Working in a taxi is not very profitable and not so safe. Of course, when you need to feed your family or get on your own feet, you don't really have to choose. For some, working by car means communication and every day a living penny, but basically, they do not come from a good life to taxi, because the work of a taxi driver is associated with certain risks.
At the present time, taxiing is much calmer than, for example, in the same 90s, but there are enough hooligans and mentally inadequate passengers even now.
What to be afraid of when working in a taxi?
The peculiarity of the taxi driver's work is that, in addition to the professional knowledge and skills of the driver, he must be a psychologist and imagine in advance who he will put in his car. Drug addicts, drunken youth who get home from a nightclub are not the most calm and responsive contingent to normal human communication. And here the risk is more related to evening and night taxis. The driver has no means of defense. Without a reason to raise his voice or switch to personal insults to clients, he cannot, according to the rules of ethics.
Some taxis have a video camera that records the quality of the driver's service to passengers.
The safest thing for a driver would be to have one or more regular customers in need of a carriage. By its type, such a cab is more like not working in a taxi, but rather like being a personal driver. But, alas, this does not guarantee a stable income. And finding such a client is quite difficult.
There are many such passengers (and just random hooligans) who put their eyes on the taxi driver's cash register. Basically, these include homeless people, alcoholics, or simply inadequate teenagers.
The estimated "revenue" may not even be too big, but the threat to health and life is significant.
A few more dangers for taxi drivers
Another danger awaiting taxi drivers is car theft. The situation is unpleasant in all cases, especially if the car is not your own or bought on credit. In addition, it is good if you have to get away with only a slight fright and loss of a vehicle. Worse, if you have to suffer physically for this car, for example, receive serious injuries or injuries.
The statistics of such cases is such that hooligans and hijackers, as a rule, are found in the first two to three hours after the incident. But this doesn't make it any easier for a taxi driver. Since, if he remains alive after a robbery, most likely, for the period of rehabilitation, he will drop out of his work schedule for a long time and will be left without a source of income.
Working through a dispatcher firm can slightly secure the situation with calls. However, this is not very profitable for the taxi drivers themselves, since they will have to pay a certain percentage of their income for the services of a dispatcher, and taking into account the refueling and maintenance of the car, a person will have a very modest income, which is not worth such risks.
