Why punish taxi-drivers not CEOs for incompetence.
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Simple proactive approach tells us that if we want the goose to lay the golden egg we need to look after the health of the goose.
If we want the taxi to become part of an efficient public transport system to prevent road congestions as well as alternative solution to the high costs of vehicle ownership, we must look to our million-dollar directors and CEOs to solve overall problems in the running of taxi.
Whereas the directors and CEOs in such companies are earning obscenely high wages they cannot even look after simple welfare of taxi-drivers allowing them to earn an equitable and fair share of whatever profits the taxi companies are making.
This is the proactive approach to solving our many problems within the industry. Have our ministers thought of any such proactive solution to problem.
Instead they go for the poor taxi-drivers preferring to ignore their welfare and started charging them unnecessarily for touting blah blah blah which were caused by something else and not sorely taxi-drivers' fault, -
Self-justification for their multi-million salaries while those below suffer. Doesn't this sound like MLM already?
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Instead of having the taxi driver paying a fix taxi rental to the taxi company, why not pay a percentage of the income? In this way, even if the taxi driver has a bad day, he will be paying less rent.
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that would be FAIR - wouldn't it?Originally posted by royston_ang:Instead of having the taxi driver paying a fix taxi rental to the taxi company, why not pay a percentage of the income? In this way, even if the taxi driver has a bad day, he will be paying less rent.
That would be EQUITABLE wouldn't it?
That would be WISE wouldn't it?
That would not be exploiting people for their own benefit, unfortunately... and as long as it does not exploit people for their own benefit, don't expect them to consider it...
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Hmm, why don't businesses pay a percentage of income to landlords too ? In this way when business is bad on a day/month they will be paying less rent.Originally posted by royston_ang:Instead of having the taxi driver paying a fix taxi rental to the taxi company, why not pay a percentage of the income? In this way, even if the taxi driver has a bad day, he will be paying less rent. -
because the govt don't want taxi drivers to develop a crutch mentality
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If we support this statement "No welfare, No Free Lunch, No Clutch Mentality" will it not lead to all departments and ministries setting their accounts in such a way that all of them will be creating surpluses or breakevens leaving taxes as unspent surpluses which do not benefit citizens either in lowering costs of living, creating jobs or helping in their retiremens.Originally posted by dumbdumb!:because the govt don't want taxi drivers to develop a crutch mentality
If there is no one speaking for you citizens who support the above-stated policy blindly and without questioning then what will happen to our ordinary citizens. We are not saying that this policy is not good. What we are asking is whether we are producing the side effects of government charging everything and pushing up our costs of living and lowering our competitiveness as a nation.
People have given correct feedbacks to ask government to be considerate in taxing and profiteering have they been listening?
What happen to all the taxes and windfall profits government is making every year which are not even presented in the annual budget?
Is the government going to keep taxes and such surpluses as their surpluses and continue to raise taxes and refuse to consider the cost of living issue affecting the lower 40% of citizens.
If you have no problem yourself can you guarantee that you will have no problem at all up to your retirements or your children and your children's children.
Let us all face it - it is the root cause of our current citizens' struggling to live with dropping wages and increasing costs everywhere up to 5% inflation as reported.
Do not blindly believe in what MM Lee and ministers are saying about their policies. Many are wrong and should be corrected and all of us with some common sense should be able to see this kind of governing system is wrong and immoral and should be corrected.
Otherwise you will be guilty of helping wrong doers to do wrongs with more problems caused to your bros and sises by mindless pushing up costs of living slowing growths of business and causing unemployments? -
Comfort raised the daily rental charge for the taxis and now with the crazy diesel prices, taxi drivers are taking less money home. Many of them say even if they are not well, they cannot afford not to drive for just one day or half-a-day as otherwise they cannot pay the rental. They are just surviving. the ministers on the other hand have given themselves a ridiculously unjustified pay rise. Even if they cut their pay by 75% they would still be overpaid! So what crutch mentality are we talking about? Or rather, WHO should not develop WHAT mentalityOriginally posted by dumbdumb!:because the govt don't want taxi drivers to develop a crutch mentality 
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It's like comparing apple and orange here. The earning from business differ by each trade. Imagine, if this is practiced, the landlord will obviously rent out his office space to MNC which has better earning and small companies will have no office avail. And how to calculate the earning of a business if that office space is just for maybe a branch office?Originally posted by kramnave:Hmm, why don't businesses pay a percentage of income to landlords too ? In this way when business is bad on a day/month they will be paying less rent.
