Phenomenology of being a safe taxi driver

In Zanjan, there were no Ride-Hailing Apps for calling taxis; hence, people took taxis through the traditional system of ridesharing or booking. As taxi drivers hailed on-street spent more time in traffic, and the use of this type of taxis was more common in the city, such taxi drivers were chosen for the study. All of these taxi drivers in Zanjan were male, and therefore, the 17 participants, including 11 participants of in-depth interviews, and 6 participants of focus group discussions, were all male. Participants’ ages ranged from 23 to 54 (M = 41.76, SD = 8.64). Their minimum work experience as taxi drivers was two years, and the maximum was 29 years (M = 14.05, SD = 8.65). The participants’ demographic characteristics are shown in Table 1.

In phenomenology, the focus is not on the world but the person experiencing the world. Therefore, it is essential to know how participants experience the world or any particular subject or situation. In this study, researchers are interested in the subjective experiences of taxi drivers about being a safe taxi driver. Thus, the researcher attempted to bring the participants to a stage where they reflected on their past experiences and told the researchers about emotions, expectations, fears, thoughts, and stimuli selection [28]. According to Hycner (1985), who stated: “the phenomenon dictates the method including even the type of participants.” [29], we chose purposive sampling, we recruited participants who had first-hand experiences about the phenomenon. We selected the taxi drivers based on those who “have had experiences relating to the phenomenon to be researched” [30]. For getting in-depth information, the data were collected using both semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with taxi drivers. It should be noted that both the Semi-structured in-depth Interviews (IDIs) and Focus group discussion (FGD) guide used in present study were developed for this study. The interviewing processes are described in detail in additional file 1.

The methodology of phenomenological approaches of Colaizzi (1978) [31] and Braun et al. (2006) [32] were combined, and an integrated seven-step data analytical approach was adopted: 1) First, the researchers dwelled with the data. Dwelling with data involved listening to recordings, transcribing them verbatim, and finally reading and rereading the transcripts. 2) Then the significant statements that pertained to the studied phenomenon were extracted. 3) In the third step, the meanings of these statements were written. 4) The codes were assigned to these meanings. Double coding was used so that researchers independently assigned pre-specified codes to the data. Once the coding structure became well-defined, the study proceeded by coding the remaining transcripts [33]. In this step, both methods of manual and electronic coding were used, such that, in the initial coding phase, the manual coding was used. Once the coding structure became well defined, the interviewer entered the transcripts into MAXQDA software (version 10), which allows text to be coded and retrieved for ease of interpretation. 5) Then the codes were arranged in a systematic order. At the end of this stage, sub-categories, categories, and themes emerged. 6) When potential themes emerged, the researchers refined those themes. Refinement involved omitting the themes that were not well-defined, integrating some relevant themes, breaking down holistic themes into separate ones. 7) Finally, after a collection of fully-developed themes emerged, an attempt was made to report the results as below.

Some strategies were used in order to increase the validity, reliability, and generalizability of this study. In order to increase the validity of the study, bracketing was used; also the researchers used triangulation or integration of the data source in a way that data were collected using two methods of in-depth interviews (IDIs) and focus group discussion (FGD). In order to increase reliability, researchers’ triangulation was employed, with multi-disciplinary experts working together on coding, constant data comparison, and data analysis. The researchers also used theory triangulation so that results were confirmed and supported by various theories, which in turn added to the generalizability of the study.

Taxi drivers referred to a complex traffic environment with a combination of different road users and vehicles. They said that sometimes motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, buses, and other cars created a dangerous situation for them. All of the participants reported high non-compliance with road traffic rules among road users.

‘For example, in the traffic lights, where the pedestrians do not have the right-of-way and the traffic light is green for cars, they disregard it and just cross the street [P10a34 (IDI)].’

‘You know; … you should concentrate on a lot of things simultaneously. On the one side, your passengers, on the other side, motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, and other cars [P9a50 (IDI)].’

