“I carried a stun gun for rapists”: revelations of female taxi drivers

“Intuition must work”

One of these brave women, taxi driver Alena from Lytkarino, told MK that at first “delivering” people was like a hobby for her, since she just liked driving a car. Today she has 15 years of taxi experience behind her! According to her, 90% of passengers are “normal people”, but 10% do not fall into this category. Either too cheerful, familiar, or, conversely, aggressive. When asked if her work is dangerous, Alena answered: “There are dangers for women in many professions. In ours, it seems to me, intuition should work so as not to take “the wrong one.”

“We, of course, don’t see the customer when he calls a car, we only see his rating (which, by the way, doesn’t mean anything),” she says. – But when we approach, we carefully look at the passenger – in the mirror, in the windshield… And in those 2-3 seconds while he walks to the car, I have to assess at least offhand whether I will take him or not. It happens that you drive up, and there is a drunk client, dirty, smelly. And then you just block the doors and leave. Sometimes technical support understands your situation and restores the indicators that you lost due to order cancellation. And sometimes it doesn’t restore, it happens in different ways.

In this regard, one incident comes to mind. One day I drive up to a call and there’s a man standing in work clothes, unshaven, and it’s clear he’s hungover. And in his hands is an ax. But the funny thing is that I took him. And he was very grateful to me, because four cars before me illuminated him with their headlights and drove away. And it was frosty outside, and he was completely chilled. It turned out that the man had a birthday, and he was given an ax, which he really asked for. And he decided to take it to the garage. And he didn’t think enough to put it in a bag. He and I laughed at this situation… In general, any taxi driver should be a psychologist.

Drinking alcoholic beverages is prohibited in our cars. And when someone sits down with a started bottle, I ask that they put it in the cup holder and drink it later when the trip is completed. The majority agrees, but a certain percentage begins to row. Recently, for example, I even had to refuse a trip to one customer because he had an open bottle of beer in his hands, and he intended to drink it in the car. This is unacceptable to me.

All taxi drivers carry a “weapon” with them

Alena recalls that she encountered the most strange passengers during the pandemic. “It’s as if all the psychos were released at once!” – she smiled. Clients often shared with her some of their own, sometimes the most fantastic, versions of the origin of the coronavirus, and why the authorities needed to arrange a quarantine.

“Perhaps isolation has had such an impact on people’s psyches,” she continues. “One, for example, was convinced that “the coronavirus came to earth to kill it.” Another passenger told me on the way that he was looking for a wife and asked if I would like to become her? (and I’m married). “Even though I’m 63 years old,” he says, “I have the body of a 35-year-old, can I show you?” I answer: “No, don’t.” Another passenger argued that “we are not slaves, and therefore are not obliged to wear masks, but you are a slave, and therefore wear one!” (I’ve worn a mask before). As a result, she was denied the trip because we had clear instructions to transport people only wearing masks.

During the quarantine period we had very few orders. We traveled with passes. There were few cars, even in the center of Moscow, only a few people on the streets – there was a complete feeling that a zombie apocalypse had arrived.

For the last five years, Alena has not been driving people around at night. “A woman should sleep at night,” she says. She earns about 80,000-90,000 rubles per month.

At the same time, our interlocutor admitted that she does not consider this work to be women’s work.

“We women take everything more closely to our hearts,” she explains. — Now more and more women are starting to try themselves in taxis, but few remain. We worry if some passenger said something rude. It’s easier for men; they don’t react so sharply. And that’s why women experience burnout faster.

There are also more serious risks that lady drivers face, and this is what first comes to mind when you think about their workdays.

“There is a category of inadequate clients who begin to pester and show some kind of sexual intentions,” continues Alena. – This happened to me too. One day a passenger said that he was going to see a corrupt woman and said: “I have to give her 20,000 rubles. Come on, I’m not going anywhere, but I’d better give you these 20,000 rubles, but only you will do the same instead of her.” Of course, I was shocked. Very often they ask for a phone number to get to know each other better. Moreover, female passengers also sometimes make indecent proposals. Yes Yes! Sometimes you try to hush up such situations with humor, sometimes you have to threaten, and sometimes I stop the car and say: “Get out.” They are indignant, screaming, but they have to go out.

Alena said that every taxi driver has a “weapon” with him in case of meeting with inappropriate people, including sexual ones. Some people carry a crowbar with them, others a screwdriver. Someone has a legal traumatic pistol. Someone has a stun gun. Some, according to the woman, “are not very smart” to carry pepper spray with them, although it can only be sprayed in the fresh air, and in the confined space of the salon you will receive the dose yourself.

– What do you carry with you?

— Stun gun. He is already many years old. And I got it out twice. The first incident was a long time ago, I was carrying a “hot Caucasian guy”, and he began to get hot and suggested that we stop and “rest.” Seeing the shocker, he jumped out of the car and ran away. The second time (it was at the end of the shift) a man sat down next to me and looked at me for a long, long time. Then he says: “Well, let’s have some fun?” I was already too tired by that time to come up with some suitable answer, so I just took out the shocker and said: “Come on!” I don’t know, I say like anyone else, but I love to have fun. He asked what it was, I answered – it’s not a very pleasant thing, you shouldn’t use it. He immediately backed down, which is not what he meant! Then he and I drove in silence.

“A third of clients in economy are “problematic”

A completely different picture emerges when the driver carries passengers belonging to the business category. Gayane, who in 2020 entered the top twenty best drivers of a leading taxi service, told us her story.

