Woman, 30, reportedly earns S$6,000 a month driving Grab for 9 hours daily in S'pore

After deducting rental, petrol and everything else.

Belmont Lay | March 13, 2017, 11:53 AM

A woman Grab driver in Singapore is reportedly earning S$6,000 a month being a private hire car driver, according to a March 13 Today article.

The six grand she makes is after deducting car rental and petrol, as well as Grab’s 20 percent commission.

Although not explicitly spelled out in the article, this means her total takings in a month can come up to S$9,000 to S$10,000, or more.

The lady driver, Chen Roujie, has to drive for nine hours every day though. And this was after turning full-time after trying out being a Grab driver for nine months.

Instead of being something to boast about -- although it kind of is -- the Today article wrote about the perils of young Singaporeans joining Uber and Grab on a full-time basis.

This is so as becoming a private hire car driver does not add to one's skills set in life and those employed this way might be underemployed and face long-term risks of becoming obsolete when driverless technology is a reality.

There are also no medical benefits and Central Provident Fund contributions for such private hire car drivers.

And the income is not guaranteed to be stable.

But, as always, there are attractive upsides though.

Incentives include having the flexibility to dictate one's hours and not be subjected to the usual cons of regular employment, such as having a boss breathing down your neck or getting caught in public transportation snafus -- in other words, freedom of mobility.

The numbers by Grab and Uber seem to suggest that younger people in Singapore are taking up private hire car driving in droves.

According to Grab, about 20 to 30 percent of GrabCar drivers here are younger than 30. It is unclear how many do it as a primary source of income.

Uber Singapore said about 25 percent of its drivers are below 30.

 

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