Do LTA think the crack down will work? Prominent Taxi stand will help?
I think the many Taxi will still go on "Busy", hiding, refuse to stop at taxi stand during peak hour at night in town area. :sticktong
I think the many Taxi will still go on "Busy", hiding, refuse to stop at taxi stand during peak hour at night in town area. :sticktong
www.straitstimes.com said:New crackdown on errant taxi drivers
Slew of measures to improve taxi services will include stiffer penalties for touting, overcharging and more taxi stands in CBD, no hailing of taxis on streets
ERRANT taxi drivers who tout, overcharge or refuse to pick up passengers will face stiffer penalties under a slew of measures introduced by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to improve taxi services.
The LTA has also stepped up its enforcement at numerous entertainment 'hotspots', such as Clarke Quay, Boat Quay, Orchard Towers, Sentosa, Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal and other places where errant taxi drivers take advantage of high demand for taxis during certain times to openly tout for business and overcharge their passengers, especially tourists.
As part of its crackdown, the LTA is is currently investigating about 80 taxi drivers who solicited for passengers, overcharged or refused to pick up passengers in October and November, some of whom are repeat offenders.
The vocational licences of these recalcitrant taxi drivers will be suspended and revoked if they are found guilty, said LTA in a statement on Monday.
'The LTA will also raise the penalties imposed on taxi drivers who are found guilty of soliciting for passengers, overcharging or refusing to convey passengers without reasonable justification.'
'This is to emphasise the seriousness of the offences and to protect the reputation of the majority of honest taxi drivers who abide by the rules,' said LTA.
From Nov 19, errant taxi drivers will face stiffer fines and higher demerit points, and even immediate suspension of their licence under the Taxi Vocational Licence Point System and (VLPS).
Repeat offenders of soliciting and overcharging within 24 months will result in the revocation of the taxi driver's vocational licence.
The tougher measures were made in consultation with taxi companies and taxi driver associations, who have expressed support for the stringent measures against errant taxi drivers, said LTA.
Mr Yang Ban Seng, Chief Executive Officer, Taxi Business, ComfortDelGro, which operates more than 65 per cent of the taxis in Singapore, said: 'We are fully supportive of LTA's tougher penalties. This measure is timely and it will serve as a strong deterrent.
'It also supports the strict disciplinary actions that we have been taking against our errant drivers.'
Added Mr Lim Chong Boo, Managing Director of Premier Taxis: 'We support LTA's efforts to impose tougher penalties on recalcitrant drivers who blatantly flout the rules and affect the livelihood of our other colleagues'.
Also supporting the new measures, Mr Foo Chi Yong, Chairman of the Premier Taxi Operators' Association, said that members had 'requested us to urge the LTA to help the taxi industry weed out these errant drivers that have damaged the reputations of all taxi drivers.'
'We believe that these tougher penalties are necessary to restore the public's confidence in the taxi industry and have encouraged our members to report errant taxi drivers to LTA,' he added.
Mr Yam Ah Mee, Chief Executive of LTA, urged taxi commuters to play their part by reporting errant taxi drivers to LTA.
'In this way, there will be no opportunity for taxi drivers to tout. In the meantime, LTA will continue to liaise with the taxi companies to better match supply and demand of taxis at the 'hotspots',' he said.
Taxi advisories for the public
To raise awareness among taxi commuters that touting for passengers is an offence, advisories will be prominently displayed at taxi stands and at other 'hotspots' from Dec 1.
LTA will also encourage all taxi companies to display the advisories inside their taxis. The advisories will carry LTA's hotline number (1800-CALL LTA or 1800-225 5582) to make it easy for passengers, tourists and the public to give feedback or report errant taxi drivers.
Welcoming these measures, Mr Chia Hock Peng, President of the SMRT Taxi Operators' Association said: 'These are timely measures and we support them. We hope the small number of errant drivers will take these deterrents seriously and stop giving the industry a bad name.'
As part of the measures to improve taxi services within the CBD, LTA will add 15 more taxi stands by end December, so that there will be a taxi stand within 300 metres or a five-minute walk from buildings within the CBD.
Currently, there are 80 taxi stands or stops in the CBD.
The LTA, together with the taxi companies and taxi driver associations, will identify more locations for taxi stands, to make it easier for commuters to hail a taxi from a taxi stand and to increase commuters' safety.
This also reduces the incidents of taxis infringing onto bus lanes to pick up passengers or indiscriminately stopping and contributing to traffic congestion.
With more taxi stands within the CBD, street hail of taxis on roads within the CBD will be disallowed from Mar 1.
From that date, taxis can only pick up or alight passengers at taxi stands and along private driveways, even when on call booking.
In preparation for this new measure, LTA will coordinate with the taxi companies and taxi driver associations to encourage drivers to pick up passengers from taxi stands.
LTA said it will fully phase in the taxi Quality of Service (QoS) standards, introduced in 2003 to monitor the performance of taxi companies in three areas - 'Availability of Taxis via Radiophone Booking', 'Safety' and 'Customer Satisfaction'.
It has since January extended the monitoring of taxi companies' performance on radiophone booking service by another three hours, from 5 pm - 8 pm to 5 pm - 11 pm.
The standards were introduced progressively to allow the taxi companies sufficient time to meet the full standards after one year. For the first six months of 2007, the standard was set at 70 per cent for the radiophone booking service under the QoS standards.
It was raised to 80 per cent from July to December. From Jan 1, the full Taxi QoS standards will apply to the taxi companies.
Taxi Mystery Customer Audit
As part of its on-going efforts to improve taxi services, the LTA also introduced a mystery audit of taxi services.
The mystery audit is carried out on taxi trips taken by auditors and its findings will complement the feedback received through commuter surveys.
The audits are conducted on a quarterly basis and assess taxi drivers on service attributes, conduct, driving skills and familiarity with routes. The audit started in October and the results will be out in January. With the audit findings, LTA will require the taxi companies and associations to improve taxi service standards so that commuters can experience a pleasant journey.