If you followed the news here, you’d be forgiven in thinking that the cab services in Singapore are a huge mess. I mean, you get reports of drivers who drive like their adrenaline button is stuck on high, drivers who refuse to pick up passengers, drivers who heckle their passengers and so on. Just do a search like this one.
I don’t take cabs too often; perhaps just once or twice a week. Still, it’s funny, because my experiences taking cabs in Singapore have so far been all positive. Ok, many drivers don’t yak much, but that’s fine with me and in this part of the world, not chatting with the passenger isn’t considered impolite.
Two recent conversations I had while in a cab come to mind. On the first occasion last Tuesday when I had to visit Sungei Gedong camp for my biannual FFI check-up. This camp is, for those of us in the know, in one of the most ulu parts of Singapore. Fortunately, the ride was a pleasant one that made the 25 minute ride pleasant. The driver was a middle-aged Chinese gentleman, and we yakked about further education in Singapore. He has two children, both of whom are doing pretty well (his daughter has graduated in NTU and is in the banking sector, and his son also in NTU is doing an overseas student attachment in Europe).
The second occasion occurred late last week when Ling was working late in school so I headed home from work on my own. The cab driver yakked about the cab driving scene in Singapore, and shared about his experiences as a newbie driver 2 years ago. His gripe? Too many cab drivers in Singapore now, and competition’s really stiff. Last year on a good day he could take home between $3K to $4K, but these days he’s lucky to get the first figure.
And he likes Orchard Towers. He remarked candidly that the Ang Mohs who go there are there only because they are picking girls up for their, well, thing, and it’s quick trips in and out for him. And experienced drivers know where all the sweet spots are. They know what time schools, Universities and Polytechnic classes end, which are the RT camps in Singapore and even what time their training sessions end LOL.
I’ll say this much: I preferred the cabs and the cab drivers in Singapore to those in Thailand!
Haha.:) I have to hand it to the Bangkok drivers though. We were in one cab in 2004 for our short trip there, and there was this young, maybe 19 year old driver, who drove like a demon LOL.
Adriel’s opinion is that many of the cabbies are very male chauvinistic- they tend to give women a hard time (rudeness, brusque-ness, attitude probs, not listening to your instructions or directions properly etc etc); have found it to be so in my experience & also those of female friends; male friends seem to get it ok, even very polite encounters- when Adriel is with me or alone, the treatment is very good; if I am alone or with kids, 40% of the time only its good; if I am with one maid, they tend to get quite bristly, if I am with both my helpers, they can get downright surly in their manner towards us (taxi drivers have the nastiest things to say about foreign workers- there is alot of jealousy and angst against them). That’s one of the key reasons why I am learning to drive- I am utterly fed up with Singaporean taxi drivers (I have to cab several times daily and you never know what you get)… in general they are an issue laden lot, many who don’t have any qualms about taking it out on their customers….and at the risk of sounding biased here- most probs have been with Chinese speaking cab drivers
That’s an interesting perspective you’ve brought up Pam; never quite looked at it that way before. I should check with Ling what she thinks, though she rarely takes cabs.