It was incredible to see how technology democratises anyone's ability to enter into the cab ride business in the United States.
I was out and about in the American city of Boston recently and thoroughly benefited from a technology-meets-life immersion. Using a local telephone line — where you can buy a handset and tons of prepaid voice and data from any local mobile service provider — I could literally roam the streets aimlessly.
I would then Google restaurants, theatres, bookstores, churches or bars (see what I did there?) near me, and a whole slew of options would appear on the handset screen.
The best part was that I could now see options that were off the main streets that I was walking on, a number of which were tucked in tall, faceless buildings that bore no markings of the frenetic retail activity behind their glass edifices.
It is fairly apparent that small businesses, that cannot afford massive above the line advertising, benefit immensely from Google searches as well as customer reviews.
After taking the underground-which-becomes-above ground commuter train to my hotel, I discovered that I was on the absolutely wrong side of the city as I had misread the hotel’s address. Fifty five minutes of totally wasted time influenced my next decision to just take an Uber cab to the correct destination.
Bernadette showed up to pick me. She’s originally from Brazil and had been driving her Uber cab for the last four years which was her primary source of income.
I asked her what her experience with Uber had been as a partner and she was fairly positive about the company being a vigorous protector of its driver partners.
“Last year a lady comes in with a four year old boy,” she tells me in heavily accented English, “the boy just pooped in his pants! Right there on my back seat!” As she realised what happened, the mother of the boy just shrugged her shoulders and said “hey, he’s just a kid.” At the end of the ride, Bernadette took a picture of the offensive stain on her back-seat and sent to it Uber before driving to the nearest car wash.
Uber sent her $150 (Sh1,500) immediately for her loss of valuable business time as well as the cleaning cost. That amount was deducted from the passenger’s Uber account.
“People need to know that poop costs money,” she chuckled. Bernadette works only from 8am to 2 pm because after that it’s rush hour and she doesn’t like to get caught up in traffic.
Those six hours of work time are enough to finance her lifestyle. The next day I rode with Kevin who is originally from Uganda. He’s been at this for a year and is the consummate East African hustler. A fully qualified accountant, he does tax accounting for small business clients from January to June which is the tax season.
I asked him how he got his client base. “A friend of mine has 3,000 business owners telephone numbers on his phone. He charges 30 cents per text message. He sent out my contact as a good tax accountant to his database and I paid him. The clients who signed up have gone on to promote me through word of mouth.” Kevin went to the United States on the back of his mother’s citizenship which she acquired after successfully completing her own green card residency.
He left his wife and two children in Uganda but he’s now applied to bring them as he got his citizenship in 2015.
He used to work as a tax accountant during the day and drive his Uber cab at night but reduced his night driving due to security concerns. So now he only drives during the day when the tax season slows down.
“This thing is good,” he tells me about Uber, “I send money to my family in Kampala every two weeks.” I eventually ran into the confusing American cultural phenomena of tipping during my various Uber jaunts. At the end of every Uber trip, the app gives you three options for tipping the driver: $5 (Sh500), $10 (Sh1,000) or $15 (Sh1,500).
The Kenyan in me thought to myself why should I tip someone who already owns the car and is getting paid for the ride? So I gave none of the drivers that I used a tip.
Except my brother from Uganda because, you know, he’s a fellow East African doing the hustle. Ultimately, it was incredible to see how technology in the palm of your hand democratises anyone’s ability to enter into the cab ride business in the United States.
PAYE Tax Calculator
Note: The results are not exact but very close to the actual.
