Taxi Drivers Value the Immediacy of Cash
May 2, 2024
Drivers for various ride-hailing platforms value the certainty and immediacy of cash, leading many to prioritise customers using it.
Writing for Rest of World, labour and tech reporter Lam Le identifies two key advantages of physical money: there is a quick and sure exchange of value, with no wait, and no fees are deducted by a third party.
In places like Vietnam and Pakistan, digital payments aren’t always seamless or quick. For drivers who work for platforms such as Be in Vietnam and Careem in Pakistan, payments from a passenger can take days to make it to their bank account. In the meantime, drivers struggle to fill their gas tanks and buy meals.
Le reports these benefits are encouraging drivers in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam to prioritise cash-paying fares, which can include negotiation outside the app, or even cancelling ride requests.
Hanoi-based Be driver Hoang Phong says ‘he is continually scrambling for cash, due to the time it takes to withdraw earnings from the app,’ meaning he sometimes has to borrow cash to make ends meet. Fellow Be driver Nguyen Cuong admits to rejecting rides—despite the damage this causes his reputation on the app—because cashless payments mean up to 35 percent of his earnings are taken in fees, meaning ‘there’s not much left for me.’
In Southeast Asia, ride-hailing companies such as Be and Grab offer a full range of payment options, but encourage customers to use an e-wallet, which keeps their money within ecosystems that can levy a range of fees. Grab incentivises this by offering loyalty perks for making e-wallet payments.
In Bangladesh, a report by the labour project Fairwork says digital payments are delaying workers access to their income and deducting fees. There may also be fees to withdraw digital money as cash, ‘demotivating drivers to follow the rules set by the platform’ and encouraging them to work outside it to ‘enjoy total control over their income.’
Drivers for Uber-owned Careem, which operates in Pakistan, may wait up to seven days to receive payments made via credit card. One driver said if he receives two ride requests, one paying cash and one digital, he will always choose the former.
With the way things are in the country, most drivers just want to take the money home immediately. They don’t want to wait.
While presenting customers with a range of payment options is valuable for both businesses and customers, the issues faced by drivers underscore the importance of always including cash alongside cashless options, allowing for immediate and fee-free transactions that make many workers’ lives easier.