‘Driving in Zanjan is very difficult; no one complies with the traffic rules [P11a46 (IDI)].’

Most of the taxi drivers complained about traffic congestion, which caused them many problems such as massive losses of time, fuel, and income, fatigue, and even traffic safety hazards. It seemed unsuitably planned road networks resulted in the presence of areas that were hot spots of congestions, and low compliance with traffic rules by road users and inadequate traffic management around these hot spots exacerbated and extended traffic jams.

‘For example, yesterday, there was a traffic jam in Koche Meshki (name of an alley), where the police officer was present, but instead of guiding the traffic flow, he was talking on the phone [P2a47 (IDI)].’

‘Well, you cannot say that you have never had an accident in this traffic chaos, by a hundred percent, I have had one… [P6a36 (IDI)].’

Some of the taxi drivers believed that undeveloped infrastructures, as well as an increasing number of vehicles, were other contributing factors to these traffic jams. Almost all the participants declared that taxi drivers did not have any privilege over the other drivers. For example, there were no special taxi lanes in most parts of the city. They claimed that this problem alone could exacerbate traffic jams because there was no differentiation between taxis and personal cars. Therefore, people found it was more convenient to use their cars, which, in turn, resulted in more traffic congestion. They announced that the low capacities of taxi stations were enough for only a few taxis. Consequently, most of the taxi drivers had to pick up or drop passengers out of these stations. The participant also declared that Zanjan was famous as a city without parking; they said people parked their cars on both sides of narrow streets, and making them narrower.

‘Special lanes can be very effective, resulting in less fuel consumption, time-saving, and even can ease traffic congestion [P1a33 (IDI)].’ ‘The only thing that remains for a taxi driver until the evening is traffic-congestion-fatigue. [P15a45 (FGD)].’

‘Urban Regeneration should be done in Zanjan [P16a40 (FGD)].’

Committing violations was repeatedly mentioned by the participants during interviews. It was occasionally claimed that all of the taxi drivers committed a violation. However, some participants excluded themselves. The participants believed that traffic violation was the result of several factors, including traffic congestion, being humiliated by other road users, having a conflict with colleagues, unauthorized passenger-carrying cars, passengers’ fare evasion, road-rule violation by pedestrians and motorists. From their point of view, calmness was a prerequisite of safe driving and job satisfaction.

‘Calmness has a positive correlation with safe driving. If a driver finds himself getting angry and upset on the road, he will not drive safely, but if he feels calm, he will pay attention to the road [P4a49 (IDI)].’

‘I have seen several times on the streets that a verbal altercation between drivers results in an accident [P5a35 (IDI)].’

It seems that the low social status of taxi drivers (about their occupation) placed a further burden on the participants’ psychological space. Fifteen participants said some of the passengers, people, and other drivers treated them disrespectfully, which made them feel distressed, annoyed, humiliated, and repressed. Some drivers reported that sometimes it could result in aggressive behaviour or verbal conflict, which were accompanied by distraction and could expose the driver and, as well as, the passengers to risk of being involved in an accident.

‘Most of the time, we are the target of insulting comments; it does not matter how we drive [P2a47 (IDI)].’

‘For example, when a passenger stands on the curb, and you stop to pick her up, the other drivers start swearing like mad that can cause the taxi driver to jump the gun to answer him back which, in turn, result in an accident [P1a33 (IDI)].’

‘About two weeks ago, my son proposed to a girl, but the girl’s family rejected him because of my job, even though my son has his job, and he will live independently [P17a56 (FGD)].’

Taxi drivers declared that their job had not been recognized as a real occupation in society. They complained about TMO and other related organizations not supporting them. For example, they stated that, in the last two years, the organization had not paid novice taxi drivers’ medical or life insurance. Nearly all the participants were dissatisfied with the performance of the relevant organizations in controlling private cars that picked up passengers (unauthorized passenger-carrying cars), which endangered their job security.

