ST: Fewer People Taking Taxis
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Appeared on the headlines in Saturday's paper: Fewer people are taking cabs these days as more hop on buses and trains, or cut back on travel expenses. On average, there were 893,674 taxi trips made a day in the first three months of the year, the lowest in five years, after recovering steadily from a post-Sars low. This is about 8,805 fewer rides a day than the same quarter last year, and down another 74,673 rides from 2007. For commuters, this means fewer complaints about waiting times at taxi stands. A Land Transport Authority (LTA) survey of 30 taxi stands in the city found that year-on-year, January waiting times were shorter, while in February, it remained largely unchanged. For taxi-drivers, the news was not so good. As expected, the dip in ridership had hit the pockets of cabbies. Drivers were earning about 10 per cent less, said ComfortDelGro, the largest of six taxi companies here, with 15,000 of the 24,000 cabs on the roads. After deducting rental and fuel costs, a taxi shared by two drivers working in shifts collected $166 a day, going by the meter readings of 8,000 Comfort cabs monitored over the first five months of the year. This worked out to an average of $83 a driver a day, compared with $94 from a similar survey in April last year. Call-bookings - a more lucrative source of income for drivers than cruising for passengers along the streets - were also down, said a company spokesman. Cabbies such as Mr Yeow Khee Beng were feeling the pinch. The 62-year-old, who has been driving a taxi for more than 20 years, said he pocketed about $30 to $40 a day this year after paying his rental and his diesel charges, which came up to $80. "Last year, i could get $50 to $60 a day. Nowadays, you see fewer people waiting on the road for a taxi or even in the taxi queues. It is harder," he said. The acting adviser to the Taxi Operators; Association (TOA), Aljunied GRC MP Yeo Guat Kwang, attributed the dip to a combination of Singaporeans tightening their belt, better public transport and fewer tourists. Legal executive Nadia Tan 35, is among those who are giving taxis a miss these days. She no longer takes cabs home after work because the higher surcharges - a 35 per cent peak hour surcharge and a $3 city surcharge - are "just too crazy". Instead, she tries to leave her Shenton Way office slightly eariler to beat the evening rush on the MRT. Commuters like her have made public transport more popular. For the first quarter this year, 4.87 million rides were made a day on buses and trains, compared with last year's 4.78 million. Mr Yeo said: "The opening of the Circle Line, more premium buses...it is definitely hurting us." But the TOA, which represents the taxi drivers' associations, said it was not overly concerned about the dip in numbers at the moment. Currently most drivers tell Mr Yeo they earn about $5 less a day, which is one or two fewer trips a day. Helping to cushion the impact, about $13 millions in rebates from the Government's tax relief measures that taxi companies received have been channelled back to the drivers. The worry is whether the downward trend will continue, said Mr Yeo. The association, together with the taxi companies and the LTA, are working together to see how they can help, he said. For a start, the LTA is providing $1 million to help promote taxi ridership. This money, to be matched by the companies, will be used to hold promotions, possibly discounts and tie-ups with shopping centres and tourist attractions from next month. The TOA, on its own, will target car owners, Mr Yeo said:" We want them to give up their cars for a cheaper, but just as good, taxi rides." Also from next month, the association will hold training sessions for drivers at motor workshops so that they can upgrade their skills while waiting for their taxis during monthly mandatory checks. Cabbies will also get a $10 allowance for attending these one- to two-hour sessions. Commuters must feel like they are getting better service standards if they going to pay more for a taxi ride, said Mr Yeo. .
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yeah~!
me anti cab since the fare hike
but then, train and buses more and more crowded loh...
oso suxx... -
this year i've cabbed....... 4 times i think.
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So what is the "real" situation on the ground? any cabbies care to share? From what i've noticed as a motorist, there are really really alot more taxis on the road now and snaking queues at taxi-stands or nightspots. Tough times ahead and when pushed to a wall, i guess more cabbies are likely to optimise their earnings by picking lucrative routes. Gotta love the vicious cycle. :)
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So what is the “real” situation on the ground?
Why? No mid-year bonus this year for the civil servants, next the private sectors will follow.
peoples started to tighten their belt on unnecessary spending.
night shift actually hit the hardest, mainly the entertainment sector.
day shift will be hit hard soon if the circle lines completed in full swing.
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After deducting rental and fuel costs, a taxi shared by two drivers working in shifts collected $166 a day, going by the meter readings of 8,000 Comfort cabs monitored over the first five months of the year.
Some time we press wrongly or reset meter incur additional fare the also count in. the taking must -$20 per day at least. They sample 8000 or 60 % of driver ony.
