What has SG become? Keep increasing FARES?

[rinaldi86]

The last 2 taxi I took was on weekend waiting at taxi stand... all empty taxi just passed by without slowing down. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I started to call Comfort and for about 15 minutes I get multiple "please press xxx and a sarcastic "all operators are engaged at the moment, have a nice day" and hang up. Finally manage to get connected and another round of "please press xxx" and then got on hold for another 15 minutes before I got someone alive on the phone. After this, it took 5 minutes for the taxi to arrive (hmm... is this serendipity or was he waiting around the corner?)

So this taxi cost me $4 booking + 50% midnight charge (wishful thinking on taking cabs at 11ish) + normal taxi fare, empty hp battery (and perhaps a future brain tumor) and 1 hour of my precious life forever gone.

Another time I took a taxi from Changi Airport Cargo (CAC) area to Airport Logistic Port of Singapore (ALPS). CAC is just a couple of km from ALPS. Normally it cost me $1 peak + approx $3 taxi fare. But when I took CitiCab, they charged me $1 peak + $3 airport + taxi fare... when i asked why this is so, he said its the standard procedure and the other drivers just don't know. When I refused to pay the surcharge, he proceded to drive around looking for police. Since I was late, I just paid, took down the licence number, and walk back to my destination. Emailed CitiCab just to know if the taxi driver is correct but never got any reply. I encountered this twice from CitiCab so I just stop taking taxi from them. My main contention here is on how exactly the surcharge work and how boundary is being established. Taxi may be more expensive in Japan but thank goodness I will never save enough money to actually go to Japan.

Dude.. Read an article few days back on TNP.

Someone wrote to TNP Forum with some extracts from the questions raised to a taxi driver.
One of the question was why the taxi don't slow down (like your description above).
Answer?

Wait for peak hour then find you lah :angry:

BTW, for your 2nd case, tried giving a call to Citicab instead of e-mail?

 

[dawgbyte77]

if you are struck with the mentatily working hard=success, its so our parents generation. Nowadays you need to work smart and be a risk taker and do more to earn your keep, the world is ever changing. Working hard for a promotion or raise can only get you so far, working hard to survive is the toughest, you have to work everyday of your life and die working. You complaint about raising costs of living and gramble on your daily needs increasing.

The way to go about it is to break the cycle and leap forward. Ever hear about a millionaire's mentaily? Ever notice how the rich can afford their keep? Its not being negative about the way of the world but how to go about doing it and be happy and positive attitude and an open mind to accept and try new ways to earn money.

I think you're missing the point here. What I'm trying to say is that not everyone can afford to take a risk. Its easier when you are young and single but each status change from husband to fatherhood gives you more reason be be cautious. I understand that some are willing to take the risk but depending on the situation it can be construed as selfishness. Some who may not be wealthy to begin with or have incomplete family may need to work to help chip in to the family coffer. So risk means you are sacrificing something and this sacrifice is not equal to everyone. I do agree when you say work smart and not work hard, and I admit I'm a jobhopper because my salary and position "increase" faster this way and at first I also push this idea to my friends but I realize they do not have the same freedom as I have. I risk my own for every action I choose but for them, they risk their wife, children, old parent, invalid brother, sick sister, etc etc, who depends on their monthly support.

 

[Belle&Sebastain]

It's not about being negative or postive, its about also considering both sides of the coin and the realities of the entire matter. Yes, having dreams and aspirations and trying to be a entrepreneur is good, but realism will also have to be considered.

You are only considering one side.

ever since i started working, working for others as an employee, i always held 2 jobs, think of ways to earn extra keep buy trading on ebay, etc... its not just aboout being a boss or not.

The biggest problem most of us have is the fear of failing. I have a family and debts to pay off as well, my first business failed and i owed a six figure sum. Fear of failing already makes one a loser. Its not easy being a millionaire or wannabe, i'm still trying and working on it. The key to my success is my spirit. I'm not just a photographer, i'm learning another trade as photography can only last me another 10 years. I plan my career and hope i earn enough to sustain on passive income from 5-8 years from now.

