Taxi Woes

Singapore time 11.35 am 4th July 2007

So much complains are voiced in newspaper forum and other forums against the bad shape of taxi situation in Singapore.

To remedy the solution, the government should let more free play to individuals who want to own their taxis. Presently most taxis are controlled by companies, with some yellow top private taxis still plying. The latter will die off once the owner retires or dies.

When taxi driver rent the cab from the company, he seldom take care of the taxi. His main objective is to make as much money as possible in his shift. So taxi is overworked and rough handed. Damage is mount to occur so repair has to be covered, therefore rental will be high.

However for ownership taxi, the taxi driver will take good care of the taxi so his repair cost will be minimum. Just look at the situation in Hong Kong. I think majority of the cabs there are under ownership scheme rather than under company control. So the service there should be better.

In Singapore, the government think otherwise. They want their own cronies to own taxis so profit goes to them. Lately small companies join the taxi fleets but how are they going to compete with the biggest taxi operator, the ComfortDelgro which owns almost 16,000 taxis out of the 21,000 or so taxis in Singapore.

The attitude of present day taxi driver is just to make profit for himself. He does not have to bear the repair cost, as long as he make good money, he can work the taxi 24 hours a day if he can. Sharp cornering can cause suspension damage and tire wear off one sided. Inproper change of gear can cause the gear to damage faster. There are other inproper driving that cause damag to the cab.

Taxi owner usually take good care of his taxi and will scold the relief driver if the relief drives inproperly. He can even sack him. In this manner his overall cost a month will be low, so he can still make good money with a tip top condition cab.

If the government still want to control too much of taxi transportation, the taxi woe in Singapore can never end.