this is what competition is about
When he started driving a taxi in 1981, Mr Lim Chwee
Choon, then 36, often had to ask his passengers for directions and,
at times, decline to take them if they were unsure of the
route.
While such behaviour is unheard of today because of
technologies such as Global Positioning System, Mr Lim said they
had little choice back then. Vocational training was very basic and
cabbies were taught only the routes to a few destinations, such as
major hotels and the airport.
There were street directories but trying to page
through one while driving was not a good idea, he said. Map apps
did not exist then, he quipped.
Mr Lim, now 72, said it took him about three years of
plying the streets and memorising routes before he could get around
on his own.
"It was not easy but passengers were also more
understanding," he recalled in Mandarin.
"Nowadays, if you take a route which they don't like,
they will be unhappy. Passengers are always telling me, 'Uncle, my
time is precious.'"
With more than three decades of driving under his belt,
this "taxi uncle" has seen the changes in one of Singapore's most
iconic professions, which began in the 1930s, and is facing its
greatest disruption now with competition from ride-hailing
apps.
Mr Lim himself has jumped "ship".
Last year, he became a Grab driver, trading in his taxi
for a Toyota Altis private-hire car.
Asked about the animosity between taxis and
private-hire cars, Mr Lim said: "Everyone has their own views. For
me, I prefer to take calls. As you know, very few people are
hailing taxis from the street now. Taxis still have advantages,
such as being able to queue at the airport. There's no right or
wrong way."
Looking back, Mr Lim said he got into the taxi trade
because work was hard to come by.
"I wasn't the type who was good at studying and studied
up to only Secondary 3. Times were also not very good then," he
recounted.
On the economic front, much of the Western world
experienced a recession between 1973 and 1975 and, in Singapore,
labour-intensive industries also saw a decline, as the nation
evolved towards higher-value manufacturing, such as in electronics,
in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Mr Lim bounced between various menial odd jobs in the
1970s, working in a power station and a chemical factory, and as a
parking attendant.
"I remember my eyes watering because of the ammonia
fumes at the factory, and I lasted only two days," he said.
Wages were meagre too, he said - about $8 a day at the
power station, for example.
A career change was in order. But getting into the taxi
trade was not easy because of the limited number of cabs then, Mr
Lim recalled.
The NTUC Comfort taxi cooperative - which later become
ComfortDelGro - had a fleet of just 5,000 in 1980.
There was a wait-list which reports said swelled to
about 2,400 applicants in 1986.
The other major players were yellow-top cabs, which
were individually licensed.
In the 1960s, they numbered about 3,800 but, a decade
later, the Government stopped giving out taxi licences to
individuals. In comparison, there are 26,000 taxis run by five
companies here today.
Mr Lim started out by being a relief driver for his
older brother Chwee Poh, who operated a Nissan Cedric cab under
NTUC Comfort.
"If you were willing to work hard, you could make about
$30 a day. But you had to keep driving around to find customers,"
he said, adding that only the more well-to-do commuters took
taxis.
With NTUC Comfort, there was also the opportunity to
eventually own the taxi - an arrangement which Mr Lim said was
preferable to the present renter-hirer model.
Under the cooperative's Vehicle Ownership Scheme,
cabbies could collect a new cab by making a deposit of $500.
The taxi driver would then pay NTUC Comfort a weekly
amount to cover the vehicle rental fees, administrative costs and
insurance coverage. After about four years, the cabbies would
become proud owners of their vehicles. The taxis would last these
drivers seven years before they had to be scrapped.
Mr Lim said he could not remember how much the weekly
fee was, but reports at that time said it was around $160. The
ownership scheme, however, was phased out when NTUC Comfort became
corporatised in 1993.
From the 1990s, Mr Lim became a hirer, renting taxis
from CityCab, Trans-Cab and SMRT at different stages of his
career.
In 2014, he was introduced by a fellow cabby to the
GrabTaxi app, later renamed as Grab.
"I needed help to download the app into my mobile phone
but, after being shown the steps, I found it quite easy to use.
With the app, I do not have to drive about to find passengers, so
it's less tiring," he added.
NOT THAT HARD
I needed help to
download the app into my mobile phone but, after being shown the
steps, I found it quite easy to use. With the app, I do not have to
drive about to find passengers, so it's less tiring.
MR LIM CHWEE CHOON, on his first
encounter with Grab.
He said he could pick up as many as 10 GrabTaxi
bookings a day.
