Condiciones laborales y de salud de los choferes de taxi y microbús del Distrito Federal

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the public transport (taxis and mini-buses) drivers’ working conditions in Mexico City and to describe their health/illness situation. In this study, the working process’ characteristics (risk and demands), drivers’ satisfaction, wellbeing and quality of life at work as health/ illness processes’ determinants were analyzed. During April 2010, we applied a 69 items supervised questionnaire to 260 participant drivers, out of about 400,000 working in Mexico City. Findings: the working conditions items provided empirical evidence that drivers work in situations of great physical and mental demand, and these determine their pathological profile. Analyzing those findings in the sociohistorical context, it is revealed that the disappearance of the public transport system ‘Ruta 100’ and the economic crisis of 1995 marked a turning point from where public transport was de-regulated and privatized, and labor turned flexible, resulting in the analyzed present working conditions. / KEYWORDS: Public transport drivers, Working conditions, Social Determinants of Health and Disease.