Taxi drivers in the US make a lot of money and mind you they have access to real cash most of the time not credit card payments and lazy people of course cannot do that. There are people I know that work for at least 18 hours in a day and they are very comfortable.

Even in Nigeria, taxi drivers and bus drivers make so much money that most of them own their own houses and send their kids to good schools.

It is not about perception, it is about reality.

The funny thing is that human beings are usually looking for money where the competition is stiff while overlooking good money making opportunities around them.

They are not fabricating anything, a lot of them make a lot of money.

If you think working 18 hours a day is a quality life, knock yourself out.

Normal Americans do not like working NO MORE than 8 hours a day, MAX!!!!

Having access to ready cash makes Taxi drivers a target, and let's be clear!

Taxi Drivers take more abuse from Drunk White people than anybody.


and when the good weather comes, Taxi Drivers have to work LONGER hours to make a profit.

So, this is my summary:

Some taxi drivers in certain cities (NY, Houston, etc) do make a lot of money, perhaps enough to own a house abroad and at home. Some taxi drivers already have significant means and drive as a side job that could be flexible - these generally own the taxis. There are Nigerian Masters and PhD degree holders driving taxis abroad (this tells a lot about the state of the Nigerian economy). In general, however, taxi driving, without backup means, is mostly an 18hr and risky job.

In conclusion, while there is no doubt that these are probable stories, it is not a general outcome, and the fact that you are likely to encounter such stories more often these days smells of people repeating other people's stories as their own.

There is nothing wrong with taxi driving or any other legal job for that matter, but if taxi driving were that profitable and comfortable in the West, foreigners would have little room in the business.

I may be wrong - this was not a scientific exercise.

i got ripped off from a nigerian taxi in houston b4

Becomrich/:



I think like the white man now. A mind set of a capitalist.

**dies**

@poster,

I do not believe that a cab driver could make that enough money to have 3 houses in US and one in Nigeria. He must be doing something on the side like be involved in real estate. Maybe he got the houses when real estate was booming and he probably cash out on one to get enough money as downpayment for the others--I have heard of this. Also, what does the wife do? How many cabs does he drive? Does he own the cabs? Find out very well. Must nigerians wont tell you the truth about how they make their money anyway.

3 houses in the US? did he pay cash or Mortgage ? He could be telling the truth. at least he did not tell you what type of house it was.  Maybe he has other income sources.

In Maryland, I hear on average days cabs makes $200-$350 daily if the day was good. However, many other oyinbo driver I see dont look that successful to  own 3 houses etc.

Its one of those easy jobs to do. Some Africans (especially East Africans), not just 9ja prefer to do this rather than go compete for the scarce office jobs with oyinbo or the usual hourly paid jobs.

I dont doubt he travels home etc since he collects mostly cash and tips+ the original fare, he could be making all he claims since he will only pay tax on what he says he makes. tax bracket for most office jobs depending on your income could be as much as 33%. The long hours and the quality of life however is another thing.

I dont know why but Nigerians know how to hustle
A Nigerian and a white man ding the same job,
and I bet the Nigerian would have a house etc before the white man does
from what ive seen

I dont know why but Nigerians know how to hustle Smiley
A Nigerian and a white man ding the same job,
and I bet the Nigerian would have a house etc before the white man does
from what ive seen Grin

An average 9ja person is thinking outside the box. If we could survive with so little in 9ja, we definitely can excel where hard work is rewarded.

platinumnk:

i got ripped off from a nigerian taxi in houston b4

No mind all these Nigerian taxi drivers. They no fit even give their brotha beta discount sef

JoeGaruba:

An average 9ja person is thinking outside the box. If we could survive with so little in 9ja, we definitely can excel where hard work is rewarded.

Yep, thats our mind set

comechop:

No mind all these Nigerian taxi drivers. They no fit even give their brotha beta discount sef

abi o! the man sef went to pump gas and chop leaving the meter on, hes lucky sef, ithought he needed the extra money.