 

[vince123123]

This view is entirely fine I only took some mild offence at your post previous to this one.

I hope all is okay now

ever since i started working, working for others as an employee, i always held 2 jobs, think of ways to earn extra keep buy trading on ebay, etc... its not just aboout being a boss or not.

The biggest problem most of us have is the fear of failing. I have a family and debts to pay off as well, my first business failed and i owed a six figure sum. Fear of failing already makes one a loser. Its not easy being a millionaire or wannabe, i'm still trying and working on it. The key to my success is my spirit. I'm not just a photographer, i'm learning another trade as photography can only last me another 10 years. I plan my career and hope i earn enough to sustain on passive income from 5-8 years from now.

 

[dawgbyte77]

It's not about being negative or postive, its about also considering both sides of the coin and the realities of the entire matter. Yes, having dreams and aspirations and trying to be a entrepreneur is good, but realism will also have to be considered.

You are only considering one side.

If only I get $1 for every "well said" (lemme see.. that's 4 so far...) I should be $999998 away from being a millionaire by now.

Well said! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Okay.. add 2 more.. thats $999996 away.

 

[Rhpe3159]

Boycott taxi, boycott all the transportation, boycott water and electricity, boycott everything... Luckly government haven't decide to charge on breathing :bsmilie:

Who say "Breathing" is not charges. Each time you pay GST/Tax you're paying for the clean air that you breath, as the cleaners around are cleaning the road, park etc to give you clean Air.

"Nothing is free in Singapore"

 

[Belle&Sebastain]

This view is entirely fine I only took some mild offence at your post previous to this one.

I hope all is okay now

cool, all i was trying to do is to ask people instead of sitting infront of the computer and getting angry (ok a good form of stress realease but...) is to be positive and take this as a sign go out and think of ways how to make your money work harder for you, think of how to make more money OR be happy and contented and just enjoy life.

On one of my shooting assignments i met a angler at labrador park and i wanted to take a few shots of him, we chatted about life and his hobbies, and he just takes things easy. How i wish i was like him, without a care in this world. So my life is already so current, spend money on stuff like furniture, hobbies, work and lifestyle. Got hp bills, depts, house, so my only way to is break out and try ways to earn more, try to get passive income, try to work on investments, that the way life is now and of course be the best at what i'm working now, as a photographer.

 

[Rhpe3159]

Talking about supply and demand... And this goes in cicles...

Many many of you notice between 0645 to 0730, there are many taxi parked in carpark, driving their children to school or driving dunno who around, who the sign not set to hired.

So..

Commuters complain that they can't get a cab. Follow by taxi company increase number of taxi or increase fare to "excourage" taxi driver to pick up passengers.

Then later Taxi driver complain too much cab on the road driving around empty, can't find one pessenger after peak hours. And commuter still complain no cab during this period of time and also increase in fare.

Same go for the period just before midnight change kick in.

So who is in fault?? :dunno:

Without all these nonsense, how can they justify the fare increase.
All the increase did not go to the cab drivers but the "Directors or Board Members".
Did anyone go to the AGM and voice the concern of fare increase to benefit the "BOARD".

 

[rinaldi86]

Oh, if I don't read wrongly, 1 of you mentioned about cab safety. Speaking of which,

Taken during AA2006 early this year.

This cabby drove past red light. Almost kissed a few of us and a police officer.
If you see closely, the driver's head was looking onto his center mirror. Probably seen me whipping up my equipment and getting him to smile for camera.

Fare hike? better give your cabby some additional safety training first.

 

[xxxger]

I have some friends told me, but dun know is it true anot ....

During the peak hours or busy hours ... the cab dirver will put thier cab status to 'ON CALL' or 'BUSY' , no matter really busy or not .... and wait for people to call cab and call in ...
I dun believe this lor .... how you guy think?

