Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Taxi service in Singapore

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Taxi service in Singapore

15 years ago, Singapore had a good taxi service. It was affordable and reliable.

Today, we have a poor taxi service. Our taxi fares are high and the service has become quite unreliable. Prior to the peak hour, taxis are not available. The taxi drivers wait for the peak hour, to be able to levy a 30% surcharge. Taxis are not available in some areas without locality surcharge, but plentiful in other places with the surcharge. There is long queue at taxi stands, but if one is willing to pay a ransom (i.e. the call booking charge), the taxis become available immediately.

We also have a convoluted system of taxi fares, perhaps the most convoluted in the world. Singapore used to be a place with good governance. How did we get into t his sorry state of affairs?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...: I disagree with Mr Tan. The fare is only expensive during the peak hour. The fare generally is cheap compared to other countries. The earning of taxi drivers is at its lowest since the rental is high and never seem to drop. With the completion of more MRT lines the taxi drivers earning will be affected adversely. I pity those taxi drivers. It is the companies that charges high rental that are at fault not the poor taxi drivers.; March 02, 2011 9:35 AM
C H Yak said...: I took the hi-speed train to and fro Shanghai / Nanjing last Oct/Nov. The fare was RMB 148 or less than S$30. The older train which had taken before which took 2.5 hours was only RMB 98. The new train took me only 1 hr 15 mins.

The taxi fares I paid for travelling to and fro Bukit Batok / Changi Airport was more than S$30 both trips.

Just compare the distance travel.; March 02, 2011 1:12 PM
Spur said...: It is a combination of poor govt policies, greed and profiteering at all costs by the taxi companies, as well as unscrupulous behaviour by the taxi drivers. The taxi drivers resort to such tactics and behaviour in order to cover expensive rentals, relatively high fuel cost and high cost of living in Singapore.

The situation is similar to insurance agents and bank RMs. If they try to be ethical and "do the right thing", either they have to eat grass with less than $1K salary, or most probably get fired from their jobs first.; March 02, 2011 1:27 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: One person attacked me twice for this posting. He think that I am criticizing taxi drivers and he wanted to justify their action.

I know that taxi drivers are also facing the pressure of high rental and have to work long hours to earn a living. I have many friends who are taxi drivers. I also use taxi quite often and talk to them. Most of them provide satisfactory service.

I am criticizing the convoluted system. I know that under such a system, the taxi drivers may be forced to take advantage of the system to earn the extra buck. So, I do not really blame the taxi drivers, although I feel that they should put service before the extra buck.

The solution is to have a simpler and fairer system and to avoid having the taxi companies make huge profits (which they are now). The taxi service is another example of things that have gone bad in Singapore during the last 15 years.; March 02, 2011 3:30 PM
Lye Khuen Way said...: What happen with Taxi in Singapore ( Flag down rate, per Km or whatever, Peak Hrs Surcharge/ CDB /AirPort/IR surcharge) are also how the Authorities try to do with our Roads/Car . ( COE then ERP). Problem is that the going was so good with the COE that, they forgot about the absolute limit that our roads could bear.
The Problem-solving process is interesting. Solve one issue but create another one or two new issues....; March 02, 2011 9:06 PM
Anonymous said...: Its all about good work, some people are honest and sincere and some are not.; March 08, 2011 5:20 AM
cynthia said...: Hello Mr Tan,
I wish you the best of luck in your run for presidency. I am an ex-staff of yours from Income and truly those were the best years Income has seen. Alas, nevermore.

Anyway, there is another type of taxi driver that would defraud you by purposely telling you that they have no change and they expect you to say "Keep the change!"

Most of the taxi drivers that I have encountered are rude and now they are fraudulent. Taxi companies do not give a hoot about service standards and complaints are usually ignored.
I swear by trains and busses just to avoid these people who choose to spoil my day.
Taxi drivers shouldn't even be allowed to demand a better pay structure without first ensuring giving good service.
And most of them are really bad. I shouldnt be using your blog to advertise another (not mine), but the feedback is very interesting...
http://sgtaxidrivers.blogspot.com/; June 10, 2011 11:16 AM