You can have a regular job and make say $60000.00 if you do not save your your money, you will not own anything.
I have Nigerian friend that drive Taxis with Masters Degrees ,6 months out of the year in the USA .save AS much as $50,000.00 go back to Nigeria and take care of bussiness for the other 6 month you can call it vacation it may not be the best job in the world. but it is a reasonably honest job if nothing else is avalaiable so youngblood don"t bad mouth the taxi drivers

Cab drivers in US are rich people. I'm speaking evidently as i visit US every month. It's hygienically lucrative compared to prostitution in the states. If you dispute me call my line +2348032640895now for details.

akwaowoudo:

Cab drivers in US are rich people. I'm speaking evidently as i visit US every month. It's hygienically lucrative compared to prostitution in the states. If you dispute me call my line +2348032640895now for details.

I don call tired. Why u no pick my call?

says who??

It's simple really taxi drivers technically own their own business because you can work as hard as you want to start when you want and stop when you want. Knowing our people, we work hard as heck so you might see a taxi driver working for 15hrs out of the day and by the time he stops for that day he may have made $700 after the fees he might have to pay for the car. Most of those guys also live with room mates which also helps you save money. But the job can be very dangerous because like in nyc they kill cab drivers a lot for their money which lead to some cab drivers refusing to pick up black and latino people because they get scared that they might get robbed but that is another story.

One of my uncle here in the state is a cab driver, he has a house in the state and 2 in 9ja. If u look at him, u wont see the money but on occasions u'll know he's a big spender. I remember back in 08 when his mum died. He left with the next available flight _{that can be expensive}

akwaowoudo:

Cab drivers in US are rich people. I'm speaking evidently as i visit US every month. It's hygienically lucrative compared to prostitution in the states. If you dispute me call my line +2348032640895now for details.

Call ur line for detail and talk about what?

are you driving taxi naija mini. how many of them do they kill in the USA. What is life, if you have none. I return back to naija. No country can use any law to hold me down. I leave that  country and go where they treat me better.

Look after living abroad. I have learn to live. What african take from their leaders, I cant, the way they said imo state government treated one person online. To God who made me. Noman born of a man can do that to me. Not even a government. Even in Nigeria, I have friend in the army , if that happen to me, that would overthrow the government onmy behalf. You dont know anything. It shows Chief Bode George does not have friends.

WTF. . . . . . . 

MandingoII:



If you think working 18 hours a day is a quality life, knock yourself out.

Normal Americans do not like working NO MORE than 8 hours a day, MAX!!!!

Having access to ready cash makes Taxi drivers a target, and let's be clear!

Taxi Drivers take more abuse from Drunk White people than anybody.


and when the good weather comes, Taxi Drivers have to work LONGER hours to make a profit.

Thats the problem with most of my Nigerian brothers, money money money even if it means working till death.

God forbid that I should do such a thing, 8 hours is okay, sometimes 9-10 hours maybe acceptable under certain temporary conditions.

But 12h upwards ( except shiftwork ) is madness, 18 hours a day is lunacy.

Mind you for a single guy or gal, it might not be such an issue.

asha 80:

Most eduacated nigerians are blinded by 'coporate work'.

Sorry I would rather do corporate work for 8 hours a day than work round the clock without a life.

There is more to this life than money you know !!

Taxi driving in the US is definitely not a rich profession
about 80% of self employed drivers net about $35,000.00 working between 50-60 hours
80% of company drivers net less than $25,000.00 working the same amount of hours
there are Naija cab drivers in every state in the US most are in the East coast
namely N York, Maryland, and DC N.Jersey
Cab driving is a very easy job to get, thats why so many Nigerians are in it
Cab drivers earns above what an average non skilled american earn
some graduate american earn about the same as cab drivers but cab drivers are better off because
they don't pay tax. but big disadvantage to cab drivers is lack of health insurance or other
benefits.
the job is very dangerous as everyone hate and have no respect for a cab driver
most abuse come from black Americans, most tips come from white Americans
it is a very good job for illigal aliens because they can hardly get a job.
Some cab drivers work like slaves, look and smell dirty.
most cab drivers become fat from sitting 10 - 16 hours/ day
some cab drivers look decent get educated and become doctors lawyers and
some start up successful businesses, many become Auto mechanic
Rarely do nigerian cab driver own a decent amount of fleet,
some do but thats just for a while before losing it.
many nigerians have been killed, some brutally injured, one that i know in DC is living
with a bad case of paralysis when he was shot in the head and set on fire.
Cab drivers do build houses in Nigeria, but note that houses have grades.
most build houses in their villages because thats what their pay can get them.
the job is kind of secure because the driver is not an employee but he/she actually
pays the cab company for driving, so greedy cab companies always look for drivers
cab drivers cannot get decent Nigerian wives, many lose their wives.
cab drivers can take longer vacation than almost anyone else in america
Some doctors from Nigeria has been known to drive cabs but mostly for a short
period of time, the longer it takes for them to get their papers the longer they remain a driver.
some bankers, and many Nigerian graduates drive cabs, their are now female Nigerian cab drivers
Note that lack of green card and lack of education is one big the reasons that keeps Nigerians driving.
Nigerians are the highest population of black cab drivers along with Ethiopians
Cab driving is a job terrible no one should try to get into it unless they feel like they have to.

