People should think before writing an email.
I’d received this email just now with the subject being: Let’s boycott Comfort taxi!! Singapore Citizen have our rights!!!
Dear all,
Lets Show We As Singapore Citizen have our rights!!!
Please take note that Comfort taxi will adjust its fares from 17 Dec (Mon) and SMRT taxi will be adjusting its fares from 24 Dec (Mon). The fare hikes is around 10 – 40% Prime taxi will not be adjusting their fares for the next 3 months, so let’s just take Prime, else we’ll take the train.
Currently Comfort is saying that the fare hikes are for the cabbies, blah
blah blah, but let’s just see, a few more months down the road, they’ll
definitely increase the rental for cabbies.. bloody blood-sucking
soul-less corporations!!A brief breakdown of the fare increase:
- Starting fare would increase by $0.30 to $2.80. Please note that $2.80
is for normal cabs only, for the premium cabs like Mercedes and such, the
starting fare will be adjusted accordingly
- City Area Surcharge would increase to $3, and it will be charged from
Mon – Sat, 5pm – midnight
- Midnight Surcharge would revert back to 50% after midnight instead of
the current staggered timing.
- Peak Hour Surcharge would be 35% of the fares instead of the current $2.
It will be charged from Mon – Fri : 7am – 9.30am; Mon – Sat : 5pm – 8pm
- Metre rates would increase also 2 times, every increase would be $0.20
cents instead of the current $0.10
- Booking fees would be decreased to $3.50 for Prime times and $2.50 for
Non-Prime timesJust an illustration, the distance from my place to the office is around
15km, currently if I book a cab to get home at 7pm, I would have to pay
around $17.80:Booking fees: $4
Starting fare : $2.50 (first km)
First 10km : $4.80
Next 4km : $2.30
Waiting time : $1.20 (average 5 min)
Peak Hour : $2.00
City surcharge : $1Under the new fare structure, for the same distance, I would have to pay
around $22.50, that is almost 30% increase over the current fares.Booking fees : $3.50
Starting fare : $2.80 (first km)
First 10km : $5.20
Next 4km : $2.40
Waiting time : $1.40 (average 5 min)
Peak Hour : $4.20 (35% of $11.80)
City surcharge : $3Have Singaporeans forget what is fairness? Is it right that the rich get
richer and the poor get poorer? Why is it always surprise to the
government when we choose to leave? We have already sold our souls, what
we want is just a bit of fairness and justice, is the government doing
anything about it? Why do we need a government who cannot protect its own
people?*dishearten*
I really don’t know what to say when I read such emails. Did the originator even think before writing this?
When my dad heard this news on tv, his immediately reaction was that he’ll probably be earning lesser than the very less amount that he has been earning right now, and that my family would have to not spend much money anymore (not that we do anyway). I don’t really have to say what his occupation is.
Does people even think about taxi drivers being the ones who suffer the most because of the charges? What can boycotting the taxis do? Who will suffer in the end? Do you think taxi drivers made this decision?
Honestly, I personally think that if you find the charges are too high, then take buses or MRTs. No one asked you to take taxis and complain anyway. I think many who complain are those who don’t take taxis anyway.
Talk about fairness.
*This is my personal point of view. I do not represent anyone or any organisation.
I won’t support a boycott, but I am definitely cutting down on cabs. However, the commuter is the biggest loser, followed by the cab driver. Needless to say who’s the real winner. However, forgive me for saying this, as a commuter I am still finding it more and more difficult to empathize with any cab driver. I do not need to repeat some of the usual complaints about our cab service. If life is getting more and more difficult for your dad, he has only some of his fellow cabbies to thank.
xizor2000:
I agree with what you say about the service of cab drivers. So does my dad.
Whenever we encounter cab drivers who cheat us of our money or give bad service, my dad will not hesitate and tell us to call up and complain to the call centres so that the taxi drivers will be reprimanded.
And believe me, I know that they do get repreimanded.
Its a very sad thing that when ComfortDelgro raises fees, the ones that suffers the most are actually the ones driving everyday. All this in the name of profits…
Its not as if Singapore has a huge proportion of rich middle class people that can afford to take taxis everyday at World Class Rates… nor is it true that tourists alone are enough to sustain the large fleet operating in our streets.
In the past, back in the early days of Singapore, unions were much more powerful and the average worker’s can voice their concerns out to the corporations…now we (singaporeans) can only cry foul in silence…
PS: can i recommend this post to singaporedaily.wordpress.com?
abao: Now we can only have the say when we stand for elections. lol
[...] ERPains, Trains & Automobiles Maestoso Amore: People should think before writing an email. [...]
Sigh…like xizor2000, will not boycott but cut down. Sometimes, its not that my friends and i dont want to make a complain about them, just that we are afraid they might lose the job if they already have too many complains. And it not only affect the taxi driver but their family as well.
Last friday, i was with my sister who is pregnant and we are waiting next the in line for a taxi in the taxi stand. Sadly twice, the taxi simply stop for someone else before the taxi stand when the taxi stand is within visibility of the taxi driver. (There are others waiting in the taxi stand too) We did took down the number plate of the taxi but eventually we didnt call or email to make any complains.
P.S. Just for laugh, shortly after we finally got in a taxi, we heard the radio news boardcast something on crack down on errant taxidriver. Hmmm…like this crackdown not working leh~
They always have excuses for doing that. e.g. Advanced booking, dinner, some urgent personal matters (bung sai, bung lio, bung pui), changing shift etc.
But when you have been in a queue for like 30 mins… and you have seen a tad too many cabs just drive past without picking up people in a queue visible to anyone except the blind, your patience tends to run short after that. (In other words, I tend to believe there are more errant drivers than the ones whose explanation to what they are doing are genuine.)
ByPassing:
I’m sorry to hear about such an incident.
Honestly though, just complain about the taxi driver. They will first give them a warning and investigate on the complaint and then reply you about what they’d found out. So you don’t really have to worry about them getting sacked.