singapore taxi industry sucks

i'm pissed off today with taxi drivers. pissed off enough to change my flagging hands into middle fingers whenever a cab approaches with a green "taxi" sign and passes with either a "busy" or "on call" sign. this is singapore taxi drivers. its a pity that many of our country's taxi drivers have some serious fked up issues.

why do they NOT want to pick up passengers and circle around aimlessly? at least practice some discretion and not change to the busy sign right in front of the person flagging the taxi. its is standard practice for taxi drivers waiting around clubs and hotels and city areas to not pick up passengers around the 11+pm time period and wait for the midnight charge to come on. taxis go into hiding just before the morning and night peak hours. despite the new charge system in which peak charge is charged according to time of trip instead of time of boarding, taxi drivers are still doing their stupid practice. all i can say is that its either the taxi drivers are seriously stupid, or they are seriously retards, or dumb, or wadever. its no wonder this low class of life form has to settle for such a low class job... sorry going out to all those readers who either are, have parents who are, or going to be taxi drivers. there are just too many screwed up cab drivers in singapore for this post to be called a generalisation.

complaints on the ever-increasing cab fare have been existent ever since our good old classic toyota corolla cabs started getting replaced by the toyota crowns during the turn of the millennium. starting fare went up from 2.40 to 2.80/3.00/3.20. increment went up from 10c per 200m to 20c per 300m (if i'm not wrong, for those who cant count and taxi drivers, its a 33% increment). calling service went up from 1 to 2 to 2.50. peak hour went up from 1 to 2 to 30% of trip. 50% midnight charge was introduced. 3 bucks CBD charge was introduced. special charges such as an extra $8 city charge during F1 race are also introduced. airport charge went up from nil to 2 to 5. what the hell is going on..... jus a point to note. if taxi is considered a publiv transport. why is the increase in taxi fares so much more than other public transport?

to counter the complaints of increasing taxi fares, the favourite excuse used by both govt and private is that singapore's cab fare is very cheap as compared to other countries. lets say, US and europe. well. u can bluff all the ignorant ppl in singapore, but not me. i'm not satisfied with ur answer. in the states and europe, owning a car is a standard. most ppl drive. however, in singapore, the driving population is much much lower as compared to the states or europe. so the basic nature of the demand for taxis is different. in singapore, taxi is considered a form of public transport, however, over there its a form of luxury. further more, comparing absolute prices of taxi fares is not accurate. we need to take into consideration of costs of living, price levels, and the cost of public transport into consideration. in US and europe, public transport is generally a lot higher than that of singapore, so its sensible to have cab fare that is higher than singapore. furthermore, the cost of living and income is much much higher in europe, which explains the higher cab fare. so can i have a better excuse pls. the current one doesnt stand at all.

lets move on to the peak charges. in other countries, there are no such thing as CBD, midnight, peak hour charges. i'm serious. no such thing. the peak charges will only cause an oversupply during times and areas which taxi drivers can earn more and an overdemand for taxi during times and places that are not. the peak charges manipulates the nature supply and demand relationship of taxi and travellers which causes dead weight loss to the society.

in hong kong, cabs are not exactly cheap. there are no peak hour charges. and guess wad, if u call for a cab, instead of having extra charge, u get a discount. why is that? this is because their mentality is that if someone calls my cab, i'm guaranteed a job instead of having to drive around to look for one. in singapore, its considered a service so it has to be charged. some bullshit mentality huh. furthermore, do u know that when someone calls comfort taxi for a cab, the cab drivers around the area will have to bid for the passenger. the highest bidder will get the job, not the cab that is closest to the caller's location. again, the company wanting to get a profit out of this. the cost incurred is passed down to the passengers. another bullshit mentality.

sometimes i cant stand the mentality of the cab drivers and companies. they do not seem to grasp relationship between demand and price. they only see profit. they want to be the LV, the armani, prada, gucci, selling at insane prices to earn profit. but they fail to see that g2000, giordano, baleno are doing wel because they tend to the bigger crowd. if the govt considers taxi to be a public transport, why the hell is the price not coming down like the rest? some explanation pls. and to the drivers, ur fking mentality need to change. we seriously need a new breed of better taxi drivers.

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