‘The authorities should have come up with a solution for our employment insurance. Without medical insurance, I cannot use medical services even [P5a35 (IDI)].’

‘Taxi drivers are a poor stratum of society; no one speaks for them [P3a35 (IDI)].’

Nine participants stated that they experienced heavy psychological burdens due to job stressors, which, in turn, affected their job satisfaction. They addressed some job stressors, such as rushing to meet efficiency demands, economic concerns, family issues, and long working hours.

‘Drivers should be able to manage the time to not rush into the day that helps them to be more tranquil [P3a35 (IDI)].’

‘Family issues, car expenses, and coming around expiring of car insurance payment deadline result in feeling nervous, anxious, and distracted [P13a53 (FGD)].’

The other discontent that the participants referred to was low job motivation. It appears that the participants were not satisfied with their job. Because they said, they would not recommend it to anyone else. Also, some of the participants did not even consider their job to be a real occupation. Some of the participants believed that their job made them feel their life like hell!

‘I do not recommend this job. You cannot consider it as a real job [P11a46 (IDI)].’

‘The worst job, the poorest job in the city, is ours. I apologize to my colleagues, but with the humiliating looks of people around, it seems it is the worst occupation in the city [P13a53 (FGD)].’

Economic issues were the primary concern of the participants. Almost all the participants said that economic issues caused them many problems such as stress, distraction, tenderness, and forced them to work long hours. They also claimed that economic concerns played a significant role in traffic safety insofar as they knew their economic concerns to be the leading cause of accidents. They firmly pointed out the experience of financial stress as a result of the combination of occupational expenses and the economic crisis in society.

Participants stated that occupational expenses included car insurance, fuel, renewal of commercial passenger vehicle identity (CPV ID) card, the extra cost for car maintenance and repairs due to low quality national products. The taxi drivers also complained about their low level of income, which caused a feeling of imbalance between income and expenses.

‘We cannot afford the necessary maintenance and repair work. We also use our tires until they get completely flat; these things, in turn, can reduce the safety level of the car [P5a35 (IDI)].’

‘From the morning that we start working, we have stress regarding whether we will be able to earn the required income or not [P2a47 (IDI)].’

Participants referred to the high cost of living and the existence of inflation in the community. They said there was an unemployment crisis in the country that had caused vast numbers of people to turn to carry passengers with their private cars. Consequently, high competition for passengers, along with struggling to meet efficiency demands, may result in more considerable speeding and risk-taking that could constitute potential safety problems.

‘For example, yesterday, I picked up three passengers, one of my colleagues, who parked ahead of me in the queue, protested for picking them up; he claimed that they were his passengers; despite telling him, they chose to take my car. Then, he started the next car angrily such that my passengers were scared and asked me to stop in a police station [P2a47 (IDI)].’

‘For example, 205 workers from one of the neighbourhood factories have been laid off. Certainly, 200 of them would start taking passengers by their private cars [P10a34 (IDI)].’

Being confounded in traffic conditions were mentioned again and again by the participants. This experience brought them a feeling of anarchy. During interviews they frequently referred to issues such as weak infrastructure (narrow streets against increasing number of vehicles, lacking parking, and lack of taxi lanes), traffic congestion, and a complex traffic environment with a combination of different road users and vehicles (i.e. motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians, buses, and other cars). Mohan et al. (2000) mentioned the same circumstances in developing countries [34]. While Shefer et al. (1997) acknowledged traffic congestion due to a positive effect on the reduction of vehicles’ speed [35], Shams et al. (2011) quoted in traffic jam, taxi drivers tried to escape in order to save their time, which was usually resulted in risky driving [14].

