Sunday, August 12, 2007
She stands by the road, enticingly beckoning the middle aged man in the car.
He slows down, winds down his window and waits for her to make her offer.
She states her offer, eyes pleading for him to accept it, but her hopes are dashed when he shakes his head firmly, driving off faster than you can say "choa chu kang"
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about cabdrivers. Or, more specifically, those impertinent little pricks that stop for you but refuse to take you to your destination if it doesnt suit them.
This little instance has happened to me one too many times for me to ignore it, enough to dampen my post ndp nationalistic spirit anyway. Since when were taxi drivers given the luxury to pick and choose customers as they please?
Are we, the honest, paying customers who just want to get to our destination in a decent half hour, reduced to nothing more than prostitutes, desperately scavenging for a cab, any cab, to take us, even though we know nobody wants us?
Perhaps, in all fairness, we could look at it from the cabdrivers' point of view.
That fuel costs are expensive, that shifts are changing and their driver for the second shift is on the other side of the island.
Well, the latter is no excuse. You can get practically anywhere in Singapore within half an hour, give or take a few minutes.
If they really have to be such a stickler for cash, drivers for different shifts should split the fare (and fuel costs) that takes up time from both shifts.
Would it make sense if I had to get to somewhere urgently enough, and every empty cab that passes by has a "changing shift" sign? Not a characteristic we'd like to advertise about our "world class" public transportation system.
And what about those insolent buggers who cruise around, refusing to pick up fares, choosing instead to wait for a call so they could earn the extra 3 bucks? Frickin ridiculous. In that waiting time they could have easily picked up and dropped off a fare, at no extra cost.
In the end, its all about economics (hee hee) ladies and gentlemen. Everyone acting in his/her selfish intentions only makes the pie smaller, with glaringly large inefficiencies which could have been easily elimitated.
So lets bring down the social marginal cost curve:
I propose opening the market to hundreds of taxi operators. Let the streets be flooded with cabs. Make the picking up of fares so scarce to taxi drivers that it teaches them the preciousness of a passenger willing to take a cab.Want to wait around for an "ideal" passenger, one who's going wherever you want to go? Tough luck dude, he's being picked up by someone else right now.
With such an abundance of cabs, there would be a reduced need for call-in orders. The mysterious disappearance of cabs during rainy days could be partially solved.
Let competition give cabdrivers an incentive to find the fastest route, service the remotest parts of singapore without an extra charge (like my workplace), and above all, enforce customer service.
You too, dear reader, can do your part to ensure those little crooks dont get away with such behavior.
Take down licence plate numbers of offending cabs and report it to the cab company. (I screamed at the last cab driver who drove off: "I know your licence plate number, you #$@%^!")
Reward those who pick your fare with a smile by tipping them generously.
We need to cut kiasuism just when it rears its ugly head.
Now, if you excuse me, I need to go take a cab, and if he refuses to pick up my fare, good luck to him.
he rocked the party at 8:28 PM |
