This is a story of a 65-year-old Grab driver who lost his job after COVID and instead of retiring chose to be a e-hailing driver to make ends meet.
Charan Singh, is a 65 year old man living in Kepong that was laid off from his factory job in 2020. He was working as a facility store manager in a production factory in Klang, when the pandemic saw him suddenly jobless. As the restrictions were lifted, he soon found another job, as a security manager with a much lower pay. From his previous RM4,800 as a manager to a measly RM2,800. With two teenage kids, one of whom was about to enter university, he knew he had to supplement his income.
He decided he would sign up for Grab and earn some extra income. Since then, every morning he leaves his house at 6am and heads towards Shah Alam, picking up passengers on the way to work that starts at 9am. He does the same on the way back, clocking out of his work at 5pm, and drives Grab till 8 or 9pm. On Fridays he works even later, till midnight, knowing that there’s always a crowd, especially heading towards Bangsar or other nightlife areas.
“Unfortunately, this is the reality for a lot of us” he shares to IRL. “People need to eat, and to feed their family” he laments, brushing his grey hair away from his face. He shares about how hard it is to care for 2 children not yet working and a wife, as well as an ageing mother. He shares that his wife does what she can by selling her kuehs to friends and family.
It’s not much, but it’s a good supplement for her to have some extra money to buy things she needs.
Charan also added that as much as he can, on weekends, he will go out and clock in a few hours in the afternoon after spending the morning with his family. He will try to make it back by dinner time and spend the rest of the evening at home or visiting relatives. On Sundays, he takes a break and goes to his local place of worship, the Gurdwara. He spends the rest of the evening with family or catching up with other chores needed to be done around the house.
He shares that his story is not an isolated incident, and he’s in a group chat with other drivers, who live a similar life like him. The ones that lost their jobs during covid, the ones having kids and families to take care of with a low minimum salary. They do what they can to survive.
He shared that the reason he first started to be an e-hailing driver was because he wanted to subsidize his commute from work. The drive from Kepong to Shah Alam was long, his petrol usage was more than he could budget for.
This gave him the idea to recover the cost of the petrol by driving passengers on his way to work.
Although he is at the age of retirement, he knows he can’t retire yet, bringing up the fact he has two kids that are still studying again. It’s clear that this worry never escapes him. He shares that he will work for as long as he is able to, or as long as the company would be willing to keep him as an employee. He hopes once his children are older he will be able to take a step back and enjoy his old age with his wife. Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality for many Malaysians finding their footing post pandemic.
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