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Coach drivers turn to truck driving as industry struggles after COVID

Coach drivers turn to truck driving as industry struggles after COVID

2022-08-01

The coach industry has had a tough pandemic. Many coach drivers are out of work as the domestic tourism industry struggles. We spent a day with coach company owner Cheng Kuo-chih to find out how he’s adapted to the crisis. He’s taken up truck driving to avoid firing staff. Though his employees are grateful, he says that COVID’s impact on his colleagues is “tragic.”

In 2000, Cheng Kuo-chih took up coach driving. Now the 46-year-old has been doing it for 22 years. The business was booming when he began, and he could earn NT$200,000 or more every month. He started his own coach company in his twenties.

Cheng Kuo-chih
Coach company owner
In the first few years when I was really earning money, I was doing airlines, carrying flight attendants, and sometimes doing coach tours at weekends. I could earn NT$300,000 in one month.

Before setting off, Cheng checks his tires, fuel tank and engine. After finishing a trip, he cleans the seats, tidies the curtains and seatbelts, disinfects everything and calls it a day. He’s still as meticulous as when he began. But the pandemic wreaked havoc on domestic tourism as everyone stayed at home. Cheng’s coaches sat idle.

Cheng Kuo-chih
Coach company owner
Students were off school, too. All we had left was factory workers going to work. One factory commute is no more than NT$2,000. You just do two trips a day. You’ve got less than NT$3,000 a day to pay the driver – it’s nowhere near enough. The fuel costs money. You have to pay for your vehicle license, fuel tax, insurance – you pay all of them even if you don’t put the coach on the road.

Cheng says just his loan repayments are NT$300,000 a month, before any other costs of running the business. With vehicle maintenance, fuel, and eight salaries to pay, Cheng has lost a lot of sleep. He couldn’t pay it all off even if he liquidated his assets.

But not to be defeated, Cheng watched online videos to prepare and pass the test to become a big rig driver. Now he drives aggregate trucks and concrete mixers, heading to the construction site each day. This tough side job allows him to keep his employees on the payroll.

Cheng Kuo-chih
Coach company owner
I think it’s really tragic. When I go to the construction site, I see people and think “How come he’s here?” I meet friends and acquaintances there, people I studied with, who were also in the coach industry. Now they’re driving aggregate trucks because of the pandemic. Everyone needs to make a living.

Driving trucks is hard work, but the construction industry needs workers. Lots of out-of-work drivers are taking on temporary work in construction, making sites like this a veritable coach drivers’ reunion party. If they take on enough work, they can earn at least NT$50,000 a month. Many, like Cheng, are getting behind the wheel.

疫情求生存! 遊覽車老闆打工兼差發薪水

2022-08-01

來看一則疫情下的生存故事。桃園一名遊覽車公司老闆鄭國枝,白手起家,有22年開大車資歷,不過受到疫情衝擊,國旅停擺,公司8台遊覽車,只能停在路邊養蚊子,但心疼底下老員工,有生計壓力,鄭國枝花光積蓄,薪水照發,還跑去開砂石車打工兼差,讓員工不致斷炊,實在是一位"佛心老闆"。

46歲的鄭國枝,2000年開始開遊覽車,一做就是22年,剛起步時,景氣正好,跑車一個月可以賺進20多萬元,讓他不到30歲,就從一台遊覽車,打拚出一家公司。

[[遊覽車業者鄭國枝]]
“真正有賺到錢的前幾年,我跑航空公司、載空姐,還有一些六日跑遊覽,一台車(單月)可以跑30多萬(業績)啦。”

出發前,細細檢查輪胎、油箱和引擎,載完客人回來後,也要先清潔座位,把窗簾、安全帶擺正,再全部消毒一遍,一天工作才算結束,20多年如一日,不敢懈怠。不料遇上疫情,國旅停擺、客人不敢出門,鄭國枝的遊覽車只能被迫停駛。

[[遊覽車業者鄭國枝]]
“學生也休息,剩工廠的上下班(接送),工廠上下班一趟1千多塊,(一天)2班而已,養一個司機,車資才2千多塊,那養一個司機根本不夠,還有油錢消磨。牌照稅、燃料稅、保險通通要繳,你今天
跑車、不上路它還是要繳。”

即便車子不開,一個月也有30萬的貸款等著付,算上維修保養費、油錢,和底下8個員工的薪水,就算拿出老本來倒貼,也不夠付,鄭國枝苦惱到,幾乎夜不成眠。

不甘被現實擊垮,鄭國枝另闢戰場,靠著網路影片自學,考上聯結車職業駕照,可以開砂石車和混凝土車,每天往工地跑,只為了讓老員工,繼續安心待在公司,自己辛苦一點兼差,沒關係。

[[遊覽車業者鄭國枝]]
“我覺得真的很悲哀啦,去(工地)那邊,他怎麼也來這邊?去砂石場遇到朋友、認識的,也是做遊覽車的同業一些學長,因為疫情的關係他也來跑砂石車,(因為)大家要生活啊。”

儘管開砂石車不輕鬆,但營建業缺工嚴重,許多待業司機跑去加減賺,工地宛如司機同樂會,只要接的趟次多,一個月起碼有5萬塊,不少像鄭國枝一樣的司機,兼差咬牙苦撐,為自己找到新出路。

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