I am new driver. Not familar with some roads, got any good navigator that can direct me using shortest route to the destination passenger wanted to go?
Hope this helps.
Buy Papago fast search. But dun rely on the GPS routing. Will bring you go holland sometimes. I only use the GPS to see my destination and I plan my own route.
Originally posted by Cash Lee:Hope this helps.
Bro, very kamsiah for your info but where to buy it? Sim Lim square or Courts or Best ?
You can check these GPS out at Challenger Funan, they should have a good range of brand there.
I personally prefer Garmin due to it user friendly interface.
Is comfort crown or sonata installed with GPS. I noticed the MDT has map function, is it gps?
Hokkienpia .... start like what we did , brain GPS .
Aiyo very fast get use to it one .
Or just ask pax . Pax will show you the way .
In fact , taxi driving's pace were so fast , u can actually got no time to navigate through GPS .
Among those drivers i know , esp those at LV .... all throw away their GPS liao ... u can buy second hand from them , hahahahah .
Drive taxi cannot be paiseh if dunno .
No.1 theory of driving taxi for newbies : Thick Skin and ask !!!
Pax will never blame you for not sure of routes .
But they will fuck you upside down if u do not know and dun ask !
Same to any industry , right ?
Another simple technic of getting to drive better taxi .
Pick only local .
Think less about attending to Hotels , Airport .
Because if u chose to attend such locations , the chances is , u will have somebody that do not know it as well !!!!
Local passengers are the best teacher !!!!
And as u know , one of the most commonly use phrase for taxi drivers is : " U want me to go by which way ?"
Tio Bo cabbies ?
But do you ask a tourist this ???
of course no right ???
The most received answers will be : " How the fuck i know , u are the taxi driver , u have to know ."
Finally , what is the best and quickest way to master routes ?
Answers : Got fucked upside down by passenger ( nasty type ) .
Then u will remember that route for the rest of your life !
From the commuter's perspective , i guessed they will have more confidence with drivers who do not rely on GPS than those who start to *to-to-to* on that device .
From the commuter's perspective , i also guessed that they will have more confidence with drivers that do not rely on GPS and also do not ask which route to take , and straight away proceed to the respective destination .
Than those who *to-to-to* on their devices and yet need to ask which route to take ?
Tio bo ?
I am that type , no GPS , no need ask , let's go type and i believe u can be that type as well .
Just that u need time , that's all to reach that level .
As for Comfort's MDT , i dunno .....
I found that their navigation software , u also must know the route well in order to use it .
of course there be times , where u got a job , still cannot find , maybe that's where GPS come in .
But for me , i learnt thru the very traditional way : Street Directory .
So far the best , isn't it ?
Although my street directory got mould liao .....
For me , one of the learning curve from street directory was that street directory the scope is wider .....
One look u not only can see those places u want to go , also other places surrounding it .
When i was a new driver ....
As a Comfort cabby , Tuas & Jurong is a very important place for me .
But so big , how to master ?
Everytime kena job at Tuas , always late or pax NO SHOW , cos too long , or Job Cancelled .
So i study .....
But street directory so many pages ? How to study ?
Then i photocopy those map page by page , invest a bit .
Then i cut all maps , and joined pages by pages together ....
From there , i marked out the main access ways like Pioneer Road , AYE and PIE Tuas Road
Then very quickly , i realized the magic of Tuas .
The magic of recognising locations base on another location , recognising small roads base on another road .
Because of that effort .... it became an extra hand to earn some quicker bucks .
Bro Poolman, thank you. Got one time, at lorong Ah Soo, a aunty passenger board my cab and asked me to go "Or Kio Tau", WTF, where is Or Kio Tan, my cpu mind hangup for a while and ask the aunty, where is the place. She said, you taxi lo dun have GPS ah, KNN, GPS also do not have a name call Or Kio Kau. She call her daughter and pass me the phone, the sweet voice told me it is Beo Cresent. I told the aunty, no problem I know the place liao and I chiong all the way. Reach Or Kio Tau, she give me $50 keep the change and ask me to go buy GPS.
