to you for another 10 days.
- People sue you for no reason.
- There are special cars where if you pay a special rate, they'll take off all the taxi stuff and make it look like a private car
From Driver A: (to the forbidden city)
- He doesn't trust the government and the media anymore because he was there during the 6/4 Tiananmen stuff "People were falling down next to me and I was trying to carry them to the hospital and then the news said that no one died"
- He thinks the government has pushed out all the native Beijing people to the outskirts of the city and replaced them with non-Beijing 外地人 as a punishment for 6/4 and to prevent further unrest
- He misses the 70s when people were actually moral and good, and laws were enforced. Now Beijing is run amok with 外地人 who don't follow the rules, and there's no one to catch them on it due to corruption, etc.
- "Beijing Olympics have not benefitted any of the ordinary folks"
- He hates the recent policies that only benefit the wealthy/powerful -- houses are too expensive, doctors get kickbacks from medicine companies, etc.
- "Which is why I don't care about these things anymore. I just make enough money for my family."
From Driver B: (from the forbidden city)
- Tickets to Forbidden City used to cost only 0.50 rmb (now it's 60).
- There wasn't that much travel in the 70s because of the regionality of ration tickets. In order to travel to Beijing from Shanghai, you needed to go through the proper authorities to get your Shanghai ration tickets exchanged for nationwide ration tickets.
From Driver C: (to siheyuan)
- Taxi Drivers are hesitant about picking up foreigners due to communication issues, and from fear of lawsuits. Also, a lot of the drivers are from the surrounding countryside.
- Shanghai Longtangs are weird because you have all the underwear just hanging out there. Hutong are much more private. They'd hang the clothes in the courtyards, and even then cover a bra with a shirt
- He has a friend who's married/divorced 3 times, and is totally skeezy, and only cares about getting women into bed.
From Driver D: (to yuanmingyuan)
- People here don't really like KFC, they just worship Western stuff.
- Chinese food tastes way better than all the other nations' foods because there's way more artistry and fewer recipes involved.
- Pizza is just 饼 and Spaghetti is just 炒面.
From Driver E: (from Yuanmingyuan)
- He's 3 months new to the job
- He used to drive an unlicensed taxi
- He grew up in the countryside, and then joined the army for 5 years, and then worked in a factory.
- No state secrets were divulged
- He's proud of all the civil service type stuff that the military does, especially disaster relief.
- He believes that military action in other countries is okay if it's in service one's own country and if it brings peace to the other country.
(Things got a little awkward here, so I commented on presence of all the foreigners in Beijing)
- Beijing is being corrupted by foreigners -- especially their casual attitude about dress -- the flip-flops (拖鞋), the scanty coverings...
(I pointed out that Chinese people seem to have no problem with MEN walking around in the summer with their shirt tucked into their armpits, revealing their belly, or walking around in wifebeaters. But WOMEN with short shorts and bare shoulders are scandalous. It's vice versa in America. What up with that? He had no response, except to say that people are going to the department store in their PJs now, and that's the foreign influence, too.)
---
* pt 1 would refer to last year's beijing taxi rides, and pt 2 would refer to US taxi rides. Yes, totally pulling a George Lucas here.
About the business
- There are about 200 taxi companies in Beijing. They are mostly the same, with slightly different fees. To be a driver, you basically call around until you find a company that has a fleet taxi that needs a driver
- You have to sign a 5 year contract with the company. The fine for breaking the contract is 20,000 rmb.
- The cost of all the expenses comes out to 400rmb each day, so a driver needs to work 16 hours a day to make a profit of 200 rmb. The average income for cab drivers is 300 rmb.
- There's not that much more money to be made in the unlicensed taxi business, because you've gotta keep a low profile, so you just drive around the neighborhood for 10rmb rides, and only a few hours a day.
- They have monthly training sessions where they talk about new policies, strategies for dealing with lawsuits, etc.
- For the year before the Olympics, there was an additional monthly session that talked about various foreign customs. These sessions took out 3 hours driving time from the drivers.
- The fare machine on each car needs to be checked-in every 10 days, wherein you go to the company headquarters, it downloads all the data, and is licensed out to you for another 10 days.
- People sue you for no reason.
- There are special cars where if you pay a special rate, they'll take off all the taxi stuff and make it look like a private car
From Driver A: (to the forbidden city)
- He doesn't trust the government and the media anymore because he was there during the 6/4 Tiananmen stuff "People were falling down next to me and I was trying to carry them to the hospital and then the news said that no one died"
- He thinks the government has pushed out all the native Beijing people to the outskirts of the city and replaced them with non-Beijing 外地人 as a punishment for 6/4 and to prevent further unrest
- He misses the 70s when people were actually moral and good, and laws were enforced. Now Beijing is run amok with 外地人 who don't follow the rules, and there's no one to catch them on it due to corruption, etc.
- "Beijing Olympics have not benefitted any of the ordinary folks"
- He hates the recent policies that only benefit the wealthy/powerful -- houses are too expensive, doctors get kickbacks from medicine companies, etc.
- "Which is why I don't care about these things anymore. I just make enough money for my family."
From Driver B: (from the forbidden city)
- Tickets to Forbidden City used to cost only 0.50 rmb (now it's 60).
- There wasn't that much travel in the 70s because of the regionality of ration tickets. In order to travel to Beijing from Shanghai, you needed to go through the proper authorities to get your Shanghai ration tickets exchanged for nationwide ration tickets.
From Driver C: (to siheyuan)
- Taxi Drivers are hesitant about picking up foreigners due to communication issues, and from fear of lawsuits. Also, a lot of the drivers are from the surrounding countryside.
- Shanghai Longtangs are weird because you have all the underwear just hanging out there. Hutong are much more private. They'd hang the clothes in the courtyards, and even then cover a bra with a shirt
- He has a friend who's married/divorced 3 times, and is totally skeezy, and only cares about getting women into bed.
From Driver D: (to yuanmingyuan)
- People here don't really like KFC, they just worship Western stuff.
- Chinese food tastes way better than all the other nations' foods because there's way more artistry and fewer recipes involved.
- Pizza is just 饼 and Spaghetti is just 炒面.
From Driver E: (from Yuanmingyuan)
- He's 3 months new to the job
- He used to drive an unlicensed taxi
- He grew up in the countryside, and then joined the army for 5 years, and then worked in a factory.
- No state secrets were divulged
- He's proud of all the civil service type stuff that the military does, especially disaster relief.
- He believes that military action in other countries is okay if it's in service one's own country and if it brings peace to the other country.
(Things got a little awkward here, so I commented on presence of all the foreigners in Beijing)
- Beijing is being corrupted by foreigners -- especially their casual attitude about dress -- the flip-flops (拖鞋), the scanty coverings...
(I pointed out that Chinese people seem to have no problem with MEN walking around in the summer with their shirt tucked into their armpits, revealing their belly, or walking around in wifebeaters. But WOMEN with short shorts and bare shoulders are scandalous. It's vice versa in America. What up with that? He had no response, except to say that people are going to the department store in their PJs now, and that's the foreign influence, too.)
---
* pt 1 would refer to last year's beijing taxi rides, and pt 2 would refer to US taxi rides. Yes, totally pulling a George Lucas here.
no subject
no subject
no subject
I feel really bad for cab driver A. Cab driver C is funny. I had cab drivers tell me that they like foreigners because foreigners actually tip sometimes.
yrs--
--Ben
no subject
Cab Driver C started out pretty sleepy and tired, but then he really got into it. Especially talking about the crazy guy who tried to sue him for refusing his business b/c he was done for the day.
no subject
no subject