But no choice, ... rental increase, oil increase, 三万 increase, ... go toilet come back also 三万！

But i still think is not like that lor .... is just black sheep doing that i believe ... :angry:

 

[rinaldi86]

I have some friends told me, but dun know is it true anot ....

During the peak hours or busy hours ... the cab dirver will put thier cab status to 'ON CALL' or 'BUSY' , no matter really busy or not .... and wait for people to call cab and call in ...
I dun believe this lor .... how you guy think?

But no choice, ... rental increase, oil increase, 三万 increase, ... go toilet come back also 三万！

But i still think is not like that lor .... is just black sheep doing that i believe ... :angry:

With what's written on TNP forum by a commuter with sources from cab drivers, there's little, or no reason not to believe that some taxi drivers actually do this.

But then again, there are still many nice cab drivers around. So can't really generalise for all.

 

[Chiang]

I have some friends told me, but dun know is it true anot ....

During the peak hours or busy hours ... the cab dirver will put thier cab status to 'ON CALL' or 'BUSY' , no matter really busy or not .... and wait for people to call cab and call in ...
I dun believe this lor .... how you guy think?

But no choice, ... rental increase, oil increase, 三万 increase, ... go toilet come back also 三万！

But i still think is not like that lor .... is just black sheep doing that i believe ... :angry:

its true , does not take a MBA holder to to adopt this method of working , afterall , there is a buzz word going around
NEV or EVA, Net economic value or Economic value added, the basic principal is the minimum effort to generate the maximum return.

would u 1 2 fetch a passenger that pays 7 dollars or 1 that pays 10 dollars for the same trip ?

would u 1 2 be paid 5k for a job u previously earn only 3k ?, would u 1 a job that pays 4k for wat u know or 6k for wat u dun noe.


trust me , there are such cases floating around.

 

[dawgbyte77]

I have some friends told me, but dun know is it true anot ....

During the peak hours or busy hours ... the cab dirver will put thier cab status to 'ON CALL' or 'BUSY' , no matter really busy or not .... and wait for people to call cab and call in ...
I dun believe this lor .... how you guy think?

But no choice, ... rental increase, oil increase, 三万 increase, ... go toilet come back also 三万！

But i still think is not like that lor .... is just black sheep doing that i believe ... :angry:

I can also vouch for this based on experience. What more now that peak is $2, and you are still forced to book. Automatic $6 on top of normal fare. I heard that those electronic ON CALL sign is automated and cannot be anyhow switched on by cabbies but for cardboards, its easy. And the BUSY sign I still do not understand but I wish I can use when I feel like sleeping in the office or answering clubsnap like now.

 

[Horsba85]

Please understand that cabbies don't have a regular paycheck and rely on sending us to work or home to make ends meet. The fact that they are providing a convenience means that it is definitely going to cost more than an average bus or train fare. For example, I could choose to pay $2 and get to work in 1.5 hours or take a cab for $12 and reach there under 20mins. Prices are set and it is us to choose whether we would want to travel public or personal.

Bearing in mind that many of these corporate companies are listed. Their aim is to generate more profits so that it'll look good on the press and pull in investors. With the cost of living going up, especially the price of oil, one can expect to see fare hikes. Questions we must ask: Is it for the sake of the public or for the company? Instead of raising prices, is it possible to lower costs and improve efficiency?

With increase in globalisation and advance in technology, naturally some of us would expect competition to be fierce and things to be cheaper. However, you're talking about Transportation. It's not some imported goods or mass manufactured product. Personally, I've no idea how a $5.50 movie ticket in the past could spiral to $9.50 during weekends.