Besides, Mohan et al. (1999) conducted a study in Delhi and concluded that different modes of transport (including non-motorizes and motorized vehicles and walking) shared the same road space. For that reason, the smooth flow of traffic in all lanes was disturbed, and a sub-optimal of transportation emerged for all modes, which resulted in a hazardous traffic environment [36] — the countermeasures in developed countries usually modeled roads and intersections in computer programs for only traveling vehicles. Then, the same programs were applied in developing countries which, in contrast, had other modes of transport in the same road space. Therefore, it is not unexpected that traffic problems will persist [34].

As seen, several researchers, who studied traffic problems, recognized the relationship between hazardous traffic conditions and traffic chaos. However, the experience and feeling of traffic chaos can manifest in unsafe driving, too. Some studies referred to risky driving due to traffic congestion [14].

In this study, it seems that taxi drivers considered themselves at a low social status in a hierarchical society. Since taxi drivers believed people usually disrespectfully treated them, they felt humiliation. Then, as a psychological reaction, they found themselves to be ready to take retaliatory steps in self-defence. According to the Schwartz value dimension scores, Iran, accompanied by Thailand, has the world’s second-highest score in the hierarchy among 80 countries [37] may explain the relative importance of social status to the participants. Moreover, Harsanyi (1966) highlighted that “apart from economic payoffs, social status seems to be the most important incentive and motivating force of social behaviour” [38]. In our study, participants pointed out that the responding against insulting comments would endanger the driver and occupants. Henry (2009) demonstrated that people of a low-status had a higher tendency for violent behaviour and responded fast to personal threats and insults because they are much more sensitive to being socially rejected and are more inclined to protect their sense of self-worth. Henry explained these differences in terms of a “low-status compensation theory.” [39].

Assuming themselves to be low-status individuals may cause taxi drivers to be more prone to lose their temper when they were provoked. As stated before, the participants repeatedly reported getting angry behind the wheels. Getting angry is one of the most critical risk factors while driving. Dingus et al. (2016) found that driving while angry increases the risk of crashes nine times compared to normal driving. In comparison to texting behind the wheel, angrily driving was five times more likely to result in a crash [40]. These findings of the current study are consistent with those of Shaikh et al. (2012), who found that road rage was very common among the Pakistani commercial vehicle drivers [41]. Also, another study conducted on taxi drivers in South Africa showed that taxi drivers were statistically more likely to engage in aggressive driving behaviors than other drivers. The researchers justified their findings, using frustration and aggression (F-A) theory. The theory links aggression to frustration, describing that experiencing a frustrating situation, behavior, or events precipitate aggressive driving behaviors [42].

Thus, it can be concluded that, by our findings, different theories confirmed low social prestige and feeling humiliated can cause frustration and aggression among taxi drivers and lead them to demonstrate dangerous driving behaviors.

The participants disappointed by the cost of low social status, low income, and improper job environment; …in their job. Lee, An, and Noh (2012) found similar factors for job dissatisfaction in their study [43]. The participants in the present study judged on the material and spiritual costs of their job in a manner that they usually experienced receiving imbalance rewards. The feeling of this kind of imbalance induced the feeling of job dissatisfaction in taxi drivers. However, they endured job dissatisfaction because they had somehow experienced unemployment and believed there were no alternative jobs. This kind of feeling caused them to exhibit dangerous driving behavior. These findings can be well described using investment theory introduced by Farrell et al. (1981), which demonstrated that the investment model could predict job satisfaction based on costs and rewards, as well as employees’ emotions to the characteristics of the job. In sum, they implied a relationship between the variables of the investment model and unsafe behaviors causing accidents [44]. Also, Aziri (2011) found that job dissatisfaction can be related to unsafe behaviors and may raise the number of work-related accidents [45]. Moreover, a study conducted on Japanese commercial drivers showed a negative correlation between drivers’ job satisfaction and safety outcomes, such as the rate of accident injuries [46].