Gayane came from Kislovodsk to Moscow following her son to help him settle down: he graduated from a university in the capital, served in the army and after that decided to stay in the metropolis. In Kislovodsk, the woman first worked as a nurse, and then moved into sales. Having arrived in the capital, I wondered where to go? Her nephew had his own taxi fleet. This is how she learned that “cab drivers” in Moscow earn very well: 100,000 rubles. per month guaranteed.

She bought a new Kia Rio and got behind the wheel. At first there were serious difficulties. Still, Moscow and its native Kislovodsk are like heaven and earth for drivers.

After little Kislovodsk, where there are only two cameras in the city, it was very difficult to get used to the capital, to its markings, parking lots, I paid gigantic fines every month,” she admitted. “But I immediately fell in love with Moscow and Muscovites. I worked in the economy for six months, then said: “I want to work in business.” I traded in my Kia Rio and bought a dark blue Mercedes on credit. She successfully passed tests in the taxi service and worked in the “business” for four years. Now I have my own car service, and I really miss working in a taxi…

Of course, economy passengers are fundamentally different from business passengers, says Gayane. If for every 100 trips in “business” there is one client who is drunk or under the influence of drugs, then in “economy” there are a third of them. “And they interfered when they demanded that you follow their instructions to drive faster, and tried to force you to go to pharmacies at night… Often we had to disembark such passengers.”

After she switched to a VIP taxi, work turned into pleasure.

“When you drive for business, you often come across educated, erudite clients with whom it is interesting and pleasant to talk,” continues Gayane. “They taught me a lot, I heard a lot of different stories from them, family ones, about work… People wanted to share their problems, joys and emotions, and I had to be not only a driver, but also a psychologist. If you drive well, and even love your passengers, they will immediately like you. Our taxi service even gave me gifts and asked how I get people to give me such rave reviews? (smiles).

However, it happens that “VIP” passengers also cause trouble. One day Gayane was transporting a company of four young people from a nightclub located on Taganka. We stopped at a traffic light, and suddenly she heard someone knocking on the roof of the car.

“I was scared, who could be lying on the roof and knocking?” I turn my head, and one of the guys opened the window, climbed out waist-deep, sat on the Mercedes door and held the handle with one hand, and with the other he banged his fist on the roof to the beat of the music from the phone. I stopped at the nearest permitted area and warned that I would now drive them all out. After that they sat quietly. And they also left 5,000 rubles. tips. Apparently, for “moral damage”…

— What was your schedule and salary?

“At first I worked in the mornings, and then, having gained experience, I began to leave the house at 15-16 hours and drove until the morning. I only caught the evening traffic jam, and tried to get home before the morning one. She slept during the day and worked at night. I met sunrises, saw off sunsets, these are indescribable emotions, incredible pictures before my eyes, especially when you find yourself in the region at such a time of day…

Before the pandemic, income was very good, because there were many foreigners in Moscow and, accordingly, there was great demand for business class. At that time I had about 10,000 rubles. per day clean. But for this I had to work 10-16 hours a day. At the end of the shift, I could get an order to another city, when I simply didn’t have the strength to go back… I was confused, didn’t know the way… To become a great driver, a person must travel a lot, experience a lot of things.

My work was very interesting, and I would like to return to it. But not because of money, but because of people. I have a dream to transport people at least once a week, but already in a Maybach, to get this pleasure from traveling around Moscow at night and communicating with people.

I can’t say that this work is dangerous for women – if you have certain skills, if you know what words to say in a given situation, if you don’t allow people to do many things, then your trips will be safe. I believe that it is quite possible for a woman to work in a taxi if she loves the car, the road, Moscow, the surrounding landscapes, if she knows how and wants to communicate with people.

“We have occupied the niche of migrants”

“Women taxi drivers have been working for a long time,” the capital’s taxi drivers’ association told MK. — We don’t have numbers, but all clients notice that there are more female taxi drivers. This is explained, among other things, by the fact that in Moscow there are fewer migrant taxi drivers who have left for their homeland, and women are coming to take their place.

The issue of driver safety has been pressing for a long time. All taxi drivers, both women and men, face violence in one form or another from time to time. Women – more often. With the experience that comes to them, they try to protect themselves: they do not work at night, they simply do not take on some clients who, in their opinion, are suspicious, and they also immediately disembark passengers who seemed strange to them during the trip. At the same time, when canceling an order, they may lose some KPI indicators, but there is also a practice according to which a taxi aggregator can return lost indicators if you explain the reason for the cancellation.”

Psychologist and career consultant Svetlana Kovyneva, in turn, expressed the opinion that there are more women in taxis due to changes in the labor market. “Firstly, prices have risen, wages are not enough for some, and many women go to taxis because they can now earn good money,” the expert confirmed. — Nowadays, in general, there is a tendency for white-collar workers to move to blue-collar workers, that is, from the office to blue-collar professions, since they can earn more money there. In addition to earnings, a more attractive schedule also plays an important role – a female taxi driver chooses the hours when she works.

The second factor is that places that were previously occupied by migrants have become vacant. Just a year ago the picture was like this: among the taxi drivers there were many visitors, they lived in cars, they had their own diasporas, their own clans, and because of them it was difficult for Russians to get into taxis. After the dollar exchange rate changed significantly, less foreign labor began to come to us. In addition, the requirements for taxi drivers have become more stringent. And now this niche is gradually being filled by Russians, including women.”