@ becomrich
Lawd have mercy!! You shoulda stuck to expressing yourself with Google maps; it kinda made you seem smart. Now that you've attempted to express yourself with words it seems the cat has been let outta the bag. Your Yoruba brothers wont ever forgive you for associating your illiteracy with them ooo. Please go back to the maps and stay quiet.

Some cab drivers work like slaves, look and smell dirty.

@ibabalol , you are one thick chap.

To make this statement depicts the kind of low life mentality that you have , to call people fending for their families dirty and smelly.

Go and get a Job and a life.

hauler:

@ becomrich
Lawd have mercy!! You shoulda stuck to expressing yourself with Google maps; it kinda made you seem smart. Now that you've attempted to express yourself with words it seems the cat has been let outta the bag. Your Yoruba brothers wont ever forgive you for associating your illiteracy with them ooo. Please go back to the maps and stay quiet.

English is not his mother tongue, leave him alone.

If you cannot comment on the original article go away, 

I really cant see the issue here as hard work always reaps its rewards.  Here in London, I have a friend that works as a cabbie, although his social life is poor he makes enough money to feed his family and at the same time has TWO Mercedes, one's an estate he uses for work and the other is an E- Class he uses for pleasure and social runs.

Although its not for everybody given the risks (robbery, psycho attacks, racism etc, ) it sure beats poverty or looking over your shoulder all the time if you are 'odu' (job man) inclined.

During the last recession a lot of guys that floundered in IT ended up doing it as 'cowboys' (illegal cabbing) just to pay the bills.

Everyone HAS to make a living and in this case I believe it is fully possible to own property and have Naija based businesses.

Hard CashFlow = Investment opportunities = Increased wealth.

It is either you are mad to believe these silly stories or you are being funny. You drive a taxi because you can't find any other kind of decent work to do. I know a Naija medical doctor driving a cab in Chicago. He has lived in a one bed apartment for donkey years and in constant fear that he would be kicked out for not being able to pay his bills. To my knowledge he has not sent one dollar to his children for more than 15 years . So where is the money ?
I know a Nigerian professor who ended up in US working in a grocery store. I know a Nigerian lawyer who became a butcher assistant in UK.
A lot of Nigerians go abroad chasing foolish dreams and then continue to stay there living foolish dreams.

pafun:

It is either you are mad to believe these silly stories or you are being funny. You drive a taxi because you can't find any other kind of decent work to do. I know a Naija medical doctor driving a cab in Chicago. He has lived in a one bed apartment for donkey years and in constant fear that he would be kicked out for not being able to pay his bills. To my knowledge he has not sent one dollar to his children for more than 15 years . So where is the money ?
I know a Nigerian professor who ended up in US working in a grocery store. I know a Nigerian lawyer who became a butcher assistant in UK.
A lot of Nigerians go abroad chasing foolish dreams and then continue to stay there living foolish dreams.

It is either you have been misinformed or you are just angry for some reasons.
Yes, there are some odd jobs that people does and they wont be able to make ends meet.
There are some Cab driver that cant and might not make good money, such as people in remote city or dead towns with too much rednecks.

