Price controls and licence number controls are the very thing
that cause the distortions that make the Singapore taxi experience
so unbearable.
Why not institute a way for customers to rate their taxi trips
and thus name and shame poor service providers?
The dominant airline in the UK (BA) once said that allowing more
competition would destroy the airline market. They were wrong. Very
wrong.
More competition made them have to be attentive to the needs of
customers and lower their prices. As a result more people started
using flights.
Now even SIA can ferry people from London to Paris! And yet
Singapore refuses to apply the same proven principles to the taxi
market in her own territory.
e.g. http://www.texxi.tv
Texxi is a system that would allow users to rate their taxi
drivers and thus help everyone identify the best and worst service
providers.
Coupled with a fully deregulated market, taxi prices would fall
and revenues would increase for drivers as more people would then
use taxis.
This effect has been noted before - most notably in the airline
market. More competition made things better for everyone EXCEPT
poor service providers who failed.
Also http://blog.texxi.com/?page_id=121 describes the DRT
Exchange and RideMatching in real time.
Selected Articles about Texxi
Holyrood - Scottish Government Magazine |
http://bit.ly/dGOQk
Article in Toronto Star (with a TV appearance ) |
http://bit.ly/9kapyj
GreenCarCongress Blog | http://bit.ly/2MYswK
PlentyMag - Environmental Magazine | http://bit.ly/4cEi4S
FT Climate Change Prize | http://bit.ly/aClfuA
