I know in previous posts I’ve touched on the fact that women can’t legally drive in KSA, but as I was WhatsApp-ing with a friend I realized that I haven’t delved into how convoluted the situation really is for me, especially now that I’m going to be working.
To give you some perspective for Saudi women, most have private drivers; 87% of Saudi families have private drivers, according to a Public Opinion Unit survey done in 2014. Taxicabs are an option, but aren’t safe. Saudi Arabia is a very class based society so most Saudi women, with the means to have a private driver, would never take a cab. In fact, cabs are seen a something only poor people use. Recently changing the marketplace are Uber and Careem, which state that 80% of customers in KSA are women.
Some of you might be thinking, what’s the big deal? Adrienne, you have plenty of options to use an Embassy driver, hire a private driver, get a cab, or call an Uber to get to and from the office. Right???
WRONG. For me the general rules and practices are entirely different.
First, I actually don’t have an Embassy driver at my disposal. The motor pool drivers are available to us to use until our car arrives, but I can’t use them for regular ongoing personal use, like driving me to work.
Cabs are ruled out entirely for Embassy staff and family members. We have no idea who those drivers are and certainly don’t want them coming on and off the DQ, seeing where were we live, trying to creep around or attempting to get any information. The potential security issues are a nightmare.
A taxi-haling app seems like a good alternative since the drivers are vetted by the companies. And technically we are cleared to use UberBlack when we’re out and about in Riyadh. Security at the DQ gates can vary though. Some guards may let a driver on to pick me up or I might have to meet them at 1 of 2 gates, which are both over a mile from our villa. I’ve heard stories about people having to go pick up their delivered food at one of the gates because security won’t let them on!
And hiring a driver is more complicated than you’d think. In KSA there are a lot of non-Saudis living and working here, making up about at 1/3 of the total population. These people are sponsored by their employer to work in-country. We, I mean J, sponsors our nanny because she’s Filipina. I can’t because women aren’t allowed to sponsor employees. Technically, J is my “guardian” and I can’t do anything without him or his approval. So unless I can find a Saudi driver, which would be rare and he probably wouldn’t agree to drive me anyway being that I’m a woman, J would have to sponsor this person. Sponsorship can be 6 000 SAR, plus monthly salary could be 3 000 SAR. This is the full-time rate, regardless of the fact that he’d only be actually working about 45 minutes a day!
So this then begs the question, why am I figuring this out? Since my company wants me to work here, why wouldn’t this be part of my work contract? Surely they know how to deal with this. Well, not really.
As I mentioned before, there is only one other full-time female employee in our office. She’s a single woman living with her family and already has a full-time driver for her to take her anywhere she needs, not just work, because that’s how things are done here since WOMEN AREN’T ALLOWED TO DRIVE.
I have one last option, a driver hire app that covers the cost of sponsorship. J got it approved from the security office so now I just need to get a driver and hope he gets cleared because I just need a ride to work, which I never imagined would be this tough of a problem to solve! Wish me luck!!