?We are knowing hard times. If you have only a few clients in the morning, apart from a few debrayaz during the day, you cannot expect to cover your debts.? Hansley is in great trouble. Since he sold his old car for a brand new BMW, he has been waiting for a good return from his clients. Now he faces difficulties to repay his loan. So he fears he might know the same fate as Jean, whose car was recently confiscated.

?Like most taxi drivers, we begin our activity with little money and huge pressure from loans.? Both Hansley and Jean blame the hikes in the cost of living, the absence of any subsidies to taxi owners: ?We are also a public service vehicle, like buses, and should benefit from some support.? Meanwhile the rise in oil prices does not make things better and Jean repeatedly complains about ?lack of work?.

Dev Hurbaunsee, a ?senior? taxi man, supports their views: ?I have not only to pay some Rs 12,700 a year for my licence. In addition I have the insurance fee that I have to double with another policy: the ?normal insurance? covers only passengers, I need a second one for myself. How ridiculous!? Meanwhile, he is the angry witness of taxi-marrons running with minimal investment and maximum profits. ?Some pack up to six passengers for a single journey.?

That is not at all Ben?s opinion: ?If there was such loss of earnings, you can be sure that taxi drivers would massively protest.? Ben has years of experience in the job. Without being unfair to his unhappy colleagues, he feels that those who lose their cars are mostly responsible for their fate. According to him, it is just the end? of the game. ?If you have a close look at the rare cases where taxi men have to give back their cars, you will find in 90% of them evidence of addiction. As a consequence, some have even lost their houses.?

<B>Inexperience and miscalculation</B>

The kind of addiction to which Ben refers is noticeable near popular casinos or during the horseracing season, where a few cars stay empty and idle, their drivers spending time and money on the wheels of luck. ?You would be surprised to discover that the man playing regular sums is in fact a driver.? But ?addiction? also includes alcohol, ?frivolity? and even dangerous drugs. Gambler cum drug addict (zougader droge), this is the encompassing definition of this life.

?True, we have to borrow for our cars, but a ?normal? taxi driver has a working capacity of Rs 4,000 a week. With such wages, you are currently able to pay back Rs 3,000 per month! I myself can earn some Rs 15,000 a month with local trips. I own three phones, am married to a housewife and I am paying my children?s fees in a private school.? For Ben, some have just lost the sense of sacrifice.

Ben points also to the procedure of confiscation: ?Leasing institutions and banks are flexible. They don?t put a case in court like this. In fact, taxi drivers enjoy quite a good report with banks and insurances.? There is no need for a driver to mortgage his house to borrow for a new car. The licence stands as guarantee.

Actually, taxi drivers who use their licence to apply for a loan, benefit from tax exemption (contrarily to what happens for a personal loan). Ben thinks that the ?oil? argument must not be exaggerated too: most drivers use diesel and even gas. ?Some taxi-train make really good money. If they charge each passenger Rs 30 from Port-Louis to Flacq, for example, assuming there are six seats in a large car and they make five return journeys daily, this gives you revenue of Rs 1,800 per day. Just multiply by 25 working days. However, this is a hard job.?

The failure of some can also be due to lack of experience and miscalculation. ?It is true that there has been a dramatic case, where a young driver hanged himself because he was too indebted?, quotes another senior from Flic-en-Flac. ?One has to do sensible choices when beginning the business. But most youngsters prefer to rush and buy an expensive vehicle that they are unable to repay.?

<B>Craze for sumptuous cars</B>

According to him, such cars, worth at least Rs 500,000, cost at least Rs 30,000 in insurance fees. The working capacity may be sufficient when you are repaying only half the value of the car but if you benefited from 100% credit, it is unlikely that you can achieve anything, having a monthly load of Rs 18,000, which when unpaid, amounts to a huge sum of money. ?Look at the old taxis drivers in Margéot square: they invest in smaller cars for their daily job.? In comparison, the craze for sumptuous cars has made young victims. Tellingly many fathers take back the licence from their sons.

There are also cheaper opportunities for drivers when they want to buy a car. Raouf Dusmohamud, from Proton cars, explains: ?Before the introduction of reconditioned cars, 50% of the new vehicles I sold were meant for taxi drivers. This figure has fallen to some 10%?. Reconditioned and second-hand cars have become easily available and can be bought under the same conditions as new cars. ?99% of my buyers are solvable.? A proportion undoubtedly higher than that of their current passengers!