ComfortDelGro checks on taxi drivers who "disappear" before

• oxford mushroom

  12 Aug 06, 03:42

  Here's what a columnist at the New Paper said he will do to punish taxi drivers:
  
  "We've received news that bus and train fares are going up again, albeit by just a few cents. I take a bus or train about as many times as I turn into a werewolf each month so I'm not about to make a big fuss over a savings of maybe 10 cents a year.
  
  Taxis, on the other hand, are my forte simply because I take them so often. If I call a cab during peak hour in the city, it costs me around $7 before the taxi has even moved one centimetre. I am not opposed to paying taxi drivers their dues.
  
  But given the service level of taxis in our little city, I am wondering whether to switch to trains and buses altogether. I work in Robinson Road. If you have the misfortune of working late, you need more luck to catch a taxi home than to win at 4D.
  
  Two Fridays nights ago, my colleague couldn't get a taxi to stop for her, although a large number of blue lights whizzed past her. She eventually gave up and called for a cab. Within a minute, a taxi turned from the corner and picked her up.
  
  Now, if you were a betting man, would you put money on:
  The probability that the only empty taxi willing to pick up a passenger was coincidentally round the corner when she called, or
  
  The probability that the cab was waiting round the corner for some frustrated office worker to call and earn the booking fee?
  
  If taxis are doing so well that they can afford to cruise and not pick up passengers, then they certainly don't deserve me paying them more money. The law has come to pass. But I cannot let errant taxi drivers get away with it.
  
  So from now, this is what I will do. I will call for a taxi while waiting for the MRT and cancel it when it arrives. Will I be punishing the innocent taxi drivers? Probably, but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.
  
  To the good taxi drivers, I first apologise.
  
  I will stop this act when taxi drivers stop whizzing past hapless office workers desperate to get home after a hard day's work, especially overtime work.
  
  If they lose enough passengers, they may one day go back to actually picking up passengers by the roadside once again."
  
  Edwin Yeo, New Paper, Aug 6
• Poolman

  12 Aug 06, 05:15

  Good idea .
  
  Very good idea , but a very old idea .
  
  Used by frustrated customers almost a decade ago .
  
  Now then he say ?
  
  Then wait for some funny phone calls from somewhere in the middle of the night , and say : " Morning call , time to urine ! "
  
  If not , off the phone for good in the middle of the night .