I suspect it was another politically-driven article, a perfect example of a misrepresentation of facts. "Getting a cab? Easy, say 3 in 4 tourists" on TODAY News seemed to be giving the public an impression that taxi services in Singapore are in tip-top condition. Anyone who tried to take a cab in the evening around 8 to midnight will know perfectly well that the report is misleading. The first paragraph gave it away, "Despite the brickbats from locals and the occasional foreign letter-writer for their alleged disappearing acts during peak hours, Singapore's taxi drivers didn't fare too badly in a TODAY poll of 100 tourists."
I question the significance of this poll. And why do they survey only tourist? Are they implying that tourism is very important to Singapore's economy, so as long as tourists are happy, we are fine?
Thanks for all the hard work to do this survey and come up with this article, but no thanks.
First of all, when did these tourists who participated in this survey tried to hire their cab? If this survey is supposed to be conclusive, what about the concerns of locals? If it's not conclusive and highly misleading, why even bother?
I had a couple of bad experiences waiting for cab within one week. The first was terrible as I had to suffer alone till 11pm. After OT, my colleague dropped me in town. I thought there were probably more cabs in town... I waited for two hours at Raffles City Shopping Centre taxi stand. Throughout my wait, there were less than five cabs which drove in to pick up passengers. And among the five, mostly dropped passengers at that stand. I saw quite a few "available" cab zoomed past the road. Those which came in were "On Call". I suggest they rename the taxi stand to "taxi on-call pick-up point". I tried calling Comfort cab, and only managed to get thru' to the operator after a long time And even then, I was told by an auto-message that there was no cab available. Okay, I wasn't persistent enough... I gave up after about 30 mins of struggling. I decided to wait. Slowly, the super long queue ahead of me started to shrink. Thank goodness, at least some people ahead of me managed to call thru' and got their cab!!! As I got closer to the front of the queue, I saw the board with the list of numbers of other cab companies. I tried SMRT cab, but was quite shocked when I was heard my queue number. I decided to try Silver cab. I was delighted that the operator picked up the call after 5 minutes of "music". A cab would arrive in eight minutes. However, eight minutes later, another phone call, and not the cab arrived. The operator told me that the driver had canceled my booking. I had to wait for another eight minutes. Finally, I could rest my tired feet and went home for a much needed rest.
A few days later, I waited for about an hour for cab with two friends at Harbourfront taxi stand after evening movie. Thanks for their company, the "ordeal" was not so bad. There were about 20 people in front of us in the queue. After more than ten minutes of wait, we decided to call cab. I tried Silver cab, my friend tried SMRT cab. She finally got thru to the operator when we were at the front of the queue (ie. next cab that came in was for us), while I did not manage to get thru' (more music that followed by "Sorry our operators are busy, please call again"). We saved the 4 bucks! But I am not sure how much we spent on our phone calls.
So you see the problem? I can see at least two:
1. Not enough operators to handle cab booking requests.
2. Not enough cabs during peak hours.
Maybe it is the consumers who are causing the problem. Since people are willing to book cab, most cab drivers would rather wait for booking. So people, let's just guai guai wait in a queue. Queue means FIFO, follow order, everything is fair that way! I like to see lotsa "green" cabs driving into the stands, and the queues moving on. What for queue if everyone just call cab???
The booking service can certainly be improved. Add one or two more operators during peak hours? Take the customers' request once, then get back to them on the booking via sms. Provide a sms number to cancel the request. Don't drop the customers' call or expect them to call again. Imagine the frustration of finally getting thru' to operator and being informed that there was no cab available. Going thru' the cycle all over again.
Please also provide proper seats for customers to wait at the stands. Don't bother about those "designer-non-stick-confirm-slip-seats" which you can find at Orchard MRT station. We appreciate resting our tired feet while we wait for cab.
Btw, another thing that irks me... if you are going home to the North from town, please remember to remind the driver not to take CTE. Even me, not a driver, knows that CTE always jam at night. I forgot to remind the driver last night and had a good view of car bumpers in CTE tunnel. Take Thomson, AMK. Traffic lights but no jam, shorter distance, smooth journey all the way. I think it is best to tell them the route before hand if you are going somewhere you are familiar with. Don't assume that they know the shortest or best routes.
Having said all that... I hope TODAY newspaper will focus their energy on more purposeful and representative surveys, articles next time. And if they were to survey me my answers for their 4 questions will be:
1. Getting a taxi in Singapore is (Very easy, easy, difficult): Easy in mornings (if you live in Yishun), very difficult at night (even so at taxi stands).
2. They waited an average of (less than 5mins, more than 10mins, more than 30mins): More than 30mins at night, probably more than 1hr at night will be more accurate. Morning less than 5mins outside my block, there are cabs zooming past every few seconds!
