PAPee's Greed Killing Cab Industry

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>High taxi fares killing the golden goose
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->MR PAUL Chan's Forum Online letter last Saturday, 'LTA's rejection of taxi application sends wrong signal', hits the nail on the head.
The prevailing uniform tariffs cannot stand up to public scrutiny. People are tired of being coerced into submitting to such unreasonable surcharges and phone booking fees. Hence ridership has steadily declined.
It is a case of high fares killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
The Land Transport Authority should realise the current system is not sustainable.
Privately owned taxis do not require a layer of management and its associated costs. In fact, the idea of taking home all the fare spurs harder work, as in any free enterprise. Take the case of the food hawker - he does not have to share his income with others, as in the case of corporate-owned taxis.
In an environment where there are more privately owned taxis, the Public Transport Council could, after consulting taxi drivers' collective representatives, decide the rates and tariffs which would be mandatory for the drivers to comply with. The outcome would be a simple fee structure that is acceptable to both drivers and passengers. Ridership will surely rise.
Jack Chew

 

[SamuelStalin]

We have become leery of taking your taxis because we know that the charges are varied and colorful, like ERP gantry penalties.

If we want to go someplace for breakfast at 9 it is impossible because the 35% punishment would last till 9:30 a.m and we would have to start preparing at 4 p.m if we want to leave to meet up in town because we understand that taxi drivers are said to be changing shifts (these Asians can be so unprofessional to tell you this instead of going the extra mile to serve their customers) by 4:30 p.m where thereafter we would have a real difficulty in getting a taxi.

And why can't we meet later, at 5, 6 or 7 p.m? Because At 5 there would be a second round of penalty surcharge that extends till 8 (some idiot drivers told us 8:30 p.m out of their ignorance and stupidity that conned us initially). And when we are out so early, we can't just meet for a while individually or as a group for like an hour or two before going back. Whether we like it or not we are forced to be stuck outside for three whole hours till 8 pm before we could take a taxi at the normal rate. But the $3.00 fine for being in the city stays till Midnight where there would be the overcharge surcharge. It's so funny as we discovered that going back from the same certain place in the city by 12 a.m is actually just a couple of dollars cheaper than after 12, so it makes very little difference. We could drag up to 2 or even 4 a.m and go back and it's just $2 more. Wonderful.

These impositions are just like being in some convent school or in some boot camp where rules are ironclad and extends to micromanage and control the not so critical aspects of people's personal lives even.

 

[Watchman]

What the writer talking about ?

To exploit taxi drivers like all other low wage workers ?

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[methink]

He wants the taxi fares to be cheap and easy on the pocket.

Jack, just go take the bus lah. Dun forget we are "First World" hor... you want third world taxi fares?