ON SUNDAY evening, I decided to take my two goddaughters from Myanmar shopping because of the Great Singapore Sale. As I always avoid driving to Orchard Road, we took the MRT.
We arrived at Takashimaya at 5pm and found the discounts indeed very attractive. After four hours of shopping, we were tired. We happily lugged several shopping bags and headed for the taxi stand. It was 9pm.
What followed was shocking. We were fifth in line in the taxi queue but it took 1-1/2 hours to board a cab.
There were at least 30 taxis with 'on call' signs. They picked up passengers from the mall's lobby (just opposite the taxi stand). There were two cabs which stopped at the taxi stand but the drivers activated the 'on call' sign and moved on before we could board them.
When we finally boarded one, the cabby told us that the system assigns the nearest cab to a passenger when a booking comes in. Those cabs which were about to pick up passengers at the taxi queue may have been redirected to the lobby.
Many of us in the queue - most of them tourists - were fuming.
We do not understand how this can happen. If one keeps redirecting cabs to pick up bookings, then who is going to pick up those in the queue at a taxi stand?
Rose Tan Hoon Hoon (Ms)
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
This is idea of this system is so simple and is successful in Taipei. I do not understand why LTA is not able to implement this simple system?
Many locals or residences have already started to avoid taking cab due to the complex fare and annoying waiting time at peak hour. These are the "main" customers for the cabby. Shouldn't cab companies put more effort to implement effective pricing system to win back these customers?