But the Cab driver in big cities, and expecially, if they are the owner of the cab, they make good money, how many passengers do you think they will transport in one day, and mind you, some even get tips and all that, some have regular customers, as a matter of fact, some are making nothing less that 200$$ a day and mind you, they will tell the govt how much they make based on what they wanna declare, so at the end of the tax season, they get something nice back as well.

Like you said, a man working at the grocery stores might be at the mercy of other people.

Now, some of the Nigerians that drives cabs in the western world are doing it for the following reasons:

1. They wanna be their own boss
2. They just cant do something else and someone boss them around
3. Some cant work with a coy where they can only get 3 weeks a year in vacation, cos some of them wanna travel to Nija for like 3 months, and how many full time jobs will give u such
4. Nigerians hates to pay taxes

So my guy, leave that side of they are poor.

thats interesting that taxi drivers in us are rich BUT in uk its the other way round ooo. majority of those drivnig taxi dont even know the layout and to make matters worth the trade is now over populated with asians and indians who cant even say please correctly not to talk of knowing the way and they tend to try to cheat by taking longer routes instead of shorter ones. anyway what am saying is taxi guys in uk most naija are not rich infact person wey dey collect benefits better pass some of them sha.

@fhemmmy

if thats the case in usa then its better than uk as only black cabs can make much money like that oo, other cab drivers have to register with taxi firm and only pick passengers when they are notified as they will be arrested and also might loose their licence if caught picking passengers by the roadside, hence limiting the possibility of making a decent money.

pafun:

It is either you are mad to believe these silly stories or you are being funny. You drive a taxi because you can't find any other kind of decent work to do. I know a Naija medical doctor driving a cab in Chicago. He has lived in a one bed apartment for donkey years and in constant fear that he would be kicked out for not being able to pay his bills. To my knowledge he has not sent one dollar to his children for more than 15 years . So where is the money ?
I know a Nigerian professor who ended up in US working in a grocery store. I know a Nigerian lawyer who became a butcher assistant in UK.
A lot of Nigerians go abroad chasing foolish dreams and then continue to stay there living foolish dreams.

Is it because they refused you a Visa ?

I am here with a good Job and so are tons of other Nigerians.

You prefer to hear the stereotype cases to satisfy your envy of those abroad.  

axeman85:

thats interesting that taxi drivers in us are rich BUT in uk its the other way round ooo. majority of those drivnig taxi dont even know the layout and to make matters worth the trade is now over populated with asians and indians who cant even say please correctly not to talk of knowing the way and they tend to try to cheat by taking longer routes instead of shorter ones. anyway what am saying is taxi guys in uk most naija are not rich infact person wey dey collect benefits better pass some of them sha.

@fhemmmy

if thats the case in usa then its better than uk as only black cabs can make much money like that oo, other cab drivers have to register with taxi firm and only pick passengers when they are notified as they will be arrested and also might loose their licence if caught picking passengers by the roadside, hence limiting the possibility of making a decent money.

That is the case in some areas too. . . .imagine a cab driver in NY

frosbel:

Shutup, is it because they refused you a Visa ?

I am here with a good Job and so are tons of other Nigerians.

You prefer to hear the stereotype cases to satisfy your envy of those abroad.  

Easy oh

@Frosbel, sorry if my statement offend you in any way
but this is the100% truth, mind, you i said some, not all
cab driver smells bad.
Everything i said is completely free from any form of
prejudice so sorry if you feel offended by the truth
i cant help it, i will say it a million times if i had to do it again.




mind you everyone:

CAB DRIVERS IN US ARE NO WHERE NEAR RICH
BY US STANDARDS

they might be considered rich by Akure,owerri Aba sokoto standard
but as far as i know not by
Lagos or Abuja standard either.
thanks y'all

Cabi  was my 1st job in the U.S, I drove Yellow Cab around LAX area, got robbed often, mostly weekends. I was  a self employed driver : you rent the Cab and got free Miles from L.A to San Diago.   It was OK then as a youth, I can't imagine myself  today driving Cab for 60 Hours a week and all the risk involved no matter the earnings.  You can't get rich with it, however, it's good for beginners and students.
Thank God today,  i work only 6 hours a day no weekends, i earn enough  and have time with my Kids.
All you need is a sollid naija based business to support it.