It’s a jungle out there
Hopefully, teams of social anthropologists are out in our streets, night and day, taking meticulous notes on the behavior of Athenian taxi drivers, working on studies that will shed light on one of the most bizarre groups in modern society and offer suggestions on how to remedy the situation. Because the eclectic horde that drives our yellow fleet is as unique and as fascinating as any undiscovered Amazonian tribe. But unlike primitive tribes that are suddenly thrust into the 21st century, Greek cabbies are a modern tribe that lives by the rules of pre-agricultural society. They are hunters and gatherers, predators and adventurers, living off their wits, their luck and the misfortune of others. They have become known the world over for their rudeness and lack of scruples. The fact that this group can live this way says more about modern Greek society than it does about the drivers. Many taxi drivers are decent people who try to serve the public in the best way possible, working long hours under terrible conditions. Like the rest of us, they are trying to earn money to raise a family and put aside enough to survive in a society that does not guarantee adequate pensions and health benefits to those who are neither rich nor connected. Taxi drivers are neither rich nor connected. They start their career – and each day – carrying a big grudge. They are society’s disadvantaged. This makes them feel justified in whatever they do to amend this situation. This sense of being disenfranchised should not be underestimated – it is one of the main factors in human misbehavior: those who feel that they are being punished unjustly by life find it easier to forgive themselves for subsequent sins. Furthermore, drivers are often battling deep-rooted anxiety. Time is money for them. Absolutely. Those who drive cabs belonging to others need to work about six hours just to pay the vehicle’s owner. This means that they have very few hours left to work for themselves before having to return the vehicle. Those who own their own cabs have had to buy its license for an exorbitant fee (licenses are currently said to cost more than 200,000 euros) and need to make it bear fruit – while living in fear of downtime through breakdowns, accidents or Athens’s endless traffic jams. On the one hand, taxi drivers are a closed group that allows no competition, on the other, fares are so low that drivers need to pack as many passengers as possible into their cabs to make a profit. Athenians tolerate this, because they know that they cannot fight the drivers’ primordial need to make as much money as possible in the shortest time. If fares were as high as they are in other European capitals the drivers would be more comfortable with each customer and the customer would be more demanding. Reflecting this tolerance, the authorities are much more lenient with taxi drivers than their counterparts elsewhere. That’s one reason why drivers seem to feel no qualms about choosing and exploiting their customers, while also imposing their opinions and behavioral quirks on everyone around them. Another reason is that they are the mirror of the bad manners and anger that have prevailed in the past few decades. Our roads are a jungle and our drivers have adapted accordingly. The simplest remedy would be to raise fares and then demand – without mercy – that drivers behave like citizens of a modern city and not like pirates.
