During holidays? Even you call for 3 hours also nobody wanna pick
you up! I was once at ION Orchard shopping during Christmas. No one
wanna pick us up because ION no need pay CBD charge. We had to walk
to Wisma to take a cab. Is this call fair to us? With Uber, I don't
even have to walk and wait under the scorching sun!
And Uber drivers that I've encounter are way more polite than taxi
drivers! Btw I've taken Uber more than 50 times. None of them were
as rude as taxi uncles. I'm not saying all uncles are rude but you
have no idea how rude can 1 person be especially when they are
earning your money.
I choose Uber because its hassle free. Usually when I do not have
cash with me I can simply tap a few times on my phone and in less
than 5 mins, I have a driver waiting for me right outside my door.
It's not about fair or unfair. When there were no competition, taxi
drivers are picky. They choose their passengers. When there's
competition, they get angry, call for fairness. So what about
fairness for passengers?
Fyi, I'm not one of those stuck up passenger who choose cab.
Whatever cab come I take, Mercedes, black cab all I take. Like I
said, not all taxi uncles are like that but compared with uber and
grab, my own opinion is taxis uncles whom I've taken with are more
rude.
When my daughter was only a few months old, I take cab, uncle never
bother to help me put pram inside boot. I had to leave my daughter
lying at the back seat then go and put pram. When weather is not
good, I had to stand under scorching sun or raining weather to hail
a cab. Some uncles because wanna earn a little more so they'd
rather choose to take on calls passengers.
If all taxi uncle choose only to take on calls passengers then the
rest of us wanna stand by road hail cab die lor. So after uber came
out, I was relieved because I no longer need to wait 45mins or more
for a cab. I can stay indoor, wait for driver to come to my
doorsteps then go out.
But at the end....This is what I paid...
check out full
article
> Before Uber and Grabcar, I had to stand under the scorching
sun with a young child waiting more than 45 mins for a damn cab.
It's either they do not want to go to the place you want, they
change to hired immediately after spotting you or they act as if
you are invisible driving right pass you. There is no way getting a
cab during peak hours.
Where did you stand to flag for taxis? If you stand at
bus-lane or bus-stop areas during peak hours, many taxi drivers are
not willing to take the risk to take customers as they would have
to pay the fines if they are spotted entering the bus-lanes or
stopping within 9 metres of bus-stops.
Under LTA regulations, taxi drivers cannot reject customers
after finding out where they wish to go unless they do not know how
to get to that place, is changing shift or you request to go to
places which he feels uncomfortable going like going to remote
cemetery and waiting there for 30 minutes.
If they chance to BUSY immediately after spotting you, it most
likely is they needed to go to toilet or needed to take a meal or
smoke break. They probably forgot to change to BUSY prior to
seeing you.
>During holidays? Even you call for 3 hours also nobody wanna
pick you up! I was once at ION Orchard shopping during Christmas.
No one wanna pick us up because ION no need pay CBD charge. We had
to walk to Wisma to take a cab. Is this call fair to us? With Uber,
I don't even have to walk and wait under the scorching
sun!
During public holidays, some taxi drivers choose to spend time
with their family members as that is the only time that they could
gether together. Remember when they take that break, they
shill have to pay taxi rental to the taxi companies unlike
employees who get paid public holidays or are paid higher rates to
work during public holidays. And there is sudden huge surge
in demand....so it explains why it is harder to get a taxi.
As for the Ion case, the taxi driver who is out to make money
would definitely choose to pick up from Wisma if it pays $3 extra
if he is near that place unless he happened to drop one customer at
Ion and you are waiting at the taxi stand 10 metres away from the
drop off point. So experienced shoppers would walk to Wisma
to take taxi during evening peak hours like experienced street
hailers would not wait at small roads and would walk to major roads
to flag for taxis.
>And Uber drivers that I've encounter are way more polite than
taxi drivers! Btw I've taken Uber more than 50 times. None of them
were as rude as taxi uncles. I'm not saying all uncles are rude but
you have no idea how rude can 1 person be especially when they are
earning your money.
Can you please mention how rude the taxi drivers were to
you?
>I choose Uber because its hassle free. Usually when I do not
have cash with me I can simply tap a few times on my phone and in
less than 5 mins, I have a driver waiting for me right outside my
door. It's not about fair or unfair. When there were no
competition, taxi drivers are picky. They choose their passengers.
When there's competition, they get angry, call for fairness. So
what about fairness for passengers?
Comfort cabs are equipted with facilities for accepting credit
cards (Master, Am Express and Union), nets and ezlink card
payments. However it is hard to grab them during morning peak
hours. In the morning when I log on to the system, I get 1
booking call within 5 seconds and as many as 9-10 during 3 minutes
span. However I could only service 1. I obviously
would not choose to service 1 that is 3 km away or has an unknown
address which requires me to check the street directory. However
once I bidded for it, whether I like it or not I have to attend to
it.
>When my daughter was only a few months old, I take cab, uncle
never bother to help me put pram inside boot. I had to leave my
daughter lying at the back seat then go and put pram. When weather
is not good, I had to stand under scorching sun or raining weather
to hail a cab. Some uncles because wanna earn a little more so
they'd rather choose to take on calls passengers.
If all taxi uncle choose only to take on calls passengers then the
rest of us wanna stand by road hail cab die lor. So after uber came
out, I was relieved because I no longer need to wait 45mins or more
for a cab. I can stay indoor, wait for driver to come to my
doorsteps then go out.
hmm......my understanding is taxi uncles only do not bother to come
out to help if the customer could handle by himself or themselves.
Isn't call booking the same as waiting for Uber (except
during peak hours when all operating taxis are already snached up
by customers)? I encountered situations before whereby old
people going to hospital told me that they had waited 1 hour for
taxi on the street during peak hours and they were very happy to be
able to take my taxi. Many people also wait at bus-lane
places during peak hours (like near PAP HQ at Upper Changi Road)
whereby taxi-drivers have to take a risk to fetch them.
The existing situation cannot be solved by introducing more taxi
drivers as the off-peak hours demand isn't that high to justify it.
Many have left the industry after trying it out. The
playing field currently isn't leveled for example taxi drivers wait
30-45 minutes queueing at Changi Airport for customers wheras Uber
drivers wait for a much shorter time. Also remember this
fact: our hotel rates and housing rates are comparable with those
of other developed cities like New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney
but taxi fares are just 1/4 of these cities despite having the
highest cost of car ownership and higher cost for taxis. For
example, It only cost $13.30 by taxi to go from Marina Sands Bay to
Terminal 2 of Changi Airport during off-peak hours. However
if you wish to pay more for Uber services (whether forced or by
choice), no one would stop you.
