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Thinking of giving up Taxi driving!
- Thread starter krafty
- Start date
Grab any opportunity to make/save money when the opportunities are there for you. In current case, may be the taxi-driving as more IRs and tourists are here.
Just do it, and after a couple of years, you then can afford to sit at home doing nothing except lending $ to Ah Longs. By then all Ah Longs will be afright of incurring your warth.
Just do it, and after a couple of years, you then can afford to sit at home doing nothing except lending $ to Ah Longs. By then all Ah Longs will be afright of incurring your warth.
i think you got it wrong! I meant I owed the banks not ah longs but these banks are just as good as ah longs...
Taxi driver earns S$5k p.m. and you want to quit?
Just get money from the illegal Ah Long and accept the job in China and dun ever come back!
Who told you that taxi driver can make $5K?
Came out in newspapers a few months back.
If I recall correctly, there was a taxi driver interviewed and the income figure he gave was not exactly S$5k, it was like S$4.8 or 4.9k.
So how much u earn as a taxi driver? If you don't mind revealing.
Taxi companies made at least 30 to 50% of drivers' income.
Initially, there was some collaboration between me and an associate to be consultants to break into one of the markets. Specialty industry as I was a consultant before in the same field. But it seems that he is more interested in his 2 new ventures then to emabrk on it. Nothing illegal.
Initially, there was some collaboration between me and an associate to be consultants to break into one of the markets. Specialty industry as I was a consultant before in the same field. But it seems that he is more interested in his 2 new ventures then to emabrk on it. Nothing illegal.
Banks are your best friend when you have money, but your worst enemy when you are down, same as Ah Longs right ?
When you have a good job/biz, they want to lent yuor more money to spent, credit lines......etc.
When you are down and out, even for a brief period, they will come after you like pack of wolves, recalling yuor loans, charge you high late interests/penalties, etc.
What you wrote was what I meant.
You grab what is currently the opportunity for you to make/save money. If, or when, a better money-making opportunity presents itself, you decide which is better for your situation.
A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bushes.
If can take/loan more money fromn legal Ah Long(so called Bank)at least more than $200k. Get as much as you can more the better. Then sell every thing belonging in your name eg. house/car/shop/empty all bank account money.
Let the bank chase you for money and declare bankrupt. Live by using money that you take from Legal Ah long for few year and at the same time do part time job like drive Taxi using partner name/any job without CPF (that is important because Bank can trace if you have job they will not let you go bankrupt.
Y
Yip Hon
Guest
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http://taxidiary.blogspot.com/
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Probably the only taxi driver in this world with a PhD from Stanford and a proven track record of scientific accomplishments, I have been forced out of my research job at the height of my scientific career, and unable to find another one, for reasons I can only describe as something "uniquely Singapore". As a result, I am driving taxi to make a living and writing these real life stories just to make the dull job a little more interesting. I hope that these stories are interesting to you too.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Announcement
I am pleased to make the announcement that the book entitled “Diary of a Taxi Driver” is now being published and will be available early next month. The book contains the edited posts from this blog, as well as a number of stories and other materials written exclusively for the book.
You can pre-order a copy of the book from this blog now. If you do so, you will get a special autographed copy, priced at $19.90 (no GST) per copy with free delivery via Singpost mail in Singapore (international readers will have to wait till book is available on Amazon.com).
To make the order, please go to the site http://bit.Iy/aU184q and place the order for the book using your credit card. The book will be mailed to you once it is printed in late Feb/early March.
This book would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and encouragement from all the readers of my blog. Therefore, I would like to thank all of you for your support.
Wish everyone a prosperous new year of tiger.
Posted by Mingjie Cai at 10:57 AM 247 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
July 22, 2009. Wednesday: The unbearable heaviness of being
Forty minutes into the evening peak hours, I was waiting at the Bukit Merah Central taxi stand.
Despite its proximity to Chinatown and the financial district, and its long history as the epicenter of one of the earliest housing estates in Singapore, Bukit Merah Central is far less glamorous than other regional centers. There are no modern attractions such as shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants, or disco pubs to draw the crowds. There used to be a public swimming complex next to the bus terminal, but it had been shut for many years. The only saving grace was an NTUC Fairprice supermarket, one of the largest in town.
I noticed an Indian woman walking slowly in my direction. She lumbered along, carrying several Fairprice grocery bags, her body tilting from side to side with each heavy step.
She finally reached my taxi and motioned me to open the trunk so she could place her bags inside. Then she came in, sat in the front seat and told me to go to Telok Blangah Way, a five to eight minutes drive depending on the traffic lights.
Although the short distance of the trip was a disappointment to me, it was expected. Most people taking taxis from here were residents of the neighboring HDB estates with too many grocery bags to go home by bus. My mind was occupied by something else. I glanced at her and asked, “What do you have in your bags?”
“What do you mean?” She looked at me as if she found my question rudely intrusive.
“Oh, nothing,” I quickly explained. “I just want to say that if you have seafood in there, I’d like to put some newspaper underneath your bags, since I had some troublesome experience before...”
“No seafood.” She cut me off. “Only fruits and vegetables.”
I apologized for asking the question. She said it was okay, she understood my concern.
From close up, I realized she was younger than I thought when I saw her from a distance. She was probably in her late forties, and wore an oversized brown dress.
She turned to me and asked, “What about durian? You mind if I have durian?”
“No. Durian is ok,” I said with a smile. “The smell of durian doesn’t stay long.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Otherwise, how am I supposed to carry it? Buses don’t allow it. MRT don’t allow it. If taxis also don’t allow it...”
“I am sure most taxis will allow it,” I said.
Looking for something to say, I asked, “You are not working today?”
