[SidharthaN]

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been posted before. I am just tired of the corporate rat race and want to shift to driving my own cab in Delhi NCR.

I have 18 years of experience with MNC in operations management, project management, training delivery, learning and development, Quality Assurance and Workforce Management.

I am Prince 2 Practitioner, Certified Scrum Master, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and MBA holder.

Inspite of these great credentials have been stuck in my career progression for the last 10 years. Should have been at VP level, am currently working as a Senior manager.

I am just giving up pushing my luck to reach the top. Am 45 years old and realise do not have much years left.

The struggle has made me a cynical human being with a negative view of life.

Hence want to leave this path, buy a small cab,and run it myself with an aggregator.

How feasible is this? And how much can I earn.

[tilt]

More power to you man

I did something similar - I quit a high-paying consultant gig and became a truck-driver driving 18-wheeler tractor-trailer semis, but not in India. It was a lot of fun. Not enough money, but fun.

I am not sure how feasible it would be for you to do in India, considering the harassment commercial drivers undergo from cops and other authorities though.

Good luck to you and keep us posted please - I am vry keen on how you fare.

Cheers

[am1m]

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

Not sure if this has been posted before. I am just tired of the corporate rat race and want to shift to driving my own cab in Delhi NCR.

All of us corporate rats entertain daydreams like this once in a while. I get it completely- I dream of being able to quit work for good at least once a month. But I certainly wouldn't take up driving in an Indian city as an alternative!

Driving in our cities is hard and not exactly a pleasant pastime. I'd hate to have to do it as a job. A couple of days driving a cab and I'm sure that anything unpleasant you are going through at your corporate job will seem like nothing compared to what you'll go through on the road with the number of idiots around your car and the number of idiots inside your car who hire your services!

I'd suggest a job switch, perhaps a less demanding role, perhaps a sabbatical.

[Turbohead]

+1 to am1m

It'll be a good idea to drive aimlessly in the city for 3 days straight from morning till night. Also take along someone annoying and that'll give you a full blown experience of what it is to be a cab driver without leaving your current job!

[Linuskm]

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

I am just giving up pushing my luck to reach the top. Am 45 years old and realise do not have much years left.

The struggle has made me a cynical human being with a negative view of life.

Hence want to leave this path, buy a small cab,and run it myself with an aggregator.

How feasible is this? And how much can I earn.

What about taking a one year break and working for an NGO ?

[sreerknair]

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

Hi all,

I am just tired of the corporate rat race and want to shift to driving my own cab in Delhi NCR.

Inspite of these great credentials have been stuck in my career progression for the last 10 years. Should have been at VP level, am currently working as a Senior manager.

I am just giving up pushing my luck to reach the top.

Hence want to leave this path, buy a small cab,and run it myself with an aggregator.

How feasible is this? And how much can I earn.

Please don't take my response as offensive and consider it just an alternate perspective.

Few questions you should ask yourself before you leave your corporate job -

1. Why can't you just be part of the Corporate Job and not part of the Corporate Rat Race?
2. If this is not possible in your current organization, why can't you just switch to another firm?
3. Isn't it that roles such as VP, SVP, CIO are all fancier names for some sort of Manager? Someone who manages the limited resource she/he has and meet an objective for the Corporate. What makes you chase a VP role or higher positions - Money, Power, Status, Social pressure, Peer Group Comparison?
4. Does driving your own Cab makes you content ? If it does, then why can't you be content with what you currently have?

Also some hard truths in Corporate world -

1. Education, Degrees, Certifications - all these are good only for you to get that initial entry to the Corporate world. Definitely a good education credentials will give an upper hand during the initial selection process. But once you are in the system, how you progress is all dependent on how good you are in putting those skills in practice and how good you are in navigating the Corporate Politics. Note, both these skills are important for one to progress.

2. Once you enter the Rat Race, it is a never ending race. You are VP, then you want to be SVP, EVP, P, COO, CIO the list goes on. Having said so, you don't need to enter the Rat Race and still can become the CEO provided you master the 2 skills I mentioned in #1.

3. It is okay to be a Senior Manager in a Corporate even at the time of retirement. Not all has to become a CEO when they retire. Just focus on priorities in life.

[noopster]

I'll give you a practical answer to your long-winded query: No.

And this is why:
- After two decades in corporate, you are not used to hard labour in the real world. A gruelling schedule of a taxi driver might just be too much for you.
- You may not realise it since you have become jaded in your role but there are skills and traits that people value in you, which is where you are right now. Though from your POV you could have been much higher, there are people who hold you in regard for whatever it is you do day to day. You will lose all that goodwill/equity.
- A white collar job confers respectability in this country. Taxi drivers (even fleet operators) are several notches lower. Your self-esteem needs will not be met in this role, simply put!
- Unless you have some experience dabbling in this area, getting into a new line of work drastically removed from what you have been doing all your life, could open up its own can of worms. Quite possible you will start regretting this rash move and long for the simpler albeit boring days of being a middle-level manager in a nice office.

All the best!

[audioholic]

Before you want to do this full time, try doing something for kicks like hosting people on Quickride, BlaBlaCar and so on. You will realise how poorly people treat the service industry on an average. There are a very few people who will really respect you, recognise your background, treat your property well, etc. Rest are there only to pay you X amount of money and get the best out of it. Then you will realise that being in the corporate world or rat race is better than being in a rat race with unruly passengers, other taxi drivers, autorickshaws, being disrespected by police officers etc. At least in the corporate world people will value your white collar and not disrespect you. But once you are in a yellow board car, all is not the same.

Perhaps you can try signing up for Rapido as a bike captain. That I think is easier and doesnt require you to have a yellow board car, commercial drivers license etc etc. And you can do this on a weekend or two to get a hang of.

