1st question, can put sign in front say CITY but top is green
light for hire? i see before
2nd question, if queuing MBS after midnight, then after the last
traffic light turning left into the small lane, the car facing the
casino exit glass doors, pax walk over ask for directions or
recommendations for places to go, then after explaining, he believe
you and want you to take him there and want to board your car, can
or not? the official taxi stand is still about 50m in front.
3rd question,same after midnight, passenger drop right in front
of Orchard Towers Orchard KTV, you press vacant, and then when you
keeping the change, someone come and board your taxi, can or not.
behind you outside long taxi queue for the main taxi stand.
Let's look at the official stance:
1) You cannot put any sign up if you have the electronic one on
the roof. Only the roof must be activated to show busy/change
shift.
You can put change anywhere provided you are changing shift
there. If not you can't. You are only allowed to change shift if
you're actually changing shift. If you're OMO, you are NEVER
allowed to put change shift, because you have no relief - you can
only put busy and return to base.
I'm not joking this told to me by LTA officer who investigated
me for putting CS and then not doing so, instead continuing to
drive and of course la, later after midnight back to normal.
A pax complained, but I somehow gave a reason for putting CS
because I had to go to a certain place to do something. He then
explained the rules. This offence carries a 2 wk suspension with
$200 fine plus demerit points (cant remember how many).
I was fortunate because no further action was taken. However CDG
damn bastard one, in the first place they never will give you
advance notice that a complaint has been lodged against you,
instead they will themselves cooperate fully with LTA - they will
retrieve all the data and submit to LTA even before you're called
up.
Ok never mind, drive for them must expect all this, then what
happened some time later, I fuck care la, carry on as usual. Then
out of the blue, 1 day when I put CS in around 7-8 pm, as usual the
MDT will beep but I normally don't bother, suddenly the operator
can call me and ask me whether I can take up the job which I just
ignored? She put very nicely, sir you changing shift ar, but can
fetch this pax or not from this place to this place (Ollan one la,
what to expect from their calls, inside CBD expect you go outside
to take call, me clark quay, pax at Robertson then go far away from
city centre)?
1st of all it wasn't a busy day in CBD area, got many CDG cabs
with green signs driving up and down, even beside me when I reject,
why doesn't the system automatically go to the next one?
Somemore where got operator actually call you to offer a booking
job?
So I suspected that CDG even before LTA ask again if in future
got complain, already began to monitor my daily activities to some
degree. So this 1 was test case, see how I react.
After that I rarely put CS, instead do my own interview or
second guess pax based on experience. So far so good, touch
wood.
2) You are not allowed to pick up pax at the drop area of a taxi
stand - I think this is obvious. However if a pax boards your cab
and refuses to budge, then you have an excuse to perform the trip.
But this you can only use once la, keep doing it nobody is gonna
believe you.
However ethically as a TD, think about those who are lining up,
wouldn't you be upset if this was to happen to you. To be really
fair, if the pax insists on taking your cab, ask him to go out to
the main road away from the stand and you drive there and pick him
from there.
3) Orchard KTV is a side lane, not part of the taxi stand
at OT (I think only 1 maybe 2 cabs can wait there (taxi stand),
although the queue will have more than 10 at times, maybe more). So
drop off there and pick up, is not wrong under LTA rules. You must
pick up from the stand if it is within view, near and has pax
waiting there. Here there no pax at the stand, only a queue of cabs
exceeding the prescribed number. You can also say the stand is not
within view depending on your position, thus even it's near, you
can't see it.
Here you pick from a side road, not in bus lane, or near bus
stop etc. No offence. Ethically also not wrong, you are waiting at
a separate area from the queue, doesn't mean you wait there pax
will take your cab anyway, plus how long can you wait there,
eventually you'll be blocking traffic.
I dunno what some drivers may or may not think, in the past
(90s) as long as you don't stop infront of a queue of waiting cabs
wherever it may be(usually happens after midnight) and poach pax
away from that queue, this one not salah. You wait opposite side,
different angle as long not cutting into the queue, this is okay.
But some like to park slightly further ahead, say 30-50m away,
where pax can see both yours and the queue and some will then take
you. This one not ethical lah - you a lot of this outside St James,
instead of joining the queue at the carpark exit's right, they park
slightly ahead to exit's left, pax coming out to the main road will
see both and depending where they walking from, some will board the
taxis ahead.
But if you drove into the carpark itself and waited isnide, this
one not wrong, but beware of parking charges if you stay too long
inside.
