Cabbies in Singapore

As I recalled, Mediacorp TV in Singapore produced a new programme that is called "The Arena". Now this is a debate show that which only debaters from various secondary schools were chosen to participate in this competition. I remembered that the motion, "Singapore service standards still has a long way to go" was given to Nanyang Girl's High and United World's College (UWC) to battle it out in the arena. UWC, won the match. Their argument was it wasn't that Singapore service standards that is poor, but there is still a long way before Singapore service standards hit the highest mark and become world class.

I don't mean that Singapore service standards is not good, but who is the one greeting you when you are getting on the airplanes of Singapore Airlines? These are the air stewardesses. They do not just face you with a happy face just for the sake of doing it but they too, want tourists to have a good impression of Singapore and so that they can tell their family members or relatives that Singapore has good service standards. They will always meet your requirements and try their best to make you feel at home. But, there are some Singaporeans who somehow cannot deliver these services to their customers. I have heard of these before and even I have bore the brunt of some irresponsible taxi drivers. I do not mean that all of the cabbies fail to deliver these services, as I have encountered some nice cabbies, but some of their compatriots have instead, destroyed their goodwill.

Once my sister was just returning from the airport when she witnessed a cabbie screaming and shouting at a caucasian couple who have seemed like came to Singapore for their holiday. She hoped that the couple is one of those who have never heard of Singapore as a first world country and still believe us to be in the third, for she was quite sure this cabbie has ruined their trip.

On many occasions in which she tries to hail a cab between 10pm to 12mn along Orchard Road,she always fail. It is not that there were no cabs, it is just that cabbies refuse to stop. Comfort and other cab operators can choose to dispute this, but it is a fact, you can check with any Singaporean. One day, before a flight overseas,she was trying to get home from Orchard Road at 11+ at night. At least five cabs zoomed past her with their green lights on, but none came to a halt. It got her really irritated and wanting to prove her point, she immediately whipped out her digital camera, put it to video mode and started filming, the next cab that she hailed stopped immediately.

It also seems that cabbies in Singapore can do anything for tourists, even if it means stopping on the wrong side of the road. My sister personally witnessed this while dining at Food Republic at Wisma Atria. A cab stopped for a pair of tourists and her friend who was with her commented that if it was a Singaporean doing this, the cabbie would not care, which leads me to the incident which just took place.

Singapore cabbies nowadays like to put up signs of their preferred destinations and if there are no signs, it means that the cab is free to go anywhere. I was with my sister last night and we wanted to hail a cab. She happened to hail a cab without any signs and we thought that we had got into a right cab. We climbed into the cab and I closed the doors behind me. She told Mr Comfort Cabbie, SH7548Z where we wanted to go and our journey could have taken 20 minutes. When she said that he would have to wait, he said that he had no time to wait and we had to get off the cab. She was thinking if we said that we wanted to go to Changi Airport, would the driver have given us the same answer?If so, couldn't he have put up a sign earlier to at least let her know he was in a hurry, cos clearly, he was not. Should she hear another complaint from a cabbie that he has no business in Singapore (and trust me, they do that all the time), I think she am tempted to ask them if they reject customers cos I think that is likely to be the case. It is such an exasperating end to her otherwise happy day. Aargh... why are we always at the cabbie's mercy?