In real world each cabby take home $70 per day that is with at least 10 hours of driving !! no CPF or medical plus risk of accident summom etc and health hazard
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How much of the taxi fare goes to the cursed despot and his cronies to feed theiir gambling addiction and lose the money to foreigners? Is it any wonder less people take taxis when the despots refuse to lower the costs even in a time of recession?
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So expensive who want to take. Today evening 5pm I took a cab from clementi stadium to Beach Rd Shaw Towers. Including peak hr surcharge and stupid ERP, dun know why they fix one gantry just after the Central towards Funan, total cost me S$19. Damn good $$$ for the cabbie.
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ERP they dun earn a single cent lor
In e first place, I dun understand why make passengers pay ERP onboard taxi when they want to reduce traffic
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of coz lah..
so bloody ex... how to afford to take cab...
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i always think taxi populations is still much the same .
Commuters stay away from taking cab is not becos of financila crisis , still the peak hour surcharge that is swaying the commuters away .
If not after peak hour , why a sudden surge in taking taxis ?
Those LTA assholes has to address the facts and datas , they are thiding the actual facts about taxi business .
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in the end, taxi companies still refused to cut the rental cost to taxi drivers...
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What disappoints me most is that despite the deregulation of our taxi industry, we end up with higher fares for passengers and lower income for taxi-drivers. ComfortDelgro continue to exert huge influence while the smaller taxi companies, either powerless or gutless, or both, opted to operate their business like a cartel, with no clout.
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Originally posted by Rednano:
in the end, taxi companies still refused to cut the rental cost to taxi drivers...
rental is nothing , but flag down is crucial .The current peak hour surcharge of 35% on top of taxi fare is too much .
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During the year 2002 , and after , Asia Financial crisis , retrenchments , sars , 911 ....
I also earn good money driving a cab ... Why ?
Cos that time taxi fare is reasonable , not now !!!
The diff ?
That 35% peak hour surcharge are killing the industries .
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if can drive PT, can solves part of the poor biz problem.... good business drive more... bad business koon more.... haha
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Originally posted by Poolman:
rental is nothing , but flag down is crucial .The current peak hour surcharge of 35% on top of taxi fare is too much .
same thinking here, haven't took a cab for some time and thought i could take a cab to meet my friends just a few blocks away when i kenna the 35%i was like WTF?!? another hike?? a normal $4-5 trip become $6-7 now with this become 8-9 dollar then i decide to go back to being anti cab.
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Eh, up everyone's salary so they can take taxis. Import more FTs so more commuters.
Who's despot and how does he takes the taxi fares.
We taxi drivers earn 'local' dollars, we need more people to bring in 'foreign' dollars so we can earn more.
Pool, you said before, when times are bad, look for more ways of making more money and not think of more ways of cutting back. If everyone gets pay-cuts, we taxi drivers also cutted.
Numbers don't lie, if there are only so much money in the economy there will be only be so much to go around.
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yo lion, since school holiday started this week, nite biz quite bad.... had my worst fri since a long time.... ur biz still ok?
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just got sms from kin.... he says 5hrs only 4 pax on sunday morning??? must be he kopi half the time lah.... haha KCTK, u drive on Sunday day? biz got so bad meh?
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good morning aln,
my takings is much worse than what the papers polled from comfort.
paxs are so much fewer now and singapore is invaded by taxis. they are everywhere, even at lim chu kang cemetery on late nights.
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heard a lot of pple who flagged down cabs near public transport points like bus stops usually ask the taxi uncles to get them to the nearest MRT stations because they missed their buses and going to be late for work?
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Originally posted by ALN:
just got sms from kin…. he says 5hrs only 4 pax on sunday morning??? must be he kopi half the time lah…. haha
KCTK, u drive on Sunday day? biz got so bad meh?
yo alvin, i not so bad lah. but generally sunday's biz has dipped. kin started early so of course few pax. sunday early morning where got pple get up so early one? at least 9am onwards.
me sunday usually send my wife to church around 10am, drive until 3pm then pickup my wife go home. normal gross $110 +/-. but last week jialat, only managed to cover rental & diesel.
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taxis at lim chu kang cemetery last nite?..... they looking for different kind of paxs?....haha
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Originally posted by Rednano:
heard a lot of pple who flagged down cabs near public transport points like bus stops usually ask the taxi uncles to get them to the nearest MRT stations because they missed their buses and going to be late for work?
true, sometimes even kena pax me to chase their company transport bus. or rush to the next pickup point. the way the mrt lines are coming up, eventually taxis will operate the way as in Japan - wait at train stations to pickup pax then return to base. we have circle line, downtown line, north shore line, thomson line and eastern region line eventually.(?)