But the bonanza was short-lived, Mr Lim said, as demand
from customers shifted from taxis to private-hire cars.
In 2015, Grab launched GrabCar, joining Uber in
offering privately chauffeured cars which were cheaper than
cabs.
Going with the flow, he made the move to Grab last
year.
Looking back, Mr Lim said he has had "no regrets" being
in the taxi industry as it helped raise his family, with two
daughters born in 1988 and 1989.
He declined to talk about his wife, whom he divorced in
2013.
Mr Lim turned 72 on Aug 9, which is also Singapore's
National Day. Asked if this held any meaning for him, Mr Lim said
no.
Until this year, he had never taken a day off on his
birthday.
"I still have to drive to cover my daily rental fees,"
he said.
"But this year, I took a break.
"My daughters took me out for a meal," he added with a
smile.
A version
of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times
on August 17, 2017, with the headline 'From taxi uncle to Grab
driver'.
ComfortDelgro introduces Alipay option for its
taxis http://str.sg/4rqb
A Transcab taxi caught fire in the Kallang-Paya Lebar
Expressway (KPE) tunnel on Tuesday (Aug 29) night, causing smoke to
fill the tunnel.
Pictures posted on social media show a red cab on fire,
while other videos show smoke in the tunnel.
The Land Transport Authority in a tweet at 7.20pm
advised motorists to avoid lane four due to an accident on the KPE,
towards the TPE, after the East Coast Park entrance.
The Straits Times understands that the fire has been
put out and there are no injuries reported so far.
Witnesses say there were announcements asking drivers
to leave their cars and exit the tunnels. Some drivers managed to
reverse out, but cars were not stopped from entering the
tunnel.
"I saw a lot of smoke but couldn't see what was on
fire. There was an announcement asking people to leave the tunnel,"
said hotelier Doreen Lim, 52, who was in a taxi heading to Sengkang
at about 7.25pm.
Her cab left the tunnel by the Upper Paya Lebar
exit.
Housewife Ong Soh Ching told The Straits Times
that she entered the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) at about
7.30pm.
"From Maxwell towards ECP, there was already a sign
that said there was an accident after Port Road," she said. "But
there was no warning to say please do not enter MCE."
She said there were flashing blue lights and radio
signals appeared to have been jammed in the tunnel.
Instead, a message was being broadcast asking drivers
to abandon their cars and look for the nearest exit.
A video she shared shows a
broadcast of an LTA announcement saying: "This is an LTA emergency
announcement. Drive out of the tunnel now via the nearest exit. If
unable, turn off your engine and walk to the nearest emergency exit
with a bluish-white flashing light."
Ms Soh, who exited at Fort Road, did not see the cab on
fire but said there was a smell like burning rubber.
"I don't think anyone abandoned their cars," she
added.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force in a Facebook post at
7.52pm said it is attending to a vehicle fire in the KPE tunnel,
towards TPE, before the Pan-Island Expressway exit.
"The fire has been extinguished. There are no reported
injuries," it said.
Buses on SBS Transit bus service 30 were diverted
before the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE), the bus operator
tweeted at 8.11pm.
ST
Amid signs of rising competition, Grab has sent out a
message to ComfortDelGro cabbies offering significant rental
discounts to those willing to switch to a rival taxi fleet that
partners the ride sharing company.
The move comes two weeks after ComfortDelgro,
Singapore's largest taxi operator with nearly 16,000 taxis under
its Comfort and CityCab brands, announced that it was exploring a
"potential strategic alliance" with Uber.
ComfortDelGro has not joined Grab's ride hailing
platform, while other taxi operators like TransCab, Prime, SMRT,
and Premier have done so.
A Grab spokesperson confirmed on Monday (Sept 4) that a
text message had been sent out to ComfortDelGro taxi drivers on
Sunday night (Sept 3).
The message read: “Dear Comfort Cabbie, huge rental
discount deals from Sept 4 to 15.
"S$50 rental discount per day, if you switch your taxi
rental over to any of our taxi-fleet partners (TransCab, Prime,
SMRT, Premier). No targets. No questions asked."
The S$50 discount is about 40 per cent off the average
S$118 per day rental that ComfortDelGro taxi drivers pay for models
like the Hyundai Elantra and the Toyota Vios.
The message from Grab also offered a “S$1688 rental
discount per month” if drivers switched over to a private-hire car
at GrabRentals or Grab’s exclusive fleet partners. The drivers,
however, have to hit a target of 20 trips per week to qualify for
this incentive.
todayonline
who going over?
