Future as a Taxi Driver, Especially like us below 45s.
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Hi brothers and Sis taxi drivers, anyone concern about their future maybe 10 years later or 20 years later. Who going to drive taxi for the remaining years till they retire?
Was a real estate salesperson and networker, and now 1 more profession which is a taxi driver which i like alot.
Being a taxi driver able to continue my passion in my other 2 professions.
Anyone has Kang Tao to share ?
Beside being a taxi driver, what other kang taos and side lines we should consider to give ourselves an alternative. Everyone knows as age grows, performance deteoriates.
Hope to hear more Kangtaos and sharing.
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Sorry u post in dead forum.correct one 1802
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what u mean 1802? where
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Where are the cabs when you need them?
One reason for shortage during peak hours: cabbies who go gambling
Some cabbies could have gone gambling
It's Friday evening, and it has just started to drizzle. You try to book a taxi, but find there are none available. It is frustrating but not really surprising - it is a known fact that demand for cabs skyrockets when it rains, and on weekend nights, including Fridays.
However, besides demand spikes, there is a lesser-known contributor to the dearth of cabs when you need one: gambling cabbies.
Industry observers estimate that 5 per cent to 10 per cent of taxi drivers are habitual gamblers.Checks at carparks of the two integrated resorts reveal a sizeable number of parked cabs - often during peak demand hours for them .
On horse-racing days - Fridays and weekends - carparks at satellite betting centres are also filled with taxis.
There are 10 such centres, and the most popular one is in Bukit Merah. A recent check revealed more than 50 cabs were parked there between 6pm and 7pm on a Friday.
Mr Neo Nam Heng, chairman of the Prime group of companies, including Prime Taxi, said: "This is the worst problem of taxi drivers. And there's no rule to stop them."
Prime Taxi general manager Eric Ang said: "Gamblers do not only miss rental payments, they are not meeting service requirements too.
"Their mentality is strange - instead of making money during the peak period, they'd rather gamble. Some of them will say, 'If I win, I will win more than the rental.' "
Premier Taxi managing director Lim Chong Boo said: "It is not a new problem, and it has worried us a lot all this while."
Trans-Cab general manager Jasmine Tan said gambling is one of the top causes of drivers missing rental payments, "but so are drinking and womanising". "We try to help them by giving them a repayment scheme. But if they don't follow it, we terminate their contract."
A ComfortDelGro spokesman said gambling is not a major problem, but that it is keeping a close watch on the situation.
The phenomenon is no comfort to commuters, who complain that it is often hard to find a cab even though Singapore has the highest taxi population per head among developed cities. There are 5.2 cabs per 1,000 residents, compared with 3.3 in London, 2.6 in Hong Kong and 1.5 in New York.
The situation is such that commuters are now choosing parallel taxi services offered by apps firms such as Uber and GrabTaxi - even when the cost of a ride is often much higher than that of a conventional cab.
Human resource consultant Alex Yew, 43, who once saw close to 100 cabs in a carpark near a Singapore Turf Club betting centre, said: "That was just one carpark - there are three carparks in the vicinity. If you multiply that by the number of betting centres around the island, it is a significant number of cabs. So, I can understand why people feel that it's difficult to get a taxi during peak hours."
The Straits Times spoke to a couple of cabbies at the Resorts World Sentosa carpark last week. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of them, a 40-something SilverCab driver, said: "It's my first time here. I've been to Las Vegas, Macau and Perth, but I'd not been here."
Asked why he was visiting a casino when it was peak period for fares, he replied: "I'm only driving part-time. I work in a logistics firm, I work 15 days, I get 15 days off.
"So I thought I'd drive a cab when I'm off. When I'm not driving, I'm with my family. We've a three- year-old, so I can't come here when I'm with them."
Another cabby, with leading operator Comfort, denied that he was there to gamble. "I am here to meet friends for dinner," the 50-something said as he was getting back into his taxi in the VIP section of the carpark just before 6pm.
"I was in the area so I thought I'd call them to meet up for dinner."
Extracted from http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/where-are-the-cabs-when-you-need-them .
Tried to post some comments on their website but all comments were immediately filtered off by their editor.
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Taxi Drivers are self-employed peole who do not receive CPFs, bonuses and have no benefits like holidays and sick leaves. Many are liable for 7 days of rentals and work at least 12 hours per day unlike most Singaporeans who only work 8 to 8.8 hours per day.
By the time it reaches 6pm and 7pm, most single-shifted taxi drivers already worked at least 12 hours since they started off 5-6am to meet the demands of those that need to go to work in the morning. Many use their own prerogatives to determine when to take a break and have some fun. Like ordinary Singaporeans, many perfer to take breaks during weekends with some choosing Friday nights, some Saturdays and some Sundays especially given the facts that demands for taxis is lowest on Saturdays and Sundays.
The demand for public transports is always the highest during weak hours and this cannot be avoided as evident by the fact that buses are jam-packed with people during these periods of time.
We also cannot increase the number of taxis as demands during off-peak hours are not that high to justify them.
300 taxis parked at Turf Club is actually nothing if you consider the fact that there a total are 28672 taxis in Singapore. This is actually just around 1% of the total number of taxis.
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One person who was approved by biased The Straits Time to commend said "The cab business model is not ideal".
I like to say the Singapore Taxi model is just about the best model being priced at just about the most competitive rates by developed countries standards. The fare is about the same as those in South Korea and HK but is just 1/3 those of Tokyo, London and Sydney and 1/2 of those of New York City and LA. This is despite the fact that cost of car is the highest and there is an additional charge of COE.
We obviously would not want to also drop to third world countries rates like those of Indian cities and Hanoi.
Also some organization in Singapore is already teaming up with MIT people to eliminate Singaporean 50,000 taxi drivers with driverless cars. This is despite 12 accidents by 23 cars during test drives on much less congested roads in USA. Can you imagine at least 13712 accidents by 28672 taxis in less than 1-3 years period on Singapore roads. And all the tests were done travelling at not more than 25 miles (40km) per hour on less congested roads.
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We should be smarter than MIT people and not implement their unreliable systems and become their guinea pigs. We should wait until the Americans themselves are comfortable implmenting their own technology on their own roads countrywide and citywide before we risk our own people's lives and sacrafice our own people's jobs. Remember all tests were conducts at not more than 40 km/hour on less congested roads.
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