Grace Morris
Videographer, Animator, Editor
The Taxi Driver: The Life of the Party
“Bringing money home, that the hardest. The hardest day in and day out is that,”
Marco Fernández doesn’t know where he is going to go tonight. He doesn’t know who he is going to meet tonight or if those people will be nice, drunk, or worse. Fernández taps the steering wheel with a calm, slow pace, perhaps tired, not like a nervous man. The street lights are reflected in turns on his face: the red of car brake lights, the green of stoplights, the yellow of the street lamps. His eyes are tired and his wrinkles give him the appearance of an older man. At each stop he makes, he looks out the window and gets lost in some other point outside his car, sighs, or looks at his phone, checking for a WhatsApp or possibly some phone call. HIs lives constantly waiting. Waiting for the light to change, for the clients to call his taxi, for the night to end. But other times his night is not like tonight, a night of waiting. Sometimes he can barely stop his car.
“When there is a lot of work you can’t stop the car and when you show up you are not looking for people who want to use the taxi,”
Fernández is a taxi driver in Seville, who has lived in Seville for all his life and now has his own family in Seville as well. He recognizes his job is not an easy one, especially when he works at night. But he has no choice but to do so. Like all taxi drivers, Fernández has a schedule of days off. All the taxis in Seville have a letter that corresponds to the schedule of when they get time off. Fernández ’s car is marked with a letter E, he works during the day during the weeks, during the nights on the weekends and special weeks like Holy Week. He likes working at night because it can be busier, but sometimes people who want to use his taxi at night show up drunk. But for Fernández , this has never been a problem.
“We do not usually allow those who are too drunk or those who look really bad,” Fernández said just before his phone rings. He picks up his phone from the dashboard and the screen show the name of a woman, Fernández ’s wife. Fernández raises his hand as if to say ‘one moment’, and answers the phone.
Fernández ’s family is supportive and agrees with him that while the work of a taxi driver is very hard and carries the risk of the road, it is also a good job.
“My family thinks the same as me...it’s not so bad.” Fernández smiles and at that moment the yellow lights of the street lamps illuminate his face intensely, but after a moment they dim and Fernández ’s face darkens.
Despite the fact that Fernández has the support of his family, money and supporting his own family is always on his mind. According to an online salary tracker, in Spain, the average salary of a taxi driver is about 15,000 euros each year. But, as described in the International Living newsletter, the cost of living in Spain for a couple is approximately 24,700 euros a year but can vary depending on exactly where you live in Spain. Fernández has two children, a son, and a daughter, and is worried: having children is not cheap in Spain. He also thinks that his work has shown him a different side of Seville, shown him bad things that happen during the night and if afraid for his children.
“I worry, but...I can educate them better, so they know how to take care of themselves.” He stops his car and the red brake lights shine on his face. You can see the worry written on his face.
click and scroll through the map to see some popular stops for Marco Fernández or the neighborhoods mentioned.
Fernández tells a story about passing through the dangerous parts of Seville, of those places he doesn’t like to work in at night. Los Pajaritos and Las 3.000 Viviendas are two places that taxi drivers do not like to go. According to the Spanish newspaper El País, Los Pajaritos is the poorest place in Seville with an average household income close to 12,307 euros in 2017. Las 3.000 Viviendas is considered one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Seville, as described in an article on the news site LiveLeak. The two neighborhoods are in the south and southeast of Seville.
“In Seville, the night is not as dangerous as in other cities, but it’s true that there are areas that it is best to avoid… In fact, there are a few taxi drivers that carry protection so that they don’t have any problems,” Fernández said.
But, Fernández says, more than the dangers of the night, the biggest threat to taxi drivers since a decade ago is the VTC (Tourism Vehicles with Driver) services such as Uber and Cabify. Since Uber was founded in 2009, over the past 10 years, taxi drivers have faced many things that have put their jobs in danger, mainly being the introduction of private ride-share services. Fernández thinks that the reason Uber and Cabify are threats is that there are different rules for private services and public services such as taxis.
“And they regulate us and they do what they want. We are very regulated and they do whatever they want and nothing happens, and that’s the worst part of my job.” Fernández says, then a taxi driver behind Fernández looks ahead and sees that there is no car in front of him. Fernández opens the driver’s door and pushes the car to move it forward.
Vote to defend public services
In the past years, there has been a lot of tension between taxis and other VTC service. Specifically, in Spain, there have been many protests of taxi drivers because they believe that ride-share services need more regulation in order to co-exist with the taxis. According to the newspaper The Guardian, recently, Uber and Cabify removed their services in places like Barcelona because the protests have persuaded the government in some parts of Spain to change the regulations. Specifically, Uber and Cabify left Barcelona because the government created laws that require you to request your Uber 15 minutes before you leave. The new laws say that Uber and Cabify cannot respond to requests less than 15 minutes after they are made. For taxi drivers, this is good because you can use a taxi immediately, but the VTC association estimated that these new rules will cost 3,000 people their jobs. As described in an article on the news site ThinkSpain, specifically in Seville, during La Fería in 2017, some Cabify cars were set on fire and 27 taxi drivers were placed under investigation for this crime and other crimes against shared-travel service. More recently, there have been protests in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, and Seville on the licenses of taxis and the VTC cars. Taxi drivers have been calling for fewer VTC licenses that must be given. According to El País, for every 30 taxi licenses they want only 1 VTC license, but as of now, there are no rules in Spain on the number of licenses that can be given. Despite this, Fernández wants to do his job until he retires, yet he does fear for the life of taxis.
“I have 20 years left before my retirement, if [Uber and Cabify] don’t make us disappear,”
Fernández is waiting at a traffic light, like so many other times in the night. He sighs and looks out the window. The green light comes on and he moves forward. In the distance, someone on the sidewalk raises his hand. Fernández goes to pick him up and take him wherever he needs to go. Afterward, he will continue to circulate through the streets of Seville to keep earning a living, until morning comes. He will wait for the traffic lights to change, for someone to entrust in his service, and for anyone to stop him in the street. He will wait every night and morning, unless or until the taxis disappear.
