# Sharjah Taxi Drivers on Strike



## Andy Capp (Oct 5, 2008)

Having trouble getting a cab in Sharjah?

This is reported in the various "news"papers here, but according to a colleague (Indian) who lives there and knows some of the drivers, it's a lot more widespread than reported with something like 3000 of the 5000 drivers basically striking.

The reasoning behind this is best explained here (Top two posts).



> If you look at a more realistic 50% empty 50% full run rate (for instance, an Abu Dhabi job means travelling all the way back to Sharjah empty), our driver ends up owing the company just under dhs23 per day. In fact, in order to make money, he'd have to travel something like 75% of the time full. And then he could look forward to earning a marvellous Dhs 12.16 per day (or Dhs364 a month)


So the biggest labour dispute in UAE history and it warrants only a cursory mention in The National (Abu Dhabi based), fed into another story in Gulf News (Dubai), and not mentioned at all in Gulf Today (Sharjah).


----------



## Deanne Z (Jan 9, 2010)

The taxi drivers in sharjah are on strike? When? Yesterday I took taxi in sharjah and everything was fine. 
Anyways, I do hate taking taxi in sharjah because I always think most of the taxi drivers are not qualified, they hardly speak English and sometimes they don't even know where they are going. I had a bad experience before. I live in a place called "Azra". I thought every taxi driver would know because they are taxi drivers, they should know very well about the city!! Sharjah is such a small place. In Beijing, the taxi driver always knows the place you wanna go, Beijing may be 10 times larger than sharjah, i'm not sure though. I remember that was my 4th month in sharjah, I was still not very familiar with the road and I took a taxi from sharjah fish market. I told the taxi driver that I wanted to go to "Azra" and I asked if he knew where it was. He said yes with no hesitation which made me much relieved. But soon I realized he was driving to a wrong direction, he thought "Azra" is in Ajman! I was really pissed off and asked him if he really knew where Azra was, he doesn't speak good English and he told me he has only been here for 3 months!!!! whaaaat??? It took much time for me to find my way back to Azra and since then I've been a little bit scared to take taxi. But that was my only bad experience and since then I haven't met any bad taxi drivers. They all know where Azra is, but the differences are, sometimes I cost 15 dhs,sometime I cost 25 dhs...


----------



## binden365 (Jan 18, 2010)

Good luck to them I say. They get paid badly enough as it is, seems the company is trying to screw them even harder, they've already got them bent over, now it's time for the marrow it seems.....


----------



## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

Deanne Z said:


> The taxi drivers in sharjah are on strike? When? Yesterday I took taxi in sharjah and everything was fine.
> Anyways, I do hate taking taxi in sharjah because I always think most of the taxi drivers are not qualified, they hardly speak English and sometimes they don't even know where they are going. I had a bad experience before. I live in a place called "Azra". I thought every taxi driver would know because they are taxi drivers, they should know very well about the city!! Sharjah is such a small place. In Beijing, the taxi driver always knows the place you wanna go, Beijing may be 10 times larger than sharjah, i'm not sure though. I remember that was my 4th month in sharjah, I was still not very familiar with the road and I took a taxi from sharjah fish market. I told the taxi driver that I wanted to go to "Azra" and I asked if he knew where it was. He said yes with no hesitation which made me much relieved. But soon I realized he was driving to a wrong direction, he thought "Azra" is in Ajman! I was really pissed off and asked him if he really knew where Azra was, he doesn't speak good English and he told me he has only been here for 3 months!!!! whaaaat??? It took much time for me to find my way back to Azra and since then I've been a little bit scared to take taxi. But that was my only bad experience and since then I haven't met any bad taxi drivers. They all know where Azra is, but the differences are, sometimes I cost 15 dhs,sometime I cost 25 dhs...




lol got to laugh at they hardly speak english


----------



## Tropicana (Apr 29, 2010)

Deanne Z said:


> They all know where Azra is, but the differences are, sometimes I cost 15 dhs,sometime I cost 25 dhs...


Was that a Freudian slip ??


----------

