No, their jobs are secure as long as they work harder instead of
disappearing to get the midnight charge avoiding CBD etc....
Now they want to increase CBD surcharge further:
"
I REFER to the report, 'Tough to get a cab? Upping surcharges may
work: Minister' (ST, May 31).
Minister of State for Transport, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, rightly pointed
out that as the taxi service operates like a private, chauffeured
service, more price differentiation is appropriate.
Demand for taxis in the city area is usually greater from Monday to
Friday between 8pm and 11pm when most people rush home from work
and shopping.
During this period, cabbies driving passengers from the city to the
outskirts may find it is not financially viable to drive back to
town. Instead, they prefer to cruise around the neighbourhood, even
though the chances of picking up passengers are slim.
To encourage and compensate cabbies for the time and diesel lost
driving to town, perhaps the Land Transport Authority could
implement a CBD surcharge of $4 from Monday to Friday between 8pm
and 11pm.
The $5 airport surcharge from Friday to Sunday from 5pm to midnight
has seen long queues of taxis at both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
Because of the surcharge, I was told some cabbies even drive all
the way from Jurong.
With the new surcharge, passengers need not call for taxis and the
problem of cabbies going into 'hiding' to wait for calls will
disappear. The surcharge should be implemented on a six-month trial
basis and scrapped if it does not work.
Poh Soon Leong "
There is no need to increasing surcharge to solve the shortage of
cab drivers if we bring in foreign drivers from the Philippines,
Sri Lanka and China. The government has been protecting local
cabbies for too long. It's time they face up to the pressures of
competition from globalisation like everyone else.
