Designated chauffeurs paid a monthly average of $1,440

A recent report on designated chauffeur service showed that there are around 87,000 designated chauffeurs in Korea and they work eight hours a day, 24 days a month serving 5.5 customers a day in average.

Requested by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the Korea Transportation Safety Authority issued in March "Report on Current Status of Designated Chauffeur Service and Related Policy Research." According to the report, designated chauffeurs work eight hours a day in average but 9.9 percent said they work longer than 11 hours a day. The number of consumers using designated chauffeur service reaches 480,000 people a day.

The biggest issue chosen by the surveyed chauffeurs was low payment. It may vary across the companies, but average price is 10,000-15,000 won (approximately 9.5-14 U.S. dollars) for the service to drive a car instead of the drunk owner at close distance, and 20,000 won (19 dollars) for long distance. They make a monthly average of 2 million won or so, but the take-home-pay is about 1.5 million won (about 1,440 dollars) after deducting fee for chauffeur service company (20 percent of the income), insurance fee, transportation expenses for the chauffeur himself, and usage fee for a mobile phone application to find out destination and adequate price for distance. Designated chauffeurs for hostess bars are paid much higher, however. A chauffeur surnamed Kim (aged 52) said, “Chauffeur service fee is mere 20,000 won (19 dollars) from Gangnam in Seoul to Bundang in Gyeonggi Province, but a chauffeur for a hostess bar is paid 60,000 won (57.44 dollars).”

There is no act to protect designated chauffeurs, however. Saenuri lawmaker Kang Ki-yoon in September 2012, and New Politics Alliance for Democracy lawmakers Moon Byung-ho and Lee Mi-kyung in July 2013, put forth the Designated Chauffeur Service Act for improvement of their status and protection for their rights. But the proposed bills have been put on hold after being delivered to the parliamentary committee for land infrastructure and transport. According to the report issued by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, 80 percent of the designated chauffeurs said that the government’s systematic support and enactment are urgently required and the unfair contract in the industry is the biggest problem.