No need to get excited over such a stupid rule.
On paper it's looks very nice that exactly what civil servants
wanna show their bosses.
In practise, it really makes no difference except maybe those
who use taxis as a personal vehicle. Then again the percentage of
these users are very small.
For normal hirers who drive omo, also 250km is not difficult to
reach. Most already do so.
For those with releif don't say, 250 is nothing. Even 1 of my
hirers who drives relax, say from 10 am to 6 pm before handing to
me, he clocks under 200km most days. For me lagi idle, 5-7 hours on
wekdays definitely under 200km, say 175km or so, he does roughly
the same, so 250km is easily reached.
For peak hours, maybe that's a slight problem, but it's not
really our concern. We drive when we want to, if CDG and other
companies want compliance then they gotta start showing some real
carrots not peanuts.
What they gonna do? Force us to drive? Like that many hirers
will have to return vehicle, if they wanna penalise us, in the end
they will end up with more relief than hirers, or more vehicles in
the yard.
Very simple, say I (or any other drivers) got not enough rest,
cannot get up for 6am start, only wake up at 8.30am? What they
gonna do? Terminate a hirer or relief?
For me, I rarely start at 6pm anyway, maybe around 7 until 1 or
2 am? What they gonna do? Warning letter?
They give me warning letter for this, I guarantee you, I will
write to Lim Swee Say (NTUC chief).
Anyway if I do drive the peak periods (also other drivers) can
LTA guarantee we get passengers all the way? What guarantee can
they give that I won't be running empty searching for pax, whether
in or out of CBD. Got no passenger how, who's gonna compensate me
for driving the extra hours, tiring myself more, using more fuel
etc?
But the only problem is some stupid drivers or hirers, kiasi
will go all out to try and achieve this stupid targets. That will
make CDG especially more yaya papaya.
If majority of drivers just carry on as normal and fuck care
this stupid rule, drive their normal routine, then the ones
breaking sweat will be the companies, because they will have
a problem renewing their fleet.
Just imagine if CDG cannot renew 500 vehicles in 1 year because
they fail to meet the target, same goes with other companies (with
less % of vehicles), what you think will happen?
A) Lta will scrap this rule or make some exceptions (because
failing to renew will mean lesser cabs on the road and the taxi
crunch will end up worse)
B) CDG and others will be very very nice to hirers and even
relief, like back in 2006 or 2007, everything also can kao tim. All
sorts of patterns, like weekend hiring of vehicle for around $270,
they even had a weekday one, I remember getting a call, rent from
Mon to Thurs at special rate. Yes, CDG did all this, without fail,
every month I would get a call inviting me back to driving.