In the current situation, the taxi companies goal is to rent out as many taxi as possible. More taxi mean more money rolling in for the taxi company whereas the reverse is true for the taxi driver.
More taxi on the road mean more competition and the taxi driver earning going down. At the end of the day, to sustain their earning, the drivers will have to resort to trick like playing hide and seek to earn more money. -
don't take away people's money and livelihood oready very good... last time taxi drivers could but their own taxis and they took that away and now they are at the mercy of the big taxi companies....Originally posted by dumbdumb!:because the govt don't want taxi drivers to develop a crutch mentality
Last time taxis road tax was the same as other cars and they increase it my thousands and thousands of percentage points....
don't take away people's money and livelihood oready very good...
taxi drivers should support Dr Chee Soon Juan and get back some of their rights... -
Sadly this is the state of affairs in Sillypore and in fact in most other SEA countries....the workers have very little or no rights as the priority is sharholders' wealth and CEO's pocket first.....the usual tactic here is to keep the workers here happy with just enough pay but make the better things in life just out of reach so that they will continue to grumble and be resigned to the fact that they have tow ork as taxi drivers....Originally posted by robertteh:Simple proactive approach tells us that if we want the goose to lay the golden egg we need to look after the health of the goose.
If we want the taxi to become part of an efficient public transport system to prevent road congestions as well as alternative solution to the high costs of vehicle ownership, we must look to our million-dollar directors and CEOs to solve overall problems in the running of taxi.
Whereas the directors and CEOs in such companies are earning obscenely high wages they cannot even look after simple welfare of taxi-drivers allowing them to earn an equitable and fair share of whatever profits the taxi companies are making.
This is the proactive approach to solving our many problems within the industry. Have our ministers thought of any such proactive solution to problem.
Instead they go for the poor taxi-drivers preferring to ignore their welfare and started charging them unnecessarily for touting blah blah blah which were caused by something else and not sorely taxi-drivers' fault,
My only hope is that the taxi drivers go on strike and teach those in charge that their goose does have a voice -
Can you imagine....their daily rental of the taxi is anywhere from $95-$110 and also they have to worry about diesel, carwash etc...how many trips do they have to make a day to break even and then earn to feed their family's mouths....I'd say simple maths tell you they have to make at least 10 trips a day if an average trip costs S$10/-Originally posted by robertteh:Simple proactive approach tells us that if we want the goose to lay the golden egg we need to look after the health of the goose.
If we want the taxi to become part of an efficient public transport system to prevent road congestions as well as alternative solution to the high costs of vehicle ownership, we must look to our million-dollar directors and CEOs to solve overall problems in the running of taxi.
Whereas the directors and CEOs in such companies are earning obscenely high wages they cannot even look after simple welfare of taxi-drivers allowing them to earn an equitable and fair share of whatever profits the taxi companies are making.
This is the proactive approach to solving our many problems within the industry. Have our ministers thought of any such proactive solution to problem.
Instead they go for the poor taxi-drivers preferring to ignore their welfare and started charging them unnecessarily for touting blah blah blah which were caused by something else and not sorely taxi-drivers' fault,
That's life in Sillypore......civil service pay can go up but the small self employed taxi driver has to slog and they say that work in the civil service is tough -
There was a case of a taxi driver who went missing n his family is frantically seraching for him. They eventually managed to find out that all along he wasOriginally posted by Coquitlam:Can you imagine....their daily rental of the taxi is anywhere from $95-$110 and also they have to worry about diesel, carwash etc...how many trips do they have to make a day to break even and then earn to feed their family's mouths....I'd say simple maths tell you they have to make at least 10 trips a day if an average trip costs S$10/-
That's life in Sillypore......civil service pay can go up but the small self employed taxi driver has to slog and they say that work in the civil service is tough
in JB doing his own business. U can imagine taxi driver moving to JB rather
than staying in Spore. -
Bottomline is anywhere other than Sillypore is better....if you read all the complaints in the forum and even in ST forum carefully, Sillypore is getting from bad to worse, the people included.....SM already said last week that the cracks are already showing in society but actually the cracks have already become bigger....can you imagine if Sillyporeans can't stand the sight and smell of foreign workers who build the roads and condos that Sillyporeans live in....then I say this place is not worth defending....anywhere else is better....Originally posted by will4:There was a case of a taxi driver who went missing n his family is frantically seraching for him. They eventually managed to find out that all along he was
in JB doing his own business. U can imagine taxi driver moving to JB rather
than staying in Spore.
