Taxi driver massively quits job

At the parking lot of many Taxi companies In Hanoi, taxis “covered with mats” are lying around, not working because many of its drivers have resigned.

Unprecedented difficulty

Driving a taxi for nearly 7 years, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung in Dong Quang commune, Quoc Oai district, Hanoi said that he and his colleagues have never been in such a tragic situation as in the past 2 years. After the COVID-19 epidemic was controlled, Mr. Hung saw that many colleagues did not return to work. Hung shared that now, every day he can run a few trips, except for fuel costs, switchboard … the remaining amount is not much. “While waiting for another job, maybe I can only drive a car for a short time, but if I keep it this way, my income cannot be enough to support my family,” said Mr. Hung.

There are more and more cases of quitting or quitting work like Mr. Hung in Hanoi, causing taxi businesses to face unprecedented difficulties. Statistics show that there are 1,000 taxi companies nationwide, with more than 67,000 vehicles. Compared to 2019, the whole country has more than 79,000 cars, in 2020 there are 75,000 cars, seeing a huge decrease in the number of cars.

In Hanoi alone, according to Mr. Nguyen Cong Hung, Chairman of the Hanoi Taxi Association, after 20 years of development, this city has more than 17,000 taxis. However, after only 2 years of the COVID-19 epidemic, more than 7,000 taxis here without drivers, had to stop operating for the past year.

Dang Tuan Anh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phu Dong Tourism and Trade Joint Stock Company – the owner of Thanh Loi taxi, said that most of the drivers in the provinces do not have houses and have to hire them. Because income is inversely proportional to expenses incurred, it is not enough to cover life in the capital, causing them to leave their jobs to return to their hometown or find other job opportunities with higher income. “We have nearly 600 drivers, 400 have quit their jobs. To endure, there is no other way than to liquidate the car to pay the bank’s debt” – Mr. Tuan Anh said.

According to a representative of Mai Linh Taxi, currently the company has 1,300 taxis, but there are about 500 vehicles without drivers (accounting for about 40%), the lack of drivers makes the company only serve 60%-70% of customers’ demand for car bookings. .

Taxi companies are in dire straits when a series of drivers quit their jobs because of high costs and reduced income.

Many recommendations

Nguyen Van Quyen, Chairman of the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association, suggested that in the current difficult context, the Government should free road maintenance until the end of 2022 instead of reducing 30% to stimulate demand for transport enterprises. load. The Inter-Ministry of Industry, Trade and Finance needs to actively participate in order to restore production. Ministries and branches must also create maximum conditions for enterprises to restore production and transport business.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, deputy director of Mai Linh taxi company in the North, said that businesses are struggling to bear all kinds of expenses. A large number of drivers who quit their jobs, combined with other expenses during the epidemic season, really made businesses stand still. In that situation, businesses are forced to sell cars to cut losses; at the same time increase the support regimes to encourage new entrants such as 1 month’s salary support, support for daily trips to ensure their income… However, there is still a lack of drivers, putting businesses in a difficult position. “Although the Government has issued many support packages, in order to borrow capital, businesses must have collateral, and revenue must also be at least according to credit contracts. The epidemic lasted, revenue decreased deeply, financial resources Assets must be sold and liquidated, so enterprises cannot meet these two conditions,” said Mr. Trung.

According to Chairman of the Hanoi Taxi Association Nguyen Cong Hung, at present, people’s demand for public transport is still low, the rate of passenger cars is only about 40%, but many businesses still have to reopen their cars to hold the market. However, it is not possible to hold on for long when gasoline prices are high, while the revenue of transport enterprises only reaches about 15% – 20% of the time before the epidemic. In order to limit the number of businesses that have to withdraw from the market, leading to the problem of drivers leaving their jobs, Mr. Hung suggested the government should consider and expand support policies.

Accordingly, Mr. Hung suggested State bank continue to extend the debt restructuring period until the end of December 31, 2022, creating favorable conditions for businesses to restructure cash flows. It is necessary to remove the condition that banks when restructuring debts for enterprises must set up a reserve fund.

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