Taxi Hikes

The recent taxi hike sure has an impact on my daily expenditure. Nowadays, my average cab fare to and from work cost approximately $15, instead of $12. Yes, I do feel the pinch but I do not have much of a choice. I have been trying to avoid crowded places, especially the morning and evening peak hours in the MRT trains, after being infected by flu bugs countless of time. (You get all sorts of disgusting people coughing, sniffing and sometime drooling during the early train rides)

Most, almost all I would dare say, of the cab drivers that have ferried me sweared that their income has fallen drastically – this despite recent news articles that reported “more than 85% of cab drivers are now earning more due to the fare hike” and the lack of passengers was a normal “knee jerk” reaction that will cease after Chinese New Year. This made me wonder how true the reports were… either the newspapers’ survey methodology was wrong or the cab drivers ( and the taxi company) were lying. 85%.. hmmm… could it be possible that they only “interviewed” 10 taxi drivers and out of which 8 said they earned more? Who were these 85%? Favourite drivers of the cab companies or personal friends of the reporter?

Not only the passengers, the cab drivers themselves are cursing and swearing about the disappearance of passengers. But hey, they were the ones who were complaining about the rise in cost of petrol etc in the first place!! So finally they got what they wished for – price hike! Most of the drivers I spoke to felt that a better way was for the taxi companies to reduce rental rather than pass the rising cost to the passenger, which I totally agreed. But than again, I don’t think these companies will be so stupid to jeopardize their own revenue by doing so.

The question now is will the taxi companies decrease the fare? Only time will tell…