Whenever I travel by taxi in Malaysia and Singapore, I try to hold a conversation with the driver, talking about their lives as taxi drivers.

One of my taxi driver friends recently ended up with work stress for about two weeks in Singapore hospital for patients with mental problems.

Many of my friends around my age (I’m 56) in Singapore, had to become one – for example, a school-mate from Raffles Institution who is a university graduate who was a human resource manager, my tennis partner who used to be a coordinator in a construction firm, an ex-colleague who was an assistant vice-president in a financial institution, etc.

Apparently, the labour statistics in Singapore seem to indicate that the more qualified and the older one is, the easier it may be to lose your job, and the harder it may be to find one.

In this connection, the latest specific relevant statistics from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower (MOM) are as follows:

• Close to half of all resident job seekers were about 40 years old;

• 61 percent of the long-term unemployed were aged 40 and over;

• Professionals. Managers, engineers and technicians (PMETs) accounted for more than half of those made redundant; and

• The re-employment rate of those with a degree was the lowest in 2009, at 61.2 percent.

Lessons from history

To answer the question – is it better to be a taxi driver in Malaysia or Singapore? I guess perhaps a good starting point may be 1965, when Singapore separated from Malaysia.

Presumably, taxi drivers then on both sides of the Causeway, were about the same – with the currency on par, similar cost of living, taxi driving costs and conditions, etc. In fact, in 1965, if you were a taxi driver in Singapore, you would have been offered Malaysian citizenship, upon separation.

Turn the clock forward to today, and it would seem anecdotally, that there is quite a world of difference between the lives of taxi drivers in Malaysia and Singapore.

The bottom line, as I understand it is that a one-shift full-time taxi driver in Malaysia typically only needs about two hours of driving to break-even and cover his or her total costs.

For Singapore, it would take about four to five hours.

Two-shift drivers in Singapore, which is generally about eight hours of driving a day, because of their ability to split the daily rental cost between the hirer and the relief driver, generally need about three hours of driving to cover their costs.

A part-time driver in Kuala Lumpur renting five hours for about RM25 can break even after about one hour plus.

I understand that about 90 percent of taxi drivers in Malaysia are one-shift full-timers, whereas only about 30 percent in Singapore are.

About 30 percent of drivers in Kuala Lumpur, own their own taxis, whereas no Singaporean drivers are owners anymore as individual taxi ownership was gradually phased out over the years. Malaysia still issues individual taxi ownership licences periodically every few years.

Owner taxi drivers in Malaysia can transfer their taxi ownership to their child, when they die or retire.

Gulf between there and here

In other words, many taxi drivers in Malaysia are entrepreneurs, but none are in Singapore.

With a taxi costing about RM55,000 which is about RM500 monthly instalment for about seven years, most drivers in Kuala Lumpur may be relatively more relaxed than Singapore drivers, as I understand most drive around eight to 10 hours a day, to earn a net monthly income of about RM2,500 plus.

In contrast, Singapore drivers drive about 12 to 14 hours a day to earn about S$3,000 (RM7,144) plus of net disposable income. Two-shift drivers in Singapore typically work about eight hours, to earn about S$2,000 plus (RM4,763).

There appears to be much greater competition between taxi rental companies in Malaysia, with about a hundred companies, compared to about six in Singapore. This may be one of the possible reasons why taxi driving costs are much lower in Malaysia, compared to the gradual rise of costs over the years in Singapore.

Especially during off-peak hours, there appears to be much more empty taxis in Singapore, relative to Kuala Lumpur. This may be due to some extent, to the huge increase in taxi fares in Singapore over the years.

For example, the taxi flag-off fare in Kuala Lumpur is RM3 followed by 0.10 sen per 115 metre.

In Singapore, the flag-down fare is S$2.80 to S$3.20 (RM6.66 to RM7.62) for the first kilometre, followed by S$0.20 (RM0.48) per 385 metre and per 330 metre after 10km.

Moreover, there are peak-hour charges in Singapore that push up the total fare by 35 percent, extra 10 percent administrative charge plus 7 percent GST (goods and services tax) for payment with credit cards, electronic road pricing ranging from S$0.50 to S$5 (RM1.19 to RM11.90) per gantry (ERP), CBD surcharge, public holiday surcharge, S$2.50 to S$5.20 booking fees (In Kuala Lumpur, booking fee is RM2), etc.

Taxis in Singapore that enter the central business district without any passengers, are also charged ERP (Electronic Road Pricing).

Given the fact that the cost of living in Singapore is much higher than Malaysia, I would surmise that the life of a taxi driver in Malaysia is arguably better than that in Singapore.