Saturday, March 03, 2007

Heavy demand for taxis

In Today paper, several readers wrote about the difficulty in getting a taxi during the peak period. There is clearly a heavy demand for taxis that cannot be met, especially during the peak period.

One reader commented that we have proportionately more taxis in Singapore than in Hong Kong, relative to the population. The taxi service in Hong Kong is better.

Increasing the number of taxis does not help. It will depress the earnings of the taxi drivers.

The solution: Find a more efficient way to use our available taxis. I suspect that the current system is too complicated, and result in wasted resources and higher cost.

1 comment:

Edwin said...

Conflict of interest for taxi drivers?

I do not have the statistics. It may turn out that with emphasis of retraining and relearning, many people the lost their jobs turned taxi drivers may have returned to the job market as the economy has improved.

I have heard of taxi drivers mentioning that there are lots of Taxis in the depot. How true or not, we do not know.

Heavy demand for taxis? Is it a natural market phenomena or one that was created by the service provider? My view is that taxi drivers are still choosing passengers. I had experienced it one too many times especially during peak hours in orchard area.

I understand that taxi drivers prefer to stay within Orchard area so that they can earn more for shuttle trips. Eg: Wisma Atria to say MArina Square or Suntec.

There was one occasion where the taxi driver refused to take me to Boon Lay and claimed that he has a prior booking. Even when I threatened to call in to complain, he also refused to take me. It was not just 1 taxi, but many from different operators. Of coz, I took their License Plate and made multiple calls to file a complain. (This is Unacceptable).

A public transport system should be integrated. Be it bus, train or the taxi all of which complementing each other. One should complement each other. You pay more based on the level of deliverable and service. For the taxi, you pay more as it brings you almost to the doorstep of your destination.

Another way to improve service is the following:
1. Do away with Booking Fees with the exception for Advanced Booking
2. ERP surcharge to be borne by taxi companies. They may work with LTA to provide a flat rate or if possible, do away with any ERP fees at all.
3. Increase the Flagdown rate.
4. During non peak timing, offer lower flagdown rates. (In reality, instead of peak surcharge, we do away with it, instead, it would sound better by offering lower rates during non peak timings. The human mind is really weired. But it definitely sounds better.)

My 2cents worth.

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