Female Taxi Drivers – scarce but in demand

There are thirty seconds left. The driver behind the wheel chafes while waiting on the right-turn filter to change. There are twelve cars ahead and after making a split-second the driver switches into the left lane, without pausing to indicate, and moves ahead in that flow only to switch right again at the traffic signals – boring ahead of the car waiting at the top of that lane. The light turns green and the two cars go for it. Our driver wins out and races ahead ignoring the angry horn blasts and curse words directed at the car. The taxi pulls up at the gate only to see his passenger sail away in a competitor’s vehicle. He had five minutes to ‘shoot’ at a ‘stamp’ but a thirty-second delay cost him that job.

Peggy is a taxi driver and she tried working in a pool of radio-controlled hackney carriages for seven weeks of what she calls H-E-L-L.

“In the first two weeks I made a little money because the drivers on the road gave you a chance because you were new. Not discrediting the guys, but they hog the calls and one evening I did not make anything from the radio at all. But then a co-worker gave me a country weekend trip – that had nothing to do with the company – and I still had to pay base fees. I decided to give it up then.”

Peggy says that she paid $5,000 to become a contractor with that taxi company and get the radio connection, and then an additional $1,000 per week for base fees. The taxi companies tend to have a five-minute rule for pickups, and unless you are aggressive in making your stamp in five minutes, you lose out.

Peggy says she was not making any money from her radio and decided on another strategy, “I realized that when I picked up a one person here or there or carried one person two or three places I can get a $400 or a $600 off one customer. I gave up the radio last week and I made more in that time than I ever did with it. In three days I made almost $4,000 on my own. With the radio I would make nothing up to now, as a woman.”

All Woman did a survey of 20 taxi companies in Corporate Area and found that there were a total of four female drivers on the radio rosters. This is compared to hundreds of (licensed and unlicensed) men hackney carriage drivers with radio control contact. We did not attempt to make a count of the men, as several drivers are registered with more than one company. Taxi companies can have as many as 70 drivers on their roster, not one being a woman. A female dispatcher at Zenith, Y Walker, offered an explanation why so few women offer themselves as drivers with taxi companies.

“We had one woman who left last week. She lasted one month because she could not manage the man’s world. Most women do school pick-ups, they don’t like the radio because that is more difficult as they cannot manage the five minute pick-ups.”

Owner of Blue Diamond, Oliver Thomas, a veteran of eighteen years in the business, last had a female driver on roster seven years ago.

“They have always been scarce, it would be lovely to have women drivers, they have a soft tender touch that would enlighten the system a bit more, add another flavour. Seeing how taxi drivers handle senior citizens, women would bring some politeness. Women drive safer and have a lower accident rate.”

When asked how he would recruit and keep female taxi drivers, Thomas said that he would ask the dispatcher to look after her until she became accustomed to the system.

“I would give them a drive round so that they understand the basics and to understand how to respond to calls. Most men would want to drive with the women drivers and then the men in the system would have to step-up and say to themselves that they cannot go to work in a merino.”

Phillip Fearon of “On Time” taxi service said of women that, “the industry does not attract them. It is a rough work and women on a whole are on the dainty side”. Fearon says that it is a man’s world and the code language peppered with “shoot” and “stamp” when you bark your “handle” into a microphone bears this out.”

Despite the less-than-polite atmosphere on the taxi radio airwaves, the industry players all agree that female taxi drivers are making their mark in niche markets and with regular clients.

“We are out there”, Peggy says. “A head teacher gave me my first call and before the end of the week I got my second from a previous pick-up.”

An independent taxi driver, ES says that most women taxi drivers work in their small communities or had their special customers. It has also been reported that there are many women who are using their vehicles as ‘shuttles’ or ‘robots’ on the bus routes, with apparent safety. ES notes that most of them are unlicensed so they do not have the red Private Passenger (PP) licence plates and are therefore not recognisable on the streets. This anonymity, he says, makes it safer for them to operate. He also agrees that if more women worked for taxi companies there would be an improvement in the service that their ustomers received. He cited three such improvements where the industry could benefit as: safer driving practices, better treatment of customers and fewer quarrels on the road.

Peggy laughs when she recalls how many of her customers remark on how well she keeps her car.

“Some Peace Corps workers told me, ‘This is the cleanest car that I have ever been in’, so I wonder how the guys keep their cars because on the outside it looks clean. That is the thing that women have above men, they keep their cars clean in and out.”

However, safety was also another consideration as to why women had not visibly flooded this employment opportunity. ES said that the women were at greater risk and also that their partners would be ncomfortable with them being on the road picking up strange men.

Peggy mentioned some basics for women who wanted to drive taxis: “Don’t work too late at night. If you work at night, know who is calling and where you are going. Night work does not pay. Be careful of who you are picking-up, especially young men.”

As someone who had been in the taxi radio system and decided to come out, All Woman asked Peggy what she thought could be done to attract more women into the arena. She did not hesitate to tell us.

“Because of the traffic, instead of the five-minute ‘shoot’ you have to give the person at least a ten minutes. The other drivers have to be less aggressive, remembering that it is women that they are dealing with.”

To potential women taxi driver she says: “Take your chance, you meet a lot of people. If you like it you stay. Try to be nice to your customers, keep your vehicle clean and be on time. Be careful in your driving because the customers take note of that, and pay attention to personal hygiene.”

Until the industry takes a chance on making their airwaves more “women friendly” and reap the benefits that female drivers have to offer, women like Peggy are using their goodwill to create employment for themselves. Peggy, who was a secretary for 17 years and then the caregiver for her granddaughter for eight years, in her own style now enjoys the open road.

– Gwyneth Harold is the author of the booklet Storyteller