One fine day, my friend asked me, “How much are you earning from Goody Feed?”
“Enough for two cai pngs a day.”
“With or without fish?”
“Without.”
“Time to change job man, my friend,” he said and passed me a newspaper, Channel NewsAsia.
“Eh, when did Channel NewsAsia has got newspaper—”
“Read this,” he said, pointing at an article, “and you can kick your boss’ ass later.”
With that, my friend disappeared, and I flipped through the Channel NewsAsia newspaper with the headline: “Flexibility, being your own boss, decent income: Why younger people are working as private hire drivers.”
PHV Drivers Can Actually Really Earn A Lot of They Chiong
Back in the early days when Uber and Grab were the only players in Singapore, any news report about any private hire driver earning more than $4,000 would be headlines.
After all, that’s much more than a fresh graduate’s pay: why would we still study our ass off?
But now, it seems like a norm.
For a start, I do know someone who earns almost $1,000 per weekend before deducting his expenses: if we include weekdays earning, he’s earning almost $9,000 a month. After all deductions, he’s taking home a cool $5,000 a month or so—with a free car.
He’s working about six days a week and chiong during peak hours as there would be more incentives. On non-peak hours, he’d usually rest, so working hours are about nine hours per day, though it’s not continuously (usually between 6am to 10am and 4pm to 9pm).
It’s therefore not a surprise when this report came in, though there’s one very interesting story: a driver managed to earn $5,000 a month and study part-time at the same time.
CNA’s Report on Young PHV Drivers
In the CNA report that focuses on young PHV drivers, they interviewed two drivers.
One’s a 24-year-old lady who drives 10 hours daily for six days a week, and brings in between $3,000 to $5,000 a month. In addition, she’s studying for her degree on a part-time basis.
The other’s a 39-year-old man who’s been driving for 3.5 years. He drives daily for about 12 to 14 hours a day, and takes home about $5,000 a month. The hours seem a little crazy, but remember: they’re the ones who disclose the number, so they’re not exactly verified.
Still, $5,000 a month is a lot.
However, in the article, the experts have also touched on the most important aspect of the job: the money might be good (given that you get your pay every two weeks, too), but the risk is that one isn’t learning anything from the job, so the “job prospect” is almost zero.
We’ve also done a video about this which you should really watch if you intend to be a PHV driver:
Moral of the story?
You can really earn decent money from driving private hire.
Would you be jailed for being half-naked in public? Well, the answer will shock you. Seriously. Watch this to the end and you'll understand:
