London Cabs And Mobile App to find Cabs.

In today's Straits Times, there were two interesting news articles on taxi matters. The first article is a letter to ST forum on affordability of London cabs and the last is about a mobile application to help commuters find taxis faster. This old "fart" would like to add a few more words on them.

30 free London cabs for SMRT

A. London Cab Affordability.

Yes, taking the new SMRT's London cab is not going to be cheap on all counts, especially for the wheelchair-bound commuters. Standard booking fee for the London cab is $10 or $18 for advance booking. Compared to booking fees of a normal taxi, it's 67% and 72%  more expensive respectively. Sadly, some wheelchair-bound commuters can only take this London cab because it has higher ceiling to accommodate their bigger wheelchair. In addition, only through call booking they can get a London cab because they cannot be waiting along the road hoping to flag a London cab out of a miserable 30 available in Singapore.

The plights of the wheelchair-bound commuters were prominently reported in the local media and I did two postings on this matter too. (Link 1)and (Link 2)

In summary, I hope our ex-Rear Admiral, Mr. Lui Tuck Yew and his comrades in PAP would consider the following earnest requests for aids by the handicapped commuters sympathetically.

1. Make London cabs more affordable by mandating SMRT to lower their fares, since Mr. Lui specially provided them with a grant of $3.1 millions from taxpayer's money to manage the 30 London cabs. SMRT should not be too greedy for profit with this type of cab used mainly by handicapped commuters. Perhaps, Ms. Ho Ching can lend a helping hand on this matter.

2. Provide London cab discount vouchers through MCD for handicapped commuters.

3. With aging population, increase grant to SMRT or others to get more London cabs to run on the roads.

4. Mandate all taxi operators to have a small percentage of London cabs in their fleet to service the handicapped community.

Be Merciful. Give a Helping Hand.

B. Mobile Application to help find a cab.

Yes, the A*Star invention will certainly help cabbies and taxi commuters "match-up" perfectly but the proof of the pudding is in its eating.

Mr. Christopher Tan is spot-on to say that taxi companies are not too thrilled by the prospect of a scheme that bypasses their own dispatch system.

Imagine Comfort's enormous lost in revenue from call bookings if this new mobile application is astronomically successful. Comfort charges $3.30 per booking and does about 20 million booking per year. (pardon me if figure is not perfect). $36 millions goes to cabbies and $10 millions to Comfort. A cabby earns about $200 per month from call booking on the average, while Comfort gets about $84,000 per month or $10 million a year.. I'm not too worried because I don't do much call booking.

Now, do you know that Comfort makes millions from NETS payment?. They charge an "administrative fee" of 30 cents per NETS transaction and does an average of about 20 millions NETS transactions a year. Therefore, they make a gross profit of about $6.6 millions a year just from NETS transactions. A cabby gets nothing,

A few more millions comes from their arbitrary and hefty10%  surcharge on credit & debit payments. But cabbies not only gets no monetary benefits whatsoever from these "cashless" payments, they had to wait two or three days for these "credit-fares" to be credited to their bank accounts. Therefore, understandably, cabbies prefer cash payment. Like many other "deals" with Comfort, cabbies always get the shot end of the stick.

As you call see, taxi operators and their system associates make millions from fringe services like Nets & credit/debit card payments, call bookings and advertisements on cabs, among others. So, it's not surprising that they would always try to muster as large a fleet of taxis as possible, with scant concern for cabbies survival.

Now, coming back to the mobile app, perhaps A*Star could invent something along the same principle of the mobile app to "match-up" many of the singles in Singapore to get married and produce more babies, so that we do not have to import so many foreigners to popup our population.

Irritating Taxi Surcharges.

Last night, at around 7pm, a PRC couple in their early thirties boarded my taxi at Mandarin Hotel in Orchard Road and wanted me to take them to Night Safari in Mandai Road. I hit the fare meter and instinctively knew from years of dealings with PRC tourists that dark clouds of trouble would soon be forming in the horizon. From my rear mirror, I spied the couple starring at my fare meter with disbelieve looks and mumbling with indignant expression on their faces. As anticipated, an angry voice soon pierced into my ear.

"Why your meter show two separate fares? the young man queried loudly in perfect American accent.

"Young man, you don't have to shout. I can explain thoroughly". I responded and wished I had not picked them earlier or I could kick them out of my cab instantly.

The various taxi surcharges in Singapore has given me a lots of trouble with tourists, as well as some locals till today. Explaining to those not familiar with our complex taxi surcharges is never a problem. I usually point to the stickers on the window specifying all the surcharges when they doubt my words and explanation. I also invite them to call a third party to verify my truthfulness. Sometime, I would halt my taxi and continue the trip only when they are fully satisfied and agreed to pay the surcharges.

I am not a pugnacious person but I get infuriated when some querulous customers used combative tone and is disrespectful when querying the metered fare they had to pay. Some, on rare occasion, simply refused to pay the surcharges at the end of the trip. Whichever the case, I usually bit the bullet and let them take advantage of an elderly driver. It is better to spend the time ferrying another passenger than waste it arguing with such scumbags or at police post writing statements of claim. 

As a taxi driver, I find the various surcharges rather repugnant and confusing for commuters, though it helps to bring supply of taxis to demand at certain hours and places. Honestly, my earning had
improved recently because of the many increased surcharges. On the other hand, many commuters are understandably pissed off with having to pay surcharges on top of the metered fair, like paying extras for having warm water in a restaurant.

I fail to understand why our our million dollar transport minister, with his team of brilliant scholars at LTA, is still not able to solve the dilemma of surcharges?. After decades, they still say that taxi fares and surcharges are basically commercial decisions and therefore, Government do not intervene in commercial policies. To them, it's the easiest way out of a complicated situation.

I am aware that individual taxi operators set the fare for their fleet. However, if LTA, as a regulatory body can mandate the minimum 250km/ day rule to improve taxi availability by getting rid of taxi drivers who use the cab as a personal car, surely they can also mandate a restructure taxi fare rates in the same vein.    

Now, has the current taxi surcharges outlived it's purposes? Is a simplified taxi fare structure possible and workable? Do I have a suggestion?

Yes, hear me out. It might sound absurd.

1. Remove the 25% surcharge for peak hours in the morning and evening and 50% for mid-night, together with the $3 CBD surcharge completely. Instead, factor all these complex surcharges into two simple flat rates - normal and after midnight rates. Our LTA scholars can easily do the mathematics and produce the new simplified flat rates. Comfort or other taxi operators will not do it and I will explain why later.

No CBD surcharge? The whole of Singapore is now CBD with the new rate! No fuming commuters at fringes of CBD. Drivers will still go to where the crowds are.

2. No taxi at airport, cruise terminals, EXPO and RWS?. Location and booking surcharges will remain.

3. Shangrila Hotel charges a higher room rate than Hotel 81. So, Chysler's taxi will have a higher flag down fare and the fare meter will run faster than a Toyota Crown taxi..

The fare meter will now show only a single fare, except when location and booking surcharge are applicable.

If a simple normal and after midnight rates is implemented, taxi commuting will inevitably become more expensive like many things in Singapore. It will also become a premium mode of transport for those who can afford it, like in Tokyo, London and New York. Fringe taxi commuters will be eliminated and demand for taxis will drops drastically. Taxi drivers who cannot take the heat will leave the kitchen. Eventually, an optimum level will arrive where demand for taxis will meet availability, without confusing surcharges.

I dread such a day, as I would probably end up as a security guard or kitchen dish washer and helps to alleviate the shortage of workers in these industries. However, such a day will never come. Why?. Because, Comfort's garages will be parked with thousands of redundant taxis when drivers leave them due to falling taxi commuters, resulting from my restructured meter fares! So, Comfort will never let that unthinkable situation of idling assets parking at garages to happen and therefore, will not change the status quo. Instead, they would try to muster as large a fleet of taxis as they can to popup their bottom line, with scant regards to taxi drivers survival. This is where and when LTA should step in to mandate them to set a simple, fair and sustainable taxi rates without drastic impacts or trade-offs for all stakeholders. I think LTA will continue to say that setting taxi rates is not their business. So, we are back to square one! sigh!!!. 

Some people has the wrong assumption that taxis are essential public transport services like buses and trains. But they are not. Taxi companies are essentially private business enterprises and taxi drivers are self-employed workers, both without Government subsidies, though they operate under LTA regulations. It may be good to re-examine some old assumptions and make wide ranging changes. At the heart of every change, there will always be trade-offs and impacts. Most importantly, trade-offs and impact must be sensible and sustainable.

Now, coming back to the PRC couple. They paid the full fare at destination after my thorough explanation.

