SINGAPORE: A recent social media post from a private hire vehicle (PHV) driver has gotten a lot of buzz online, claiming that he makes “easily 30k a month.”
Posting a screenshot of his weekly earnings from Nov 13 to 16 on the SG Road Vigilante – SGRV Facebook page on Wednesday (Nov 29), the driver wrote that he does “hard work” but is “paid well.” He further gave a breakdown of his alleged S$30,000 a month salary, writing that he earns S$12,800 a week. As to how many bookings he does, he wrote that he has 156 jobs per week, or 22 jobs a day. He added that he takes an average of 30 minutes per job and works at least 11 hours daily.
The post has since been shared nearly 200 times and received many comments. Netizens commenting on the post did not completely approve of the driver’s lifestyle of working eleven hours a day, underlining that this could take a toll on his health.
One wrote that sitting for too long, as he imagines the PHV driver does daily, might cause the driver to spend all his money in the hospital one day. The commenter also reminded him that being “healthy is everything.”
Others expressed doubts about the truth of the post, writing that the photo the driver had posted could have been photoshopped.
The PHV driver’s alleged salary seems very high indeed. A quick search across the web has one site saying that private hire driver salaries in Singapore are between S$2000 and S$6000 a month, with an average of S$3,500.
ComfortdelGro said last year that “most PHV drivers take home about net daily average income of about $200,” which, when totalled, is nowhere near the S$30,000 the PHV driver posted about, even if a CDG driver were to work seven days a week.
Another article about Grab drivers estimates their earnings to be the same, around S$25 per hour, which comes out to S$200 for an eight-hour day.
Earlier this year, a Facebook post about a Grabcar driver who says he made $5,227.82 in just one short week went viral. “A Grab driver claims to have made impressive $5,227.82 in just 7 days during the Chinese New Year period,” the post reads.
The screenshot of the Driver Statement showed that the Grabcar driver earned $788.38 in commissions and $2080.70 in incentives.
Read also: Grabcar Driver Earns an Impressive $5,227.82 in Just 7 Days Over Chinese New Year /TISG