I had a short chat with a jeepney driver a while ago and I found out some interesting things about jeepney driving.
1. In one day, a jeepney driver gets to do 7 back and forth trips (This particular jeepney driver's daily route is from Fairview to Delta/Quezon Avenue corner Timog. I'm assuming though that all jeepney drivers drive more or less the same distance per route). 8 trips are possible but the driver would have to skip all breaks except for lunch time.
2. Each one-way trip earns a driver around PhP 150.00 (For those of you who are mathematically-challenged, that means it's PhP 300.00 per round trip). The driver has to pay for lots of things though during the day, such as meals, gas, yosi, and Stork. Aside from this, there is a boundary of PhP 750.00 per day (For those of you who don't ride jeepneys for one reason or another, a boundary is the rental fee that the driver pays to the owner of jeepney. Yes, most jeepney drivers don't own the vehicles they drive. That perhaps explains their fearless urban driving skills). So by the end of the day, after all these expenses, a jeepney driver is left with around PhP 300.00 to PhP 400.00. (Hmmmm. That's not too far from what I'm earning from my work right now. Maybe I should consider a shift to a blue-collar career. I mean, the perks of driving all day and eating lots of Stork is very tempting). I wonder how jeepney drivers can feed their families with earnings that little.
We had a nice short chat. Sayang lang talaga at hindi ko siya natanong kung totoo ba na basta driver, sweet lover.