My Dear Reader,
If you have a suggestion like what I tried to do, please pen your valued suggestions or comments here. However, please don't be abusive or offensive to anyone. Thank You.

This is Mr. Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of Transport. (Link) and his tall trees and mushroom story.

145 Teck Whye Ave - Bee-Hoon Fishball Soup.

Block 145, Teck Whye Ave.

Except cemetery, there is no places in Singapore I won't go as a night shift cabby. But of course, given a choice, I would prefer to ply in the bright city areas at night where customers are plentiful and with surcharges.

As luck would have it, I often had to send late night customers to deserted places like Tuas South, Lim Chu Kang,  Sembawang Park etc. etc. While the destination itself is not a major problem, it could become an issue if I get hungry like a wolf during the wee hours of the night at these isolated places.

If unbearable hunger struck, my mind would instinctively hunt for the few nearest 24 hours coffee shop to have a decent meal expeditiously. Minor hunger could be easily resolved with a quick bite of tip-bits in my cab. But to know where to have a decent meal quickly in the wee hours of the night at deserted places, comes from knowledge through research and experience.

This bring me to share with you a 24 hours food stall that sells tasty food at Teck Whye Avenue. Many night shift taxi drivers frequent this stall for its variety of affordable and delicious Bak Chor Mee, Dumpling Soup, Bee-Hoon Fish Ball Soup and Laksa. Parking along the main road (albeit double gig-zag lines) is convenient, while coffee & tea are sold at 60 cents, specially for taxi drivers.

The stall is cheekily called "Ai Mian Zi"爱 面 子  (Love Face) and it has a few branches in other parts of Singapore.

An attractive and young PRC lady own and manage this stall at night, while her female PRC partner does the day shift. A year back, they bought the franchise for this stall. To cut costs and more importantly, to attract more customers to their inconspicuous stall, they handmade most of the main ingredients themselves, like fish/meat balls, dumplings, fish cakes, laksa soup and chilli sauces.

Out of the many varieties of foods at this stall, I specially love the "Bee-Hoon Fish Ball Soup". The crystal clear soup is made from boiling pork ribs bones, sugar cane, chicken & dried sole, without MSG, overnight. It has a strange sweetness that suit my liking. The toppings come with bouncy fish balls, made entirely from yellowtail without other fillers, a generous portion of crispy heart-killer pork lard, sea-weeds, sliced pork belly meat, half-cook pork liver and the usual vege. It costs $3.

Their homemade crescent shaped meat dumplings is another "must-eat" item and comes only in boiled style. The skin of the dumplings is perfectly sized and is made from flour and water dough. The filling is sweet with meat, shrimp, vegetable and minute water melon. If my earning for the night had been good, I would have an additional bowl of dumplings to go with my bee-hoon soup. In this case, a decent meal at this stall would rob me of about $6 but it's worth every cents because its not easy to find a stall that still sells delicious food in the wee hours of the night at dissolute estates.

I am not an adventurous foodie, so pardon me if I had inadvertently written an rhetorical food posting.

By the way, here is a popular "Chinese dumpling"  水 饺 joke for your amusement.

In Mandarin, "Shui Jiao" 水 饺  (dumpling) sounds like "Shui Jiao" 睡 觉 (go to bed) and "Yi Wan"一 碗 (one bowl) sounds like "Yi Wan" 一 晚 (one night).

PRC lady shouts: " Shui Jiao Yi Wan San Kuai" 水 较 一碗 三 块 (One bowl dumpling $3).
An old cabby responded: "Wo Yao San Wan" 我 要 三 晚 ( I want 3 nights!)

Music - Kenny Roger

I don't have any musical gifts but can pitch and sing a bit. Only now, in my twilight years, that I started to enjoy singing in Karaoke clubs, although music has filled my life since as a teenagers. I wish I have the voice of one of many idol -Kenny Roger, to hold my friends attention in awe and admiration.

Too many of us are engrossed in the pursue of material things that we often neglect to appreciate and enjoy the simple things in life. I could visualize vivid images from the past on hearing the familiar tune of Kenney Roger's The Gambler". Music soothe my soul, gives me peace, connects me to my past, colors my life. Whenever I hear my favorite songs from the sixties to the eighties, it triggers fond memories of my youth. From time to time I would like to share with you some of these song. For now. it's Kenny Roger's the Gambler.

 

 Another of my favorite country and western song is "North to Alaska" by Johnny Horton