Fuel prices: Taxi drivers feel the pinch
ESTER KAMATI
WINDHOEK
On a good day, Joseph Fillemon makes up to N$800 by the time he parks his taxi at 22:00. He pays at least half of this to the owner of the taxi. The remainder is split between what he takes home and what he uses to fill up the car for the next day.
This year, fuel prices have continued to increase and this makes it difficult for taxi drivers to earn a living.
On top of that, Covid-19 regulations limited the number of passengers allowed in vehicles, which reduced their income even further.
In April this year, there was a 50-cent increase per litre for diesel and petrol and in September, petrol prices increased by 60 cents per litre while diesel rose by 30 cents. Again, in the first week of October, both prices rose by 30 cents per litre.
Feeling the pinch consistently have been taxi drivers, specifically those like Fillemon who do not own the vehicles they drive.
“If I was working for myself, I could just say, today’s income is for petrol,” he said.
Fillemon, like many other taxi drivers, is the breadwinner in his family and takes care of his unemployed wife and their three children.
He and his family live in an informal area of Windhoek.
He says life in Windhoek is expensive and he plans to move to northern Namibia in a few years.
No more curfew
“We are really feeling the pinch,” said another taxi driver.
He added that sometimes there is a scarcity of customers and that driving around to look for customers increases his fuel costs.
“Sometimes all the money you make goes into fuelling the car.”
Mostly, he says, it is quiet on the Windhoek streets in the morning and traffic only picks up around lunchtime as schoolchildren make their way home and working people run errands.
Taxi drivers are hopeful that the lifting of the Covid-19 curfew will allow them to increase their daily income by carrying more passengers and transporting partygoers at night.
“I don’t like driving in the night, it is risky,” the driver said, but added that it this is sometimes necessary to increase his daily income.
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WINDHOEK
On a good day, Joseph Fillemon makes up to N$800 by the time he parks his taxi at 22:00. He pays at least half of this to the owner of the taxi. The remainder is split between what he takes home and what he uses to fill up the car for the next day.
This year, fuel prices have continued to increase and this makes it difficult for taxi drivers to earn a living.
On top of that, Covid-19 regulations limited the number of passengers allowed in vehicles, which reduced their income even further.
In April this year, there was a 50-cent increase per litre for diesel and petrol and in September, petrol prices increased by 60 cents per litre while diesel rose by 30 cents. Again, in the first week of October, both prices rose by 30 cents per litre.
Feeling the pinch consistently have been taxi drivers, specifically those like Fillemon who do not own the vehicles they drive.
“If I was working for myself, I could just say, today’s income is for petrol,” he said.
Fillemon, like many other taxi drivers, is the breadwinner in his family and takes care of his unemployed wife and their three children.
He and his family live in an informal area of Windhoek.
He says life in Windhoek is expensive and he plans to move to northern Namibia in a few years.
No more curfew
“We are really feeling the pinch,” said another taxi driver.
He added that sometimes there is a scarcity of customers and that driving around to look for customers increases his fuel costs.
“Sometimes all the money you make goes into fuelling the car.”
Mostly, he says, it is quiet on the Windhoek streets in the morning and traffic only picks up around lunchtime as schoolchildren make their way home and working people run errands.
Taxi drivers are hopeful that the lifting of the Covid-19 curfew will allow them to increase their daily income by carrying more passengers and transporting partygoers at night.
“I don’t like driving in the night, it is risky,” the driver said, but added that it this is sometimes necessary to increase his daily income.
[email protected]
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