Although the participants alluded to economic pressure as an underlying factor to job satisfaction, they further remarked this theme as an independent element influencing on their driving behaviors. The participants delineated an atmosphere overfilled of financial stress, which caused them being distracted or anxious. Distraction as a result of stress has been wholly discussed in attention control theory (ACT) [47]. This theory well explains the stress effects on cognitive performance detrition. In line with this theory, anxiety reduces the available resources to control attention. Subsequently, those executive functions which are dependent on attention control can be impaired [48]..

Anxiety was the other outcome of the financial stress, which was mentioned by the taxi drivers, which manifested in over-speeding, passing through the red light, unauthorized overtaking, weaving through traffic, and tailgating. In plenty of studies, anxiety and its behavioral outcomes were discussed. For example, Useche et al. (2018) showed that job stress was one of the most potent factors in predicting traffic accidents of occupational drivers in Colombia [7]. Also, Hofmann and Stetzer (1996) stated that employees who experienced job stress focused on task efficiency rather than safety. Because they believed the more task efficiency, the more income, and rewards [49], in the present study, the participants considered efficiency as more passengers to be carried as fast as possible. In such a way, they did their best to catch more passengers in the shortest time continually. It can be translated into committing some violations, as mentioned before.

A few limitations exist in the current study. First, as an inherent limitation in qualitative studies, the results have been limited based on research design. Thus, one should be prudent in the generalization of the findings to other populations. In order to address this kind of limitation, we recruited a heterogeneous sample, according to the level of education, age, and work experience.

Second, because of the long working hours and tight schedule of taxi drivers, the transcripts were not returned to the participants for comments, nor were the participants asked to provide feedback on the findings. However, we endeavoured to overcome this limitation by conducting a focus group discussion that could explicate and validate the information obtained from individual interviews.

In order to increase the strength and validity of the study, the authors used three types of triangulation, namely data triangulation, investigator triangulation, and theory triangulation. In data triangulation, the researchers used two types of data collection methods, which included IDI and FGD. The convergence of data from two data collection methods added to the reliability of the findings. Investigator triangulation involved the participation of three researchers in the study for the analysis and interpretation of the data. This triangulation helps confirmation of the findings and the emergence of the various perspectives that widen the studied phenomenon. Finally, theory triangulation was applied such that various theories were used to analyze and interpret the results. Ultimately, we checked all steps of performing the study based on the CASP qualitative checklist [50].

The analysis contributed to an understanding of how taxi drivers’ feelings about their occupation and work circumstances could impact safe driving behaviours. Hence, “phenomenology of being a taxi driver” expresses taxi drivers’ feelings and experiences of being existentially touched. Heidegger looked at DASEIN (man) as a being-in-the-world. He considered DASEIN about others, and he emphasized a threefold structure of existence (being in, the world, and the self) [51]. In the present study, the threefold structure of existence included taxi drivers’ (the self) feelings and experiences of being under pressure of traffic chaos (the world), low social prestige, economic pressure, and job dissatisfaction (being in) in our study.

This study described taxi drivers’ professional experiences as well as safety-related problems they routinely faced on. The four main themes of the experiences were traffic chaos, social prestige, economic pressure, and job satisfaction. It means, to motivate taxi drivers to be safe, these themes should be regarded as barriers that have to be removed. Thus, strategic planning for traffic safety should include these barriers elimination.

Supports for taxi drivers that would result in greater tranquillity and reduced occupational stresses were emphasized. Reduction of traffic chaos, which may result in more traffic safety, can be achieved via improvements in urban sub-structures, such as increasing the capacity of taxi stations and urban infrastructure renovation. Inappropriate road networks in many developing countries create areas that are familiar places of traffic jams. However, proper traffic management can reduce such problems to some extent.

Besides, more stringent traffic enforcement will motivate taxi drivers to comply with traffic rules. As well, a series of social programs is required to facilitate financial success for taxi drivers. Stricter traffic enforcement and appropriate traffic safety training for the various sections of the community, including pedestrians and other road users, can be useful in creating a safer traffic space and reducing traffic chaos in the community.