Travel

Driving drinkers home

By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-30 10:22

As a veteran chauffeur, Wang Zhenxi is used to late nights and drunken customers, but he still was surprised when he found his latest client half unconscious and collapsed on a chair.

Wang, 56, had been hired to drive the man's Volkswagen Passat and take him home after a luxurious meal at a venue near Houhai.

"I'd driven him a few times but I'd never seen him like this," said the driver as he helped his client into the car. "I knew it would be a long night."

It was after midnight when they pulled up outside the man's home near the South Second Ring Road. The client, a senior manager from a prominent State-owned energy company, was now awake and searching for his front door. Wang headed out to hail a taxi home.

For the last six years, Wang, who works for Beijing's biggest rent-a-driver company, has witnessed huge growth in the chauffeur business. He said there are now hundreds of drivers who regularly spend their nights ferrying businessmen, executives and officials to and from luxurious diners, karaoke parlors and massage centers.

Each trip costs 100 yuan ($14) on average, which is split between drivers and the companies they work for, and chauffeurs can earn about 3,000 yuan a month if they take fewer taxis and ride more midnight buses on their trips home from clients' destinations, said Wang.

"Sometimes I stay overnight in Internet cafes just to save money," said Liang Qinghong, a 43-year-old driver.

The jobs most chauffeurs are hired for are business-oriented, when one CEO hosts a party for a person or people they need favors from, explained Wang. However, one of the traditions of these events is heavy drinking, with businessmen often sworn to the ganbei, or cheers, culture.

"The prosperity of the chauffeur business partly reflects the extravagant lifestyles of the power elite," said Mao Shoulong, a professor on public policy at Renmin University of China.

Wang said he was once one of 16 chauffeurs lined up outside a venue waiting for 16 different clients to leave a luxury banquet.

"Nearly all the people I've picked up are banquet-goers and all men. They can be the hosts, the guests or the mutual friends invited to spice up the event," said Liang, who has driven two or three clients every night for two years.

Chauffeurs also sometimes face abuse from their passengers "for no particular reason", he added.

"These men in power also live under a great deal of pressure. It's easy for them to let off steam on us after intense drinking," said Liang, who added that it is essential for chauffeurs to act according to the mood of their clients.

For this reason, most chauffeurs employed in Beijing are experienced drivers in their 40s.

"The age becomes an advantage in this business because the experienced know how to hold on to their nerves," said He Jin, owner of the BAAD chauffeur agency, the first and the largest in Beijing.

After-drinking driving services have almost doubled this year compared to last year, with He's business, which was founded in 2004, generating 3 million yuan in revenue this year. The city now has more than a dozen such private enterprises.

The government has reinforced its crackdown on drunken driving nationwide after a number of fatal accidents, and harsher punishments will come into force from April next year.

However, He does not believe his business is prospering because of the people cracking down on unsocial behavior. It is more due to the world of corporate networking, he said.

The big partners, such as banks, insurance companies, stock exchange firms, government institutions and State-owned enterprises have been key to He's success.

His company received 135 orders for drivers last Friday, a sharp increase on previous weeks, and he contributed the increase in business dinners ahead of the New Year.

On its website, BAAD displays 18 business partners with which it has service contracts. These companies enjoy a 90 percent discount, it states.

He's company has 110 drivers and said he is recruiting more in time for the hike in business banquets expected in the next few weeks. The rush will last until the Chinese Lunar New Year on Feb 14, he said.

But while more taxi drivers are thinking of giving up their cabs to become chauffeurs, the veterans said the job is not an easy one.

"There is a lot of pressure, it is tiring and you are sometimes disrespected," Wang said. "Although it is good fun driving someone else's new wheels everyday."