The ups and downs of driving for a living
East London professional driver Gcina Ntsokoma is never bored
Driving in SA is a hazardous occupation, especially for professional drivers who make their living on the roads, clocking up many thousands of kilometres.
East Londoner Gcina Ntsokoma has been a professional driver for many years.
His first driving job was with SA Breweries.
He now drives for DSV, a national courier company with an international footprint of freight shipping companies, partners and agents.
“While courier driving might not appear so, it is a dangerous job. You have to be careful,” he said.
According to an Automobile Association report there is an average of more than 1,000 fatal road accidents a month, accompanied by 13,000 serious injuries.
Since 2013, 126,546 people have died on the country’s roads.
Ntsokoma was born in Scenery Park and schooled in Mooiplaas.
The father of two said that while he really enjoyed driving, accidents and hijacking are always at the back of his mind.
“As a courier driver we are always under threat.
“The first thing is that criminals could go after the company’s vehicle and injure you in action or shoot you so that there is no chance of you identifying them.
“Second, they could kidnap you and race you around to the ATMS to withdraw cash.
“The third is probably unlikely but possible. There is a rise in the number of people captured for ransom, unlikely in my case because as a driver my salary would not be worth their trouble.
“Last, hijackers could steal a vehicle for its cargo, but this is more likely to happen to truckers.” Recently another frightening statistic has emerged.
There were more than 22,000 carjackings in 2023, and overall vehicle hijackings are rising at an alarming rate.
He said that other than the safety issue, driving was the perfect job for him.
“You meet different people every day and you get to see the town and surrounding areas. There is never a chance to get bored.”
Monthly pay for courier drivers ranges from around R4,000 to between R12,000 to R15,500.
Professional drivers were in demand, especially those with heavy duty licences, said Ntsokoma.
According to latest data, SA has a shortage of about 3,000 truck drivers, with the shortage continuously growing over the past few years.
Entrance to a driving career normally requires a clean criminal record, a valid driver’s licence, an ID document, a faultless driving record and experience.
Driving has various categories. These include the ultraheavy vehicles, trucks and articulated vehicles, buses, delivery vans, taxis and minibuses, and the fast-growing motorcycle delivery riders, with an estimated 7,000 riders nationally.
Bolt, the taxi service, claims to have 45,000 drivers on its platform and Uber 35,000.
There are 130,000 minibus taxis.
Wages depend largely on the size and complexity of the vehicle driven and the earning potential.
A Bolt ad on Google claims that drivers can make up to R250 a day, which is R7,500 a month. Additional sources indicate that drivers can make between R14,000 and R17,500 a month, but effectively they write their own salaries depending on the hours they put in behind the steering wheel.
Many drivers are now using their own vehicles and subcontract the driver-vehicle package to companies.
SAB was one of the first companies to sell its trucks (sometimes called the horse) to drivers that had many years of service, as long as they used the vehicles for SAB deliveries.
The company retained the trailers, which would be loaded with beer and drivers would collect them with their own horse and deliver the load.
In the courier sector some companies pay drivers a flat rate per package delivered, while others pay on an hourly basis.
That’s why it’s always a good idea to research different companies and work providers to compare rates before accepting a job.
While driving is relatively well rewarded in SA, it falls way below the rate for a specialised heavy vehicle driver in California, who can rake in US$93,000 (R1,8m) a year.