To compare such prices with other countries can be a tricky one. It can't be just linear and compare them side by side without taking into consideration of other factors. ie. Tax, GDP, GNP, food prices, household bills etc. Cars, internet connections & water charges are such examples. Even GST, for every country you can name that has a higher % tax than SG, I'm sure there's one country that a lower % than us. It's the way we present our facts. Unless you wish to put a ranking where we are XXth out of YYY countries.

Yes, instead of grouching over increasing fares, we should start looking for alternative incomes. Please, I wonder, how many of us always wished we could afford to purchase more equipment? How many of us hope to make more money? Our greed and want of more income would have already pushed us to look for extra $ sources. Double jobs, part time and freelance work, even offering our consulting or repairing services etc etc.

The fact will remain. Our prices will continue to increase. So where does that leave us? Additional sources of income? To lower our standard of living? Or to seek cheaper ways to get around Singapore? My tip? Buy a bicycle, keep fit & healthy while saving money.

 

[Zplus]

When diesel oil $$ > vegetable oil $$.....
Its time to use vegetable oil in your diesel engine...

Diesel engines are basically high compression engines that work differently from the normal petrol engines. Becoz it uses high compression to ignite fuels, it does not need sparkplugs. And also does not need fuel that burn fiercely - like petrol. Thats why they can use biodiesel - or vegetable oil. In fact, some countries are already using biodiesel fuels....

This fact was well known for a short time but did not quite take off as diesel fuel at that time was cheaper then biodeiesel (vegetable oil). However, since oil cartels have been increasing the price of oil, including diesels, biodiesel is now in fashion again. It is also very enviromentally friendly. You can say that it is a green fuel.

So you can say that this is bad news for oil cartels if everyone switches to biodiesels. In fact some european countries are already doing that.

There seems to be no incentives to R&D biodiesel in Spore except one guy in Tuas doing it on his own. The cheapest way out is to actually switch to biodiesel and have a greener Spore plus cheaper fuesl too. But that could of course hurt our oil refining business..... if the Govt is smart, they would pour in much R&D for biodiesel refining as that is the next big thing. We already have a large source of biodiesel ingredient that can be bought from Msia - raw palm fruits to get palm oil.

But for the average man in the street... cycle and take train lah.... if everyone dont take cab for a day - call it a "No Cab Day" then you will see some effects.

 

[Andy Ho]

Something to ponder about.

Why is everyone talking about increase in fuel oil? What happens in Malaysia and our neighbouring countries who are charging at somewhere near half-price to Singapore? Either something is wrong in Singapore or something is wrong with the fuel quality in our neighbouring countries.

Think about it.

 

[JL1500k]

Bcos SG Gov tax on fuel quite high. Same to Cigarette getting more and more expensive.

 

[kitkat]

Something to ponder about.

Why is everyone talking about increase in fuel oil? What happens in Malaysia and our neighbouring countries who are charging at somewhere near half-price to Singapore? Either something is wrong in Singapore or something is wrong with the fuel quality in our neighbouring countries.

Think about it.

Simple - Those countries subsidize the fuel oil. Sg govt does not. Malaysia and quite a few neighbouring countries are slowly removing this subsidies.

I am fine with cab price increase , as I find cab drivers have pretty hard lifes. Moreover, who ever complain about income increase ? Having live both in Europe and Sg, i find Singaporeans have a larger disposable income in alot of areas (including petrol).

No matter how much we yap, base on economic of inflation, most of the price index will increase (base on demand / supply). This is happening all over the world and it is not a new phenomenon. If you guys are old enough to remember the 1973 energy crisis, the price increase for this time (as per percentile), is nothing compare to those year.

So cheers up. There is nothing much the sg govt can do. It is either way , that the money will be tax or fare will be increase. We are part of Globalization and Singapore will face this effect.

 

[initialE24]

Hey...... I really hate to say this...
Why always increase transport fares one?
Taxis fares is getting way out of control liao..
Anyone any comments? :angry: :angry: :angry:

upset but accept......

 

[StudioFever]

hai.. everything is so expensive nowadays..:sweat: