MAY 27, 2011 BY WAHBIANG LEAVE
A COMMENT
The
availability of taxis in Singapore is becoming a big
problem. For someone like me who has been away for a
while, I could tell the difference. There is simply no “Comfort” in
our taxis anymore. Getting from point A to point B can be
frustrating and confusing. Not just for the locals but also
for tourists who rely on our taxis to get around. To make things
worst, there are new rules regulating where passengers can alight
from a cab. Taking a cab to CBD is like taking a bus – the
passenger can only alight at designated taxi stands. This is the
stupidest rule someone in the authority came up with. If it is to
prevent taxis from jamming the traffic and endangering other
motorists, we can always introduce inlets or special lanes for taxi
to stop. To create standard taxi stand for all flag-downs is fair
and good, but to restrict where a passenger can alight is
absolutely senseless. It hinders the convenience of taking a cab,
especially on a rainy day.
One of
the most common problems is our call-in system and the “mystery of
disappearance and appearance of taxis at specific
hours”. Any taxi driver with common sense would
figure out that it is less-profitable to pick up any passengers 30
minutes before the “peak hours” (example: midnight). Why pick up
flag-down passenger when there is a call-in mechanic that will earn
them more money? Of course, there is no rule to restrict how our
taxi-drivers should do their business. It is simply a “work smart
and not hard” policy. But this is the root of the problem as many
cab drivers are capitalising on the call-in “bonus cash”.
Seriously, our cab companies must look into this as this is
becoming a black spot in our “near perfect” tourism image. Profit
mongering activities should never be encouraged.
Another confusion is the different tiers of surcharge for
different types of taxis. I welcome the newer and
bigger cabs but I totally detest the confusing “creative” charges
(peak hours, CBD, ERP, midnight, special cabs). At some point, I
gave up trying to understand when and how my meter fare ran. Gone
were the days when things were simpler and straight-forward. If
these are the things we have to compromise for comfort and bigger
space, I rather go back to old days when we had decent clean taxis
but a standard fare. Surely, what’s the point of having more bigger
and newer taxis when more and more of them aren’t available?
When I was in
Shanghai, taxi drivers gave discounts for midnight fare. And in
Hong Kong, many taxi drivers give discounts if you do special
booking. Getting a taxi in Hong Kong is relatively easy (just like
how we saw it in those typical Hong Kong drama series). Strangely,
Hong Kong is even more congested than Singapore but I don’t see
much jams that justify ERPs or peak hour charges. In Singapore, we
implemented so many tolls and surcharge to smoother traffics but I
don’t see much improvements to the jams in CTE or Orchard Road
during the peak hours.
Seriously, if Singapore wants to attract and bring in more
tourists, we have to fix this problem. Taxi is one of
the most important means of transport for our foreign guests. Taxis
are the first point of contact for our visitors. And for these poor
tourists, they have to start paying surcharge the minute they leave
the airport – not to mention paying the additional peak hours and
ERP charges if they landed during the wrong hours. Soon, the same
group of tourists may find themselves stranded out there during
peak hours (and they are not familiar with our bus or MRT network).
It can be a frustrating and painful experience for them. Perhaps
our new transport minister should get out of his cozy sedan and
spend more time trying to get a taxi (or listening to the
repetitive background music of our taxi hotline) in CBD during a
freaking hot or wet weather.
