On Taxis, Or The Lack Thereof

The other night I was working late and it was about 930pm when I was done. As I cruised along the very long escalator to the ground floor, I resolved to take a taxi home. I wanted to get home quick so I could selfishly play with my nephew before his bedtime (I had missed out on nephew-time for a few nights already).

At the taxi stand there was of course a queue. Many taxis with red 'hired' or 'on call' signs zoomed by. Every 5 minutes or so, an available taxi would come around the bend and stop at the stand. I figured that wasn't so bad for a Thursday night, at least the demand was slowly being fed. I should be so lucky.

At the head of the queue, the good flow ended. Even the available taxis were 'changing shift' to venture only to their specific destinations. Many, like myself, were frustrated and some resorted to booking a taxi. I recalled then two experiences: one, working at Shaw Towers years ago, a colleague advised then, I should work till midnight because that's when the taxis come out. And two, a present colleague based in Hong Kong was in town for a meeting, and told other visiting colleagues from Europe that she had given up on flagging down a taxi in Singapore city in the evenings or when it rained.

Sigh.

A regular person's inability to flag a taxi off the streets is a serious matter. It makes ordinary Singaporeans angry, knowing they're at the mercy of a service provider. It makes us angrier that the only feasible solution seems to forking out money to solve the problem. We feel like we're being taken for a ride, by the drivers, the taxi companies and the council that comes up with senseless rules and policies. (Yeah $3 more for being picked up in the city. Aren't there enough passengers there already?) Anger leads to hate, Yoda said, and hate leads to the Dark Side.

This matter speaks of a greedy ill manifesting in monopolies. We're already seeing how crappy things can turn with cable TV. The powers that be think that they can solve/ have solved the problem of supposedly insufficient taxi numbers by introducing more players into the market, under the guidance of some transport council. Unfortunately, they do not understand the real problem, a very human ailment, greed.

Corporations want more profit --> rents out taxis at high cost --> taxi drivers need to make more $ --> taxi drivers wait for bookings in the city from which they make at least $5 more per ride --> taxis scoot around the city waiting for passengers to give in

Sigh. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that we're mostly at the mercy of others.

So solution time. Public fury I think is one way the rulesetters can be made to listen. This is however unlikely in sensible Singapore.

If someone could set up a taxi company that broke the rules and put the paying passenger first, it would send a strong signal to the other companies to 'wake up their ideas'. We need a game changer. Here's what I would do if I ran this company:
1. No dumb charges from city pickups. Only ERP.
2. Call to book at no charge. In fact, I'd give a 10% discount like they do in Hong Kong.
3. No rubbish peak hour charges. No extra charges for airport pickups.
4. Roadside pickups at regular cost but given point 2, who'd wait by the kerb?
5. Ambush queues with instant taxis. Why wait for the competition to show up? How about a fleet of taxis showing up on a schedule? That'll help manage one's overtime, yes?
6. Starting fares at $4. That's the only perceived disadvantage but soon passengers will realise the good deal they're getting and that'll build loyalty.
7. Reward loyalty.

There's surely lots more to figure out but this is where I'd start. Disruption - I learned that from the last place I worked.