Hello everyone, I hope we are all doing great. So I’m still on the commercial drivers series and If you haven’t read my previous article on Nearly all commercial drivers in Lagos are mad, please ensure you do so immediately after reading this. Thank you very much. Before I go any further, huge respect to anyone who is doing a 9 to 5 in Lagos. You guys are really trying, it’s a lot!!!
So I attended the Lagos Edition of the SheCan Nigeria Skill Acquisition program a while back and during the course of the program, I was commuting from my home to the venue for a whole week. Now if you do not work from home and you do not use Uber, Bolt or any of those apps regularly, you’re probably dealing with these guys on a daily basis, check out these 5 steps to surviving them and thank me later.
Know where you’re going to (I’m excluding those with tribal marks, we can always find you guys. Lagos is not that large after all, if you’re not on the mainland, then you’ll be on the island) - For the rest of my Lagosian brothers and sisters, please know where you’re going ooo. Those commercial drivers are not Google maps, they are ready to take you on a tour of Lagos as long as money is entering their pockets.
Hold your change (Especially on a Monday morning, use your entire Sunday to find change) -If possible please make sure you have the exact t-fare amount when you’re going out especially in the mornings. Don’t go and be giving the bus-conductor 1000 naira for a t-fare of 100 naira. It’s very likely that you may not collect your complete balance unless you’re ready to be on his neck all the time. If not, your balance has gone as he’ll keep posting you. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Do not sleep off if you’re going out alone- Nahhh, please chew a gum if the need arises. The person sitting beside you may just be a good-looking thief and by the time you’re awake, all your valuables are gone. Or you may just find yourself at the last bus-stop when you eventually wake up and no driver would take you back to your actual destination for free.
If you aren’t sure of where you’re going to, make sure you’re on a regular communication with someone that knows exactly where you’re going to- Some commercial drivers will claim to know where you’re going to just because of the money they’re going to collect from you. Believe me when I tell you they don’t care about your fate. Also, please if you can sense the driver and bus-conductor are extremely impatient (emphasis on the extremely, most of them are impatient) please do not enter that bus. Hold on, another one would come. Save yourself future wahala.
Always mention the bus-stop you’ll like to alight while it’s still a bit far- Tell the conductor or driver the place you’re coming down when entering so they won’t carry you to where you don’t know. I’ll advise you to keep repeating it every 3 minutes as there’s no way the driver would claim not to have heard you.
What do you think of these five steps above? If you feel I didn’t include some steps, please add them in the comment section, let’s save people together.
Also, I hope you’ve submitted your crazy personal experience about commercial drivers in your state of residence. Please don’t forget to share this article to someone you feel might want to see it. You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter to see snippets of my blog posts. Thank you so much for reading.
Yours in Love,
LamLam.