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He talked about constant stress like app monitoring and traffic monitoring for 14 to 15 hours a day.
He describes the work as extremely cruel, describing it as “donkey work.” (representational image)
For thousands of taxi drivers in India, working long hours on city streets is a daily struggle. Many of them spend more than 16 hours behind the wheel, dealing with heavy traffic, demanding passengers, and just trying to make ends meet.
One such post recently went viral on Reddit, where a driver shared his daily struggles. He explained that he had been unemployed for a year and a half and was burdened with loan and credit card debt after his business venture failed, but he rented a car with a yellow plate for Rs 1,500 a day and started driving for Uber and Rapido.
“I use Rapido and Uber and drive almost 16 hours every day. I earn about 4 lakhs, of which 1.5 lakhs goes on car rentals, 1.2 lakhs for CNG and 200 lakhs for food/water. This leaves me with close to a lakh daily. It is really difficult, especially with the city traffic,” he wrote.
The driver then shared how stressful his job was. “Pain in the legs, knees screaming loud and clear to stop. I sleep for 6 hours a day and I’m not even active on any social media lately because there is literally no time,” he added.
Ass job
He described the work as extremely cruel, calling it “donkey work”, where apps control everything. Drivers have to accept requests within 5 to 6 seconds, otherwise someone else will, and failure to do so results in their ratings being lower. “The app works like fastest fingers first,” he said.
He talked about constant stress like monitoring the app, monitoring traffic for 14 to 15 hours a day, making split-second driving decisions, dealing with traffic lights, impatient passengers, and hoping trips aren’t canceled midway.
After all this, he said, “I wash the car as soon as I get back, no matter how tired I am, I stop to refuel and wait in long queues. Is this just life? This hard work takes me nowhere, but this is the reality of thousands of jobs for millions of Indians.”
The article concluded, “Cheap labor is the reason why others are privileged. They are either the exploiters or they are exploited.”
Social media reactions
The post quickly spread on social media.
One wrote: “This sounds tough! I have nothing to say except you will get through this. This too shall pass.” While another commented: “In every line I wrote, I felt psychological and physical pain.”
He wrote the following: “I always have the utmost respect for people who do this work not because it’s hard or anything, because I don’t think I can.”
Delhi, India, India
29 January 2026, 4:35 PM IST
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