Crossing 9 to 5: Bike-Taxi Struggle

Last Updated Jul - 09 - 2025, 05:22 PM | Source : Fela News

Rising inflation and steady salaries have forced salaried professionals to work part-time as a bike-taxi rider, showing that in today's era, part-time jobs have

Inflation rises and salaries stagnate and a growing number of salaried professionals are turning to bike-taxi services to make ends meet. Rakesh Kumar, a 32-year-old sales executive in Gurugram, is among them. He works from 10 AM to 6 PM, and yet finds himself riding as a bike-taxi driver both before and after office hours. “Before heading to the office, I complete at least five or six rides. In the evening, I ride again for two to three hours,” he shares.

His modest salary once covered rent, EMIs, and essentials, but that balance has tilted. Now, he earns an additional ₹200–300 daily from bike rides, a small but vital help in managing rising expenses.

Kumar hasn’t embarked on this hustle out of choice it’s desperation. He and others like him are strategically working peak hours, filling gaps in their income. Unlike full-time drivers, part-time riders pick morning and evening shifts when demand and surge pricing is highest.

Official figures confirm this trend. According to the Periodic Labor Force Survey (PLFS), the actual income of salaried employees in India has remained almost stable since 2019 on adjusting according to inflation. At the same time, the KPMG report of 2024 stated that the number of bike-taxi rides increased from 141 million in 2019 to 318 million in 2023, and more than half of these drivers do full-time jobs as well as these side jobs.

What does it tell us? Beyond 9 to 5 jobs, these part-time jobs are no longer an additional option, but in reality a lifeline has become a lifeline where the income is not able to match the speed of rising prices. For Rakesh and many such people, this struggle of bike-taxi is not just a means of earning some extra money, but this is the support that is resorting to their economic status in today's economy.

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