K for Komplexity...

Taxi Woes

I think the cab drivers in Singapore are a very protected bunch to the extend of being pampered.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not prejudiced against them or trying to put them down. In fact I do know some taxi uncles out there that are nice and hardworking. There are however, some rather unethical uncles. Not only do they choose their passengers, they will find all means to incur a better deal when picking passengers like waiting for bookings to come in or go via a longer way to clock more mileage. Some I’ve heard, even try to cheat unknowing foreigners by adding additional costs that they might not even be aware of. How unethical!

Yesterday was pouring at my office. I had wanted to skip the rain but couldn’t make it in time. So I attempted a mild luxury to try and hail a cab home since it’s raining so heavily. As I trouted to the nearest taxi stand with my heavy laptop, there was already a slight queue for taxis. As I stood waiting, there were a number of cabs coming in, however they were all On-Call by the people around. One after one, they were all displaying the On-Call sign. I was rather bewildered because I could see many available taxis on the roads outside the taxi stand that I was queuing. It was as if they could not see that a taxi queue was forming.

As time passes, one by one impatient passengers took out their mobile and called for a cab. After waiting for about half hour or so, there were only a few others left. As the rain was getting smaller, some even went out to the roadside to try and flag for one. 2 passengers succeeded while I did not. In the end, I decided that was it and I tugged my laptop sulking back to my ever faithful transport- the MRT. I reached home a lot later than I had anticipated but oh wells….

I did try to call for a cab but the lines couldn’t get through. I guess most people were fed up waiting for a cab and decided since they can afford, they might as well call a cab. This explained the phenomenon of seeing so many cabs out joy riding, just so they can wait for a booking and earn more for the same ride.

I can’t help but wonder…why do we need to pay extra for calling a cab? I mean isn’t the logic of calling a cab mean you need a cab and will definitely bring business to the taxi driver? If so, why the extra charge? At the end of the day, both parties will benefit from the call right? Passengers don’t have to wait that long, don’t have to pay extra, taxi uncles don’t have to go round joy riding wasting fuel, and in turn be environment friendly emitting less pollutants…wouldn’t that be great? I mean this would greatly reduce these unethical taxi drivers to avoid passengers deliberately to “force” them into calling a cab for that extra cash? Times have changed now, most people posses a mobile and it’s so convenient to call for a cab now. They should abolish this to stop all these nonsense of hiding out and waiting for calls or hiding out so that they can clock the midnight charge. It’s just unfair to the passengers!

I know the taxis in Australia don’t have booking charges. They don’t even have what we call the midnight surcharge. That’s why I feel the taxi drivers are well protected here, yet they do not see it and complain all the time. Especially those uncles who choose their passengers, I don’t quite understand the reason for this. When u drive a taxi, the more passengers means more money? Otherwise bother to drive a taxi, instead drive a bus? It has its designated route all day doesn’t it? Heh!

Blabbered by KaiRiNu at 11:02 AM