He drives 8 hours for work every night - and says he won't trade it for a day job

Why I Do What I Do is an original AsiaOne series where we showcase people with uncommon professions and what it takes to get there. In Why I Do What I Do: After Dark, a five-part spin-off, we take a closer look at the night owls who work while the rest of us are sleeping.

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It's just after 9pm when we arrive at a sprawling industrial building at Pandan Avenue.

While most of the compound is shrouded in darkness, Ninja Van's facility on the sixth floor is a bustle of activity.

For many of the drivers hanging around the facility, this is the start of their workday.

While many of us are guilty of griping about how long our online purchases take to reach us, the reality is that drivers like Muhammad Rafi Bin Adnan, 32, drive throughout the night just to get our parcels to us. 

Rafi is a linehaul driver, which means he's responsible for transporting pallets of parcels from Ninja Van's main facility to its other warehouses every night. 

From there, the parcels are picked up by smaller vans and are sent along to their final destination.

Rafi, who started the job around the end of last year, admits that the night shift is no walk in the park.

He starts work at around 10pm each night and ends at 6am, driving from warehouse to warehouse.

"Once, when I was taking a taxi to come to work the other day, the taxi driver told me that it is not easy.

"Because not everyone wants to work the night shift."

But according to Rafi, the night shift has its perks. In fact, he'd still stick to the night shift even if given the opportunity to switch to a day job, he says.

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"This job allows me to deal with less people and human interactions," the self-confessed introvert tells us. "I just have to look at parcels and pallets."

Instead of having to deal with passengers (Rafi had a stint as a Grab driver before this), he enjoys driving alone and rocking out to Nirvana and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, he reveals with a shy smile.

For Rafi, the toughest part of the job isn't the long hours on the road. It's the negative comments he comes across online.

Describing how some keyboard warriors flame the drivers when they don't get their parcel as quickly as they'd like, he admits that he "feels a bit affected" and hopes that they can be a little more understanding.

"I know me and my fellow drivers, we try to drive as fast as we can to push out all the parcels," he adds.

"Now that I'm a part of the online process, I'm very understanding if the parcels come late."

kimberlylim@asiaon.com