Labor conditions for taxi drivers in Mexico City

Luis Arturo Rivas Tovar and Jorge Esteban Rocha

Although efforts to introduce public transportation in Mexico City started as early as the colonial period, large-scale programs date only to the second half of the 19th century, when the government granted a concession to build a tramline from Mexico to Tacubaya. Taxi service is even more recent, beginning in 1915 when vehicles for hire first became widespread in the city.

With the disappearance of trams, other means of transport took their place, including buses, trolleys, and peseros, which came out in the 1960s. At the end of the 1960s, the construction of the first line of the Metro subway system offered some hope that large-scale public transportation had indeed started in Mexico City. In 1971, big taxis were replaced with the first 500 units of the popular vochos, giving birth to the minitaxis that substituted for the well-known crocodiles of the 1950s.

Public transportation in Mexico City, however, was weakened during the administration of President Zedillo with the elimination of Ruta 100, a metropolitan bus network introduced in 1982. Although it captured about 25% of total demand, the elimination of Ruta 100 favored the expansion of low-capacity transport, which now accounts for roughly 75% of total trips.
Currently, following the administrations of two governments led by the Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD), little significant progress has been made regarding problems of disorganization, corruption, and patronage that have left associations of taxis and independent taxi drivers hostage to diverse political groups.

According to research carried out in E.S.C.A Santo Tomás at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México (IPN), the authors of this paper learned that there are 104,694 legal and 22,000 illegal taxis (pirates) in Mexico City, creating the largest fleet of taxis in the world. By comparison, just 16,000 taxis are licensed to operate in Madrid.

The above-mentioned research used the ethno-biographical method and interviews within a sample of 185 taxi drivers. This allowed us to draw a socio-demographic profile of taxi drivers in Mexico City:

Taking all this into consideration, it is possible to draw a profile of an average taxi driver in the city of Mexico.

Socio-demographic profile

• 25% have been working from 5 to 10 years as taxi drivers
• 78% are married
• 44% have primary and secondary education
• 70% work from 5 to 10 hours a day
• 58% do mixed shift work
• 70% do not have social security
• 58% are not entitled to a pension
• 74% lack paid holidays
• 78% do not receive Christmas gifts
• 36% are between 36 and 49 years old
• 99% are men
• 94% were born in the Federal District
• 86% have their residence in the Federal District
• 52% have a monthly income 1 to 3 times the minimum wage (about 42 pesos)
• 53% are financially responsible for at least one dependent
• 51% own their taxi
• 56% are the sole source of income for their family
• 69% contribute to the family expenditure with an amount that ranges from 100 pesos (10 US$) to 200 pesos (20 US$) a day

Taxi driver profile

• A 42-year-old man, born in Mexico City, who has been working for 10 years as a taxi driver, has secondary studies and is married with two children. He works 10 hours a day, works split shifts, and earns the equivalent of three minimum wages. His family depends on him economically and he contributes 200 pesos per day to family expenses. He does not trust public authorities and believes they do not do enough to face the problem of illegal or pirate taxi drivers.
• His social origins, his means, and his living standard place him within the lower-middle class.

This work demonstrates that urgent, vigorous actions are needed to reorganize public transport in Mexico City, particularly within the taxi sector. Further research is required to confront the dilemma of these workers in their different categories: free, limited to particular places, pirates, etc. All are subject to levels of insecurity, exploitation, and working and living conditions that should be intolerable in a country respectful of the rights of its citizens.

Luis Arturo Rivas Tovar is a professor at the Escuela Superior de Comercio y Administración, Unidad Santo Tomás at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México (I.P.N.), and Invited Professor at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Jorge Esteban Rocha is a professor at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México (IPN); his research has focused on megalopolis administration.