She gave me an “are you making fun of me?” kind of look and said, “You find me a job and I will work.”
I felt stupid. I was quiet for a moment, trying to imagine what other good-natured taxi uncles would do in this case. I then told her that if she was looking for a job she could look in the newspapers, talk to friends, or ask her MPs for help.
We were reaching her stop, which was in a carpark next to an HDB block. She took out her wallet, held it in her hand, and said slowly, “Yeah. But I have this arthritis for many years. I have never been in a working condition.”
That was what caused her heavy steps, I realized.
I tried to cheer her up. “That’s okay. You don’t have to work then. At least you have your husband to support you.”
“My husband passed away,” she said under her breath. Her hands stopped opening her wallet.
I stuttered, “I…I’m sorry.”
She looked at me, her eyes two ice cubes melting under the sun. “You know a month and half ago, in the news, a husband and a son jumped off a building...”
As if struck by lightning, I felt a current bolt from my scalp to my feet. “My god. That’s your…” I froze in shock.
“Yes. That’s my…husband and…my boy.” Her tears finally overran the dam and streamed down her cheeks.
I read the news after I came back from the trip to China. This was one of the most heartbreaking family tragedies I had heard of in Singapore. I was extremely saddened by the realization that human lives were so fragile, and could be shattered at the most unexpected moments.
According to the reports, the sequence of events on June 6, 2009, were as follows:
That evening, twenty-five year old Raja was meeting with some of his friends near his residence. They had some drinks. He had been unhappy lately as he lost his job about a month ago. During the gathering, his younger brother called and asked him to go somewhere else together, but Raja said he was tired and didn’t want to go.
Around 10:30pm, he was back home in his apartment on the ninth floor, but not for long. He told his mother that he was going out again. His mother was worried about him as he looked a little tipsy and asked him to stay at home. But he was in no mood to listen to her.
On his way out his father came to speak to him, saying he should listen to his mother and not go out at this hour. They got into a heated argument. His father said he should worry about finding a job rather than hanging out aimlessly. Raja was further upset by the remarks. He stepped out of the house and locked the front gate from the outside with a padlock.
He then walked to the edge of the corridor, said he was not a worthy son to his parents and jumped over the parapet in front of his family.
The family was locked inside and could do nothing to stop him. They witnessed the tragedy in horror, and immediately called their relatives and the police for help.
The police came and had to call the civil defense personnel to cut the lock to free the family, who came out to see Raja lying dead on the ground nine floors below.
The family collapsed in grief on the ground floor, accompanied by their relatives and the police. They were then led to a nearby bench to sit and calm down. After a while, the father left and before anyone became aware of his movements, he took the lift to the tenth floor. He jumped off the building crying “my son!” and landed on the ground next to his son’s body.
Both father and son were pronounced dead at the scene.
“My boy,” the woman wiped some tears and said, “I loved him. I loved him so much. Every time he couldn’t sleep at night he asked me, mama, come here. I came to sit by him, put my hand here, where his heart was beating. He would fall asleep right away.” She put her hand over her heart to demonstrate.
She slowly turned her head, and pointed to the cement ground along the side of the building. “That’s where my son was, and that’s where my husband was.”
I stared at the ground. Cold, hard cement, only a few steps away from my car. On the surface, any trace of blood from the two people she loved most had long been washed away. But I was certain, deep in the heart of the soil, their blood was still there, and would stay there forever.
“Sometimes I tell myself,” she said, her eyes staring blankly ahead, “at least they are together up there, taking care of each other.”
A note of explanation: It has been a general rule that my stories do not contain information which would allow the identification of persons involved in the events described. This story is an exception as it was about a tragic event that had already been made public by the news media.
Posted by Mingjie Cai at 12:17 AM 33 comments Links to this post
Thursday, January 28, 2010
July 5, 2009. Sunday: Driving Miss Edgy
wrong!!! banks r worse than ah long! owe ah long money nevermind, if u play dirty don't want return back can always call police for free.
Y
Yip Hon
Guest
Dear Krafty ,
i am thinking of giving my present career as a pro
gambler to become a Cab Driver ( tired of being a
Baccarat Driver at the Table ) , which Cab Company
is better ???? CityCab ( ie NTUC Comfort Grp )
OR SMRT Group ????
Thks for advise ...
my opinion of SMrt as an organisation ruled by lau char born feminists. There was once when I was chewing a gum and inside a lift with one lau char bor in their Hq at North Bridge,she looked at me as if I offended or not allowed to chew gum, that stern look. Taxi co just changed their Taxi head, also a lau char bor. One thing I dislike about Smrt Taxis, a bit a bit cost you moneY But it is known as the school for drivers. I think you ask some kind uncles when you take cab,they may give you other opinions. Comfort, so far I see those uncles in their forties dame beng but they have advantage of having more call bookings.
Dear Krafty ,
i am thinking of giving my present career as a pro
gambler to become a Cab Driver ( tired of being a
Baccarat Driver at the Table ) , which Cab Company
is better ???? CityCab ( ie NTUC Comfort Grp )
OR SMRT Group ????
Thks for advise ...
Comfort Group (Ntuc/ Citycab / Yellow-Top) & SMRT are zhenghoo taxi companies and their drivers have to adhere to many rules & regulations and also to assist in their propaganda campaigns.
The current favourite taxi company among experienced and laojiao taxi drivers is Transcab....... as long as your rental payment is on time....... they bochap u and what you do with the taxi
........ also they are very good at taiji any complaints against their hirers and go out of the way to protect them. :pSMART / Premier / Prime are small taxi companies that dun give their drivers much logistical and admin support....... but good thing about them is can negotiate with them if your rental payments are in arrears.
Krafty drives Merz or Chevy taxi...?