GPS systems are usually shunned because of two reasons one being that they are not frequently updated as Singapore streets are, whenever you buy a system it usually comes with one year free upgrade of maps after which you to pay and no one likes to pay. Keeping that in mind Garmin is the best bid if you're looking for free updates for the rest of the navigation system's life. You have to be acquainted with computers and how to install programs and copy paste onto a SD card you'll be all set to go for map updates for Garmin systems ( free ones) can be found on myaseanfreemaps forum you can Google it. As a taxi driver as I soon will be ( just passed my TVDL test) my choice would be something which can update me on the route situation meaning if I'm taking certain route and there's a traffic jam it should let me know so I can reroute and save my time and as well as passengers for that the only system with possible free updates is Galactio with traffic updates I think it's around $375 or so available from different vendors you can check Galactio website by googling for the name. Again live traffic updates is a subscription-based service so when you buy your equipment it comes with one or two years subscription paid service for life traffic after which you to pay. The choice is yours have fun
Frankly, I hv to agree with Pool, at time, pax who are want you to be fast, and you still keying GPS for location, i think they will rolltheir eye up and think, Oh, my god, another GPs cabby.
My suggestion is still smart phone will do, it can also take picture, places that is new to you, you take picture of it, then go home and remember it, as newbie, first learn to ply on your own turf, if you are tampines, try around that side that you are familiar, that include tampines, hougang, pasir ris, airport, bedok, Eunos and so on, slowly expand to outside, again as Pool said, if you do not know, please ASK, put your mouth into good use, ask politely.
Twice I had met pax jump cab, one in tuas, the other near botanic garden, and I asked pax why they drop off from the other cab and immediately wave for my cab coming behind, still fumming, pax said that cabby do not know the road and yet keep quiet and bring me all over the places, hell!
Maybe initially use GPS is ok, but do not over rely on it, because you can become an addict to it, so one day without the GPS, you are paralysed, as dumb as pax. I agreed with Pool that those old bird had long throw their GPS away. It is more for private car, some executives just do not know the roads well. Singapore has one of the most cramped and intricated road per sq km, not easy.
I mean no disrespect to the seniors on this forum,GPS navigator is just a tool to be used to serve your customers better, as highlighted above example of a driver do not know the route and go round and round , if he had a GPS navigator he won't lose his fare, after all we are all plying the road to earn a living, the best example of GPS navigator usage would be something like when the calculator got introduced, all the old accountants laughed at people using calculator saying using this machine does not make one accountant. My seniors in the trade have learned the routes the hard way, my experience of using GPS navigation on Singapore roads is that it is a great help and eventually when you go to places day in day out they get hammered inside your head and you do not need the navigation system except for those hard to remember never been places. It never hurts to have another additional tool to help someone make a living.
As i said, if you got a smart phone, why need a GPS, it encompass a map, you can search, locate, get the direction within second, aren't we spending unneccessary on GPS when you hv a Smartphone or tab? Unless you do not hv a smartphone, then by all mean, use the GPS, we are not saying it is no good, we are saying it is best to learn by the brain as time goes by, day in and day out, people said magazine road, minden road, Prince of Wales road, you know immediately, clarify again with pax then set your road, tell pax your mean of getting there and ask if they feel comfortable or have other alternatives, in this way, we let pax feel confident of our profession, yet we are more relax and less stress instead of keep looking at GPS and turn left 50m, you start to be wary...and so on.
Just like cook, an indian cook who cooked for 10 years, you want fish head curry, he immediately cook it, if he start to go and see the mannual or the tutorial tube on the step by step on how to cook it, I think you also wonder if he is a good cook.
To me my GPS is used only to locate the destination. I just stop at the map never press go to start routing. Because from the map I know which part of the block, or building is located along the road. Like a pax tell me Yio Chu Kang Road....so long...I ask for the number and key into the GPS then I know which part of the road to go to.
Agree with bowah & hammer, smart phone is more than sufficient. sometimes kena...
'uncle 182 Bukit Timah Road'
"got building name?"
'don't know leh'
wtf, Bukit Timah Road so long where is 182, which side? towards town or towards west?
This type of destination, just use smart phone to check location and whack. Street directory will not show this detail. I use NavFone (free on Android phones) just do a search, see where it is and whack. Cos we just need to know near where, not how to go. The original gps built by God is the best model, updated every second. Cos at 182 Bukit Timah Rd, you will learn of Makepeace Rd & Hooper Rd. If you did not already know them. Many others especially shophouses which cannot see the unit number, smartphone navigation app comes in very useful.
Originally posted by minty wolf:I mean no disrespect to the seniors on this forum,GPS navigator is just a tool to be used to serve your customers better
Ok hahahahahah .
Come n drive taxi for a day lar ....
I am really interested to know .....
How many % of singapore taxi drivers actually used a GPS ????
Since it is the most so call effective ????
What is that unique formula for those who do not need a GPS n still can make it ????