PS: I might be biased about Quickride, but I have had mixed experiences so far. Some do treat it like a cab and they get responded to appropriately, while others are extremely appreciative and polite. But its a good eye opener to understand how the taxi service usually runs like.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been posted before. I am just tired of the corporate rat race and want to shift to driving my own cab in Delhi NCR.

I am just giving up pushing my luck to reach the top. Am 45 years old and realise do not have much years left.

The struggle has made me a cynical human being with a negative view of life.

Hence want to leave this path, buy a small cab,and run it myself with an aggregator.

How feasible is this? And how much can I earn.

Strong No. You have to try just one day how others (including customers, family, friends, neighbours and people in the road, other cabbies, police, RTO) treat a cab driver and face the real struggle on the road and how brutal life is, you will realise what better life you had.

You need a sabbatical and try to find out how to lead a life without much expectations. It may come through self realisation, yoga or travel for different people.

Find your own inner peace

[aargee]

What you're undergoing is midlife crisis perhaps? If not, just frustrated with the current environment. When you leave this job & start driving, you're forgoing your 18 years of experience which is of no use to the new job. And to make matters worse, you're starting from kindergarten with driving. Even if you're driving for over decades that should perhaps be for yourself & not for making money & you may be yet to learn the nuances of making money with driving.

Instead you could do something similar with a little change: Quit the existing job, if its frustrating, learn a new skill that better than the present one, find another job with upgraded skill. Even in the new job you're starting as kindergarten, but your pay will be many folds more than earning as driver. Even better? Stay in the current job, do a productive work no more than 8 hours or less, use the remaining time to learn new skill & find a new job to suit the skill & leave your current job by thanking everyone.

What I've found from my own experience is: no matter where you, where you work, you can find the same characters - an angry young man, a crooked, a wicked, a clever, a neutral, a wise, a silent, someone jumping the gun all the time, someone taking advantage of you, someone blaming you for their mistakes, an empathizer etc; just that their names & faces will be different. It's better to stay wherever you are & make the most because known devil is better than unknown angel!!

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

Am 45 years old and realise do not have much years left.
Hence want to...buy a small cab,and run it myself with an aggregator.
How feasible is this? And how much can I earn.

This is interesting. Reflects strongly on the fact that you are undergoing a midlife crisis. Some people start farming, some give up their jobs and travel the world, some divorce their wives, some invest (blow up?) their life's savings in a start-up, and some (like you) want to drive a (small) cab.

Well, why not (follow the dictum of the heart, that is)? Not one of the MLC folks bother to think of the monetary / financial / social consequences of giving up their steady jobs and heading off on a tangent with their lives, until, a few months or a couple of years later, when they want back in on that stable income and happy family that they had before MLC hit them.

It is your personal call, whether you want to quit your job and drive a cab. Don't get into it because you think you will earn as much as your present job. However, get into it if the itch is extremely strong, but don't burn your bridges - keep a way back in into your present life and corporate job before embarking into the midlife-crisis-driven venture.

Good luck!

[A_Basu]

No, please don't. You'll earn maybe 30% of your base salary. Plus, no PF, no insurance, no benefits...

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

How feasible is this? And how much can I earn.

Not feasible If you're a BHPian, you love your ride. You'll hate it when people treat your car like a taxi and bang doors, fiddle with window knobs or AC vents, bring mud-caked feet on to your floor mats.

Or, the behavioral issues: ask you to switch off your AC (or your music) when you want it, ask you to switch on your AC when you dont want it, ask you to wait, stand you up, urge you to go faster or slower, suggest a route you absolutely don't want to take, refuse to wear the seatbelt, do backseat driving.

Pre-pandemic, I had signed up with QuickRides. People did all of these to my car and me. People who work at the same kind of offices that I do, do the same kind of work that I do, earn the same kind of money that I do...and yet treating me as an on-call chaffueur. Because my nose is too long for my own good, I uninstalled QuickRides within a month.

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

operations management, project management, training delivery, learning and development, Quality Assurance and Workforce Management.

If driving is all that you want to do, why not get a 6-seater or something, and do bespoke group tours with foreign tourists? You'll have to build a network, but your experience in the corporate sector should come in handy, no?

-------------

Oh, and just for the records, I am older than you. I've done two job pivots; once in my late 20s, another time in my late 30s. Both times, I had to begin right from the bottom, but I don't regret doing that. Both times, I joined an industry that was completely different from what I currently was in. Both times, the reason was job stagnation.
So, that could be another option for you. Look for an opening in a different industry.

[IshaanIan]

I don't know about driving a cab that too in India where our culture just does not include courtesy and respect (apart from blindly respect your elders that is) and our roads are likewise filled with disrespectfully driven vehicles. How about buying some farmland and growing some exotic cash crop? Could prove very satisfying and a solid break from not only the corporate hustle but also the less than ideal aspects of city life.

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by SidharthaN

How feasible is this?

Have you considered the health aspects? Sitting is the new smoking; sitting 12 stressful hours in a car with irregular/outside food, toilet breaks is no joke. Sorry to be blunt but this can't be done.

[DCEite]

Originally Posted by audioholic

PS: I might be biased about Quickride, but I have had mixed experiences so far. Some do treat it like a cab and they get responded to appropriately, while others are extremely appreciative and polite. But its a good eye opener to understand how the taxi service usually runs like.

Tell me about it. I do occasional QuickRide , not for the bucks, but it gives a certain kick and a certain feel good factor about reducing carbon footprint. But then, a ride taker the other day sat in the backseat, even though the front passenger was vacant. And then, to put salt on the wound, he calls his wife/GF on phone and says that he has boarded the "cab".