3. Was the waiting time acceptable?: Of cuz not.
4. Did they know what to do if they couldn't flag a taxi?: Even after trying to call a cab ar...? I contemplated about buying a car. But I think if not for OT, I should just take the other public transports. So the answer is yes.
One funny incident... a tricycle came into the taxi stand while we waited. The cyclist managed to pick up a couple of tourists. =p
I question the significance of this poll. And why do they survey only tourist? Are they implying that tourism is very important to Singapore's economy, so as long as tourists are happy, we are fine?
Thanks for all the hard work to do this survey and come up with this article, but no thanks.
First of all, when did these tourists who participated in this survey tried to hire their cab? If this survey is supposed to be conclusive, what about the concerns of locals? If it's not conclusive and highly misleading, why even bother?
I had a couple of bad experiences waiting for cab within one week. The first was terrible as I had to suffer alone till 11pm. After OT, my colleague dropped me in town. I thought there were probably more cabs in town... I waited for two hours at Raffles City Shopping Centre taxi stand. Throughout my wait, there were less than five cabs which drove in to pick up passengers. And among the five, mostly dropped passengers at that stand. I saw quite a few "available" cab zoomed past the road. Those which came in were "On Call". I suggest they rename the taxi stand to "taxi on-call pick-up point". I tried calling Comfort cab, and only managed to get thru' to the operator after a long time And even then, I was told by an auto-message that there was no cab available. Okay, I wasn't persistent enough... I gave up after about 30 mins of struggling. I decided to wait. Slowly, the super long queue ahead of me started to shrink. Thank goodness, at least some people ahead of me managed to call thru' and got their cab!!! As I got closer to the front of the queue, I saw the board with the list of numbers of other cab companies. I tried SMRT cab, but was quite shocked when I was heard my queue number. I decided to try Silver cab. I was delighted that the operator picked up the call after 5 minutes of "music". A cab would arrive in eight minutes. However, eight minutes later, another phone call, and not the cab arrived. The operator told me that the driver had canceled my booking. I had to wait for another eight minutes. Finally, I could rest my tired feet and went home for a much needed rest.
A few days later, I waited for about an hour for cab with two friends at Harbourfront taxi stand after evening movie. Thanks for their company, the "ordeal" was not so bad. There were about 20 people in front of us in the queue. After more than ten minutes of wait, we decided to call cab. I tried Silver cab, my friend tried SMRT cab. She finally got thru to the operator when we were at the front of the queue (ie. next cab that came in was for us), while I did not manage to get thru' (more music that followed by "Sorry our operators are busy, please call again"). We saved the 4 bucks! But I am not sure how much we spent on our phone calls.
So you see the problem? I can see at least two:
1. Not enough operators to handle cab booking requests.
2. Not enough cabs during peak hours.
Maybe it is the consumers who are causing the problem. Since people are willing to book cab, most cab drivers would rather wait for booking. So people, let's just guai guai wait in a queue. Queue means FIFO, follow order, everything is fair that way! I like to see lotsa "green" cabs driving into the stands, and the queues moving on. What for queue if everyone just call cab???
The booking service can certainly be improved. Add one or two more operators during peak hours? Take the customers' request once, then get back to them on the booking via sms. Provide a sms number to cancel the request. Don't drop the customers' call or expect them to call again. Imagine the frustration of finally getting thru' to operator and being informed that there was no cab available. Going thru' the cycle all over again.
Please also provide proper seats for customers to wait at the stands. Don't bother about those "designer-non-stick-confirm-slip-seats" which you can find at Orchard MRT station. We appreciate resting our tired feet while we wait for cab.
Btw, another thing that irks me... if you are going home to the North from town, please remember to remind the driver not to take CTE. Even me, not a driver, knows that CTE always jam at night. I forgot to remind the driver last night and had a good view of car bumpers in CTE tunnel. Take Thomson, AMK. Traffic lights but no jam, shorter distance, smooth journey all the way. I think it is best to tell them the route before hand if you are going somewhere you are familiar with. Don't assume that they know the shortest or best routes.
Having said all that... I hope TODAY newspaper will focus their energy on more purposeful and representative surveys, articles next time. And if they were to survey me my answers for their 4 questions will be:
1. Getting a taxi in Singapore is (Very easy, easy, difficult): Easy in mornings (if you live in Yishun), very difficult at night (even so at taxi stands).
2. They waited an average of (less than 5mins, more than 10mins, more than 30mins): More than 30mins at night, probably more than 1hr at night will be more accurate. Morning less than 5mins outside my block, there are cabs zooming past every few seconds!
3. Was the waiting time acceptable?: Of cuz not.
4. Did they know what to do if they couldn't flag a taxi?: Even after trying to call a cab ar...? I contemplated about buying a car. But I think if not for OT, I should just take the other public transports. So the answer is yes.
One funny incident... a tricycle came into the taxi stand while we waited. The cyclist managed to pick up a couple of tourists. =p
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