Mohammed Adeel wears a white shirt and pristine black shoes, but at the age of 30, he smiles and says Madrid very elegantly, as if he has an “a” accent. He’s been here less than two years and doesn’t want to change cities. “freedom taxi you don’t have a job at all. You know that you can work a maximum of 16 hours and that you can start and finish whenever you want.He narrates at the opera stop with his brother Muhammed Bilal and a friend Fermad Masan before starting his shift.
All three are Pakistani. The two brothers later came to Madrid. in June 2021 city of Madrid change the regulation governing taxi. Among other things, the new regulation setting fixed fees for travel to and from the Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas airport to and from the capital, removed article 28.3 d of the previous regulation of 2012. forced drivers to hold the title of Graduate in Compulsory Secondary Education (ESO) or equivalent. In the case of qualifications acquired abroad, they had to be approved, a process that could take six or seven months and send many immigrants back.
As conditions became more flexible, dozens of Pakistanis came to Madrid to work in taxis. They quickly went from counting to more than 250 with the fingers of one hand, and 50 of them already have real estate licenses., according to industry sources. “They are very hardworking, very loyal and enthusiastic people and their numbers are increasing,” says José Miguel Funez, Head of Communications at the Madrid Taxi Professionals Federation, about a phenomenon that has been occurring in Barcelona for years. : Nearly 2,000 of the 10,500 taxi drivers in Barcelona are Pakistani. It even has its own trade associations.
In Madrid, according to data from the City Council’s Transparency Portal, Pakistanis account for 25% of foreign national drivers holding an active card; this corresponds to a total of 1,084 of the 16,886 taxi drivers currently holding a driver’s license. “More and more are coming by word of mouth each month.” commends Adeel, who lived in Valencia with her brother from 2013 until she moved to Madrid. “We worked in hotels, factories…”.
Pakistanis work for both private taxi license holders and fleets and in most cases share 50% of the revenue with the owner. available on Milanuncios many tickets asking for drivers. “We are our own bosses. The more hours you work, the more you earn and you earn well here. Bilal, who prefers to work the night shift like other jobs, says, “It’s not like other jobs that you have to follow a schedule and start and finish when you’re told.”
They are known for their cunning in the industry. They know where the hotspots are depending on the day. “All the programs are known. You won’t find them in Barajas on Monday, they know the best time is Thursday evening when more flights arrive”, Funez says. “We have a WhatsApp group from our country. We are more than 200 people. Where there is work, wherever there is control, we inform each other.Mohammad Adeel, who has been trying to get his own driver’s license for months but was unable to deposit the money, which costs between 100,000 and 120,000 euros as an advance in the bank, confirms this. “It’s too complicated, there’s no other way. They want you to already have 40%,” he laments.
More and more Pakistanis are also getting driver’s licenses, as explained in the Taxi Federation. “They’re growing,” Funez explains, “because their buying formula is so good. They’re very anxious people, they have a lot of respect for each other and Among many, they save up for an ordinary boat, and when they get fat, they buy a license and then another.and that’s why”. When one of them gets it, they usually throw some kind of party at Barajas’ T-4 and invite him to biryani rice with a traditional dessert, with native meats and spices.
Regarding the experience they have had in passing through the capital, Pakistanis admit: Driving in Madrid is “difficult”. People drive worse here everybody tries to get past you. You have to be with all your senses. You are passing through a normal street and suddenly you can meet a person, you should always be on the alert.” What they do know is that taking a taxi is much better than using a VTC. “They still have more work than us, they can earn 100-150 euros more a day,” admits Bilal, but “there are places where they can’t stop and go. By taxi, you’re more free and you don’t have to eat too much.
About the weirdest place they’ve been asked to go, they say, “Valdemingómez or San Cristóbal, in Villaverde,” where drug addicts go to buy drugs. “We try not to go there at night.” Yet it is clear that Madrid “safer Valencia or Barcelona” while taking a taxi. “One day they tried to steal my cell phone, I called 112 and the police came within two minutes,” says Adeel, smiling like the others when asked which station was in the car. “40s [Principales]young people want this very much from us ”, the three of them admit.
Although the Federation reminds us that it is necessary to maintain “uniformity” in clothing, referring to the fact that some of them wear turbans, coexistence with the rest of their Spanish colleagues is very good for now, affirming Funez, valuing positive the importance they attach to the taxi. “They are very enthusiastic, in some cases they come out of nowhere and taking a taxi is a source of pride for them.. That’s positive.”