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New York City's Taxi Drivers Are in Peril as They Brave the Coronavirus and Uncertain Futures

Kim Jaemin, 58, is a taxi driver in Manhattan. Business has plummeted, and so has the civility of the customers who enter his cab. “We face a lot of crazy, racist people,” says the South Korean driver.

 

Andre D. Wagner for TIME

BY MELISSA CHAN

MAY 15, 2020 8:38 AM EDT

Every cent matters to Kim Jaemin, a cab driver in virus-ravaged New York City, whose diet has been reduced to instant noodles despite working 14-hour shifts, seven days a week.

Since the coronavirus pandemic emptied the streets of passengers, the 58-year-old from South Korea has been living on about $65 a day. He buys near-expired, discounted food that he rations to last the week. Two meals of the day consist of the cheapest brand of ramen noodles he can find. “Forget about nutrition,” he says.

On May 2, of the seven total passengers he picked up, five did not tip. The other two tipped him less than $3 each. While most of his fellow cab drivers have quit—either because they fear getting sick with COVID-19, which has killed dozens of their colleagues, or because they feel it’s useless to scour a deserted city for riders—Kim says he has no choice but to work more. “I have to make every possible penny, nickel and dime,” says Kim, who lives alone in Queens and scribbles every fare and tip he gets into a notepad.

“The only way I could survive,” he adds, “I have to work every day.”