again, if you have read the letters in ST(which is already mild), I'd say Sillypore is just a look good on the surface kind of red dot but as you peel away the veneer, its just a dot with 1st world facilities with 3rd world mentality......need we say more or shall we list out the pathetic things this country does....eg, yest Newpaper stated that Sillyporeans actually drive off without paying for petrol after pumping and when caught, they still complain...that's what Sillypore has become, an arrogant, materialistic society....kekeke
Come to think of it, a lawyer was caught falsifying address info just to get its kid into a top girls' school in Bukit Timah.....pathetic, things Sillyporean parents will do to get their kids into a school...I'd say a neighborhood school is good and will do just fine....kekekek....now the daughter may have to be kicked out of the school and transferred....imagine what the daughter will ask her dad....
"Daddy, why am I being transferred to another school?"
Such are the things that Sillyporeans get up to these days -
Death of the Independent Operator
Tight commerce laws and regulations have caused the wealth to accumulate at the upper echelons of the many corporate pyramids here in Singapore. Take the example of Taxi drivers/companies here in Singapore.
Are taxi drivers still allowed to own their own vehicles? As far as I know, they are no longer allowed to do so. Forever tied to a taxi company via a leash. Forever subjected to the whims of the taxi company if they so choose to remain a taxi driver. Its not so bad, if the taxi drivers have strong union representation, but in Singapore, unions virtually powerless unless union laws are changed. Gone were the days when taxi drivers could own their own taxis, be and independent operator.
There is no justification of for the highly paid CEOs of the transport companies whose monthly salary that may feed up to half a dozen families of taxi drivers. Owning his/her own vehicle would benefit the driver in the long run, giving him/her greater responsibility and control over his/her earnings, which incidentally, does contribute to the narrowing of the income gap here in Singapore. Spread the wealth amongst the people, why must everything go upwards?
Taxi companies, as they get bigger, will get “top heavy” with the needs to pay for huge office rentals, exorbitant salaries of senior executives and other resources, to manage the fleet of taxis. Leaving the onus of the taxi maintenance to the driver/owner is one way to go. Taxi companies should remain, to give those drivers who prefer rental a choice. Giving them a choice will then drive the taxi companies to give those who chose to rent, better perks for rental, or even lower rental costs. Also the freedom for taxi owners to rent out their vehicles when they are ill or unable to drive. Why must everything thing here in SG be so tight assed.
But that’s the trend of our country’s economy isn’t it? Somehow, the “comfort zone” is always just an inch away, but still unable to reach it. This phenomenon is extremely prevalent in the middle lower income groups. Co’mon PAP, give the little guy a chance to run his little business, and earn a little comfortable living.
Project manager who is exposed to both working in SG and Australia quoted saying "PMs in SGP have it easy, here in Aust, have to make the staff as happy as you want the customer to be. In SGP, just squeeze, staff have to comply, if not, there is always someone else cheaper to do the job." -
the CEOs are not incompetent... they're gouging the people for money which results in increase of profit margin which results in increase share price and dividents to shareholders which results in his being praised for increased profits which result in his getting a hefty bonus...
it is what we call capitalism...
and this is exactly what the US does...
the land of the free and the home of the brave..
the same way the CEO of the health insurance companies there get hugeass bonuses for screwing the sick by denying them life-saving treatment... by denying them basic health care just to squeeze their clients that little bit more...
the same way Meat Packing companies employ illegals to work in their plants...
the same way...
it is Capitalism.. and it is what the Free Market is about...
you wanted Freedom? this is the result of freedom... -
Well, using this example, what about the freedom not be part of the company? e.g. comfort delgro. The freedom to be an independent operator? The freedom of choice. The Govt doesn't have to make a law, making independent taxi owners illegal.Originally posted by the Bear:the CEOs are not incompetent... they're gouging the people for money which results in increase of profit margin which results in increase share price and dividents to shareholders which results in his being praised for increased profits which result in his getting a hefty bonus...
it is what we call capitalism...
and this is exactly what the US does...
the land of the free and the home of the brave..
the same way the CEO of the health insurance companies there get hugeass bonuses for screwing the sick by denying them life-saving treatment... by denying them basic health care just to squeeze their clients that little bit more...
the same way Meat Packing companies employ illegals to work in their plants...
the same way...
it is Capitalism.. and it is what the Free Market is about...
you wanted Freedom? this is the result of freedom... -
Actually the crux of the issue is that delgro is the absolutely dominant operator and govt linked company. As a profit making entity with political backing, under capitalism, it has turned into a monster by implementing profit maximizing measures that do no benefit to the customers and workers under them.
That's capitalism, where capital exploits surplus value from the workers, and if possible, corner the surplus from customers. Sadly, this capitalistic beast is not only free from perfect competition, it is aided by the govt. Now dun get me wrong, i advocate competition. definitely. but only competition that benefits both consumers and workers.
This is if done correctly, organization, scale and technology can bring abt dramatic real savings and efficiency. The key is to let the company be owned wholly by citizenship alone. And they can vote CEOs out and decide on their pay. The goal of the company will not be to make profits, but to deliver a certain pre-agreed standard of service at the lowest possible cost.
There will be real-time bidding, and journey tracking and resource allocation. the customer will be charged exactly the benefit they derive and opportunity cost they incur on the driver. all will be recompensed correctly. Rental is kept to a minimal, and drivers will be increased naturally to a surplus until the business becomes too thin.
Everything will be fair and efficient then. WOW!!! looking forward to it.
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A twisted form of capitalism we have here in SG.
Capitalist economy - an economic system based on private ownership of capital
Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all or mostly privately owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and groups of individuals acting as "legal persons" or corporations to trade capital goods, labor, land and money (see finance and credit).
Laissez-faire - It is generally understood to be a doctrine that maintains that private initiative and production are best allowed to roam free, opposing economic interventionism and taxation by the state beyond that which is perceived to be necessary to maintain individual liberty, peace, security, and property rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire
Or do we have an economy that is more akin to what Europe has, in the 16th and 18th century. When Monarchs and kings ruled in Europe.
Mercantilism
Under mercantilism, European merchants, backed by state controls, subsidies, and monopolies, made most of their profits from the buying and selling of goods. In the words of Francis Bacon, the purpose of mercantilism was "the opening and well-balancing of trade; the cherishing of manufacturers; the banishing of idleness; the repressing of waste and excess by sumptuary laws; the improvement and husbanding of the soil; the regulation of pricesÂ…"Similar practices of economic regimentation had begun earlier in the medieval towns. However, under mercantilism, given the contemporaneous rise of the absolutism, the state superseded the local guilds as the regulator of the economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism#Mercantilism -
Originally posted by Jontst78:
Capitalism in every other country is twisted, not only Singapore
A twisted form of capitalism we have here in SG.
[b]Capitalist economy - an economic system based on private ownership of capital
Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all or mostly privately owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and groups of individuals acting as "legal persons" or corporations to trade capital goods, labor, land and money (see finance and credit).
Laissez-faire - It is generally understood to be a doctrine that maintains that private initiative and production are best allowed to roam free, opposing economic interventionism and taxation by the state beyond that which is perceived to be necessary to maintain individual liberty, peace, security, and property rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire
[/b] -
you whip the slaves to get them working
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Well, my point is, in this context of say the Taxi company, comfort delgro. The biggest player. Backed by the state. And private taxi operators are illegal? Meaning, say I wanna own my own cab, I dun wanna pay rental, I'll buy the cab. I cant do that or can I? It creates competition with comfort delgro.Originally posted by kramnave:Capitalism in every other country is twisted, not only Singapore
To those that claim the scenario to be the fallout of capitalism, would the scenario be closer to merchantilism instead of capitialism? -
If you put all the sovereign wealth funds together, Temasek is the most twisted of all.Originally posted by kramnave:Capitalism in every other country is twisted, not only Singapore
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I'm not disagreeing with you, i'm just saying that no country practices true capitalism.Originally posted by Jontst78:Well, my point is, in this context of say the Taxi company, comfort delgro. The biggest player. Backed by the state. And private taxi operators are illegal? Meaning, say I wanna own my own cab, I dun wanna pay rental, I'll buy the cab. I cant do that or can I? It creates competition with comfort delgro.
To those that claim the scenario to be the fallout of capitalism, would the scenario be closer to merchantilism instead of capitialism?
Anyway....
"In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.
Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of machinery, etc.
Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is. " - Karl Marx -
Money is the root to all evil .
It's a question of making taxi drivers value their jobs .
How ?
Current low wages .... don't expect cabbies to respect their job , and can forget about getting them to value their job .
If the flat down is good , and the overall wages for a cabby is good , like $4K a month , this cabby would value their job .
If one driver can easily get $4k a month , knowing he can't get another job of the same or higher salalry , he will respect his profession .
Now it's the other way round .
$2k a month for some , increasing diesel cost , increase GST cost , increase in daily expenses .... still $2.50 per flat down , who want a job like that ?