Tuesday 2 December 2014

Tales of a taxi 'Uncle'

From the surly to the genial, it is passengers who make or break your day. But the pressure sure piles up
By Toh Yong Chuan Manpower Correspondent, The Sunday Times, 30 Nov 2014

On my fourth day as a taxi driver, I drove for six hours at night with just one five-minute toilet break.

It was past midnight when I headed home and absent-mindedly got into the wrong lane at the junction of Bishan Road and Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1. The traffic lights turned green and I took off, almost hitting another taxi.

When I got home, my wife greeted me with a hug and said: "You have the taxi driver smell."

"It is the smell of hard work," I said. It was the odour of being cooped up for hours in stale air. I didn't mention my near accident.

I have always been fascinated by cabbies. As a manpower reporter, I have interviewed numerous drivers, yet there remained so much I did not know about them. Topmost on my mind as I embarked on a two-week stint as a cabby were these questions: How hard is it to be a cabby? And how much can a cabby earn?

So my SMRT cab, a Toyota Prius with the registration number SHC4123S, became my second home for 10 to 12 hours a day. I split a typical day into two, plying the roads from 6.30am to 11am, and from 5pm until I was too tired to go on.

Every morning I would head first to Serangoon North or Ang Mo Kio housing estate, near my home. There are always passengers going to work from Housing Board estates.

After that, there was no telling where I would end up.

I thought I knew Singapore well, but my stint as a cabby took me to places I never knew existed. I picked up passengers from obscure spots like a sprawling offshore marine base in Loyang, and Punggol Seventeenth Avenue in an area that somehow doesn't have Avenues One to Sixteen.

I discovered that Tampines housing estate is so huge it is sandwiched between Tampines Expressway and the Pan Island Expressway, and is accessible via no fewer than seven expressway entrances and exits. I found myself in Tampines almost every other day during my cab driving stint.

Lessons from passengers

On Day 1, my first passenger was a man in his 30s, dressed in a blue long-sleeved shirt and black trousers.

He got into my cab at 6.50am along Ang Mo Kio Avenue 9 and said: "Pandan Crescent, go by Upper Thomson, Lornie, Farrer, AYE."

Those were the only words he uttered and he kept his eyes locked on his smartphone for the rest of the journey. He did not notice that in my excitement at picking up my first fare, I had forgotten to start the meter until about seven minutes into the trip. His fare was $23.73 and I must have saved him about $2.

He gave me a hint of what was to come - that most passengers prefer to be left alone.

The rest of that day took me to Changi Airport, Bedok, Pickering Street, Alexandra Road, Amoy Street and Upper Bukit Timah Road in the morning. That evening, I went to Serangoon Road, Mount Vernon Road, Yishun, Woodlands, Sembawang Road, Tampines, Bedok, Bishan and Paya Lebar.

All my passengers were people who flagged me on the street. I was not confident enough to respond to radio bookings, which would have needed me to reach the pick-up point within five, seven or nine minutes of a call. So I ended up cruising empty most of that day, with the longest stretch of over an hour in Woodlands.

My best passenger was a woman in her early 40s who got into my cab along Alexandra Road. I chatted with her and eventually revealed that I was driving the cab for charity. She handed me $12 for her fare of $11.18 when she reached her Amoy Street office and said: "Keep the change."

The worst experience was after I picked up a woman at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital in the evening. She wanted to go to a condominium in Jalan Mata Ayer, off Sembawang Road, which I was unfamiliar with. She was from Myanmar, and I misunderstood her directions, given in halting English. When I took a wrong turn, she let fly with a rebuke in Myanmarese. The taxi meter showed $9.44 but I said she could pay just $8. That pacified her a little.

My first day ended at midnight when I pulled into my regular Caltex petrol station in Lorong Chuan to refuel and wash the cab. My usual car washer Zainal did not recognise me until I waved at him - twice. "Times are bad huh? You started driving taxi part-time?" he asked.

I was too tired to explain. I had driven 246km and taken 14 people on 13 trips. My takings, after deducting petrol cost, taxi rental and $4 for washing the cab, came to just $29.66 for 12 hours' work.

Thankfully, things got better over the following days. I kept to the same work routine except on weekends, when I drove from noon to midnight.

By the end of Day 2, I had fine-tuned my greetings to these:

"Good morning, Sir!"

"Good evening, Madam!"

"Heading to work, Sir?"

"Going shopping, Madam?"

"You're going to work early, Sir!"

"Long day at work, Madam?"

If the passenger did not reply or uttered only a monosyllabic answer, I took it as my cue to be quiet and to just drive.

Passengers travelling in groups tend to ignore the cabby, talking among themselves as if you are not there. So I couldn't help overhearing people complaining about the Government, and workers complaining about their bosses. A young couple having a tiff complained about each other all the way from Sembawang Shopping Centre to Toa Payoh Lorong 1. "I am breaking off with you," yelled the woman as she stormed off.

There were some passengers who, literally, made me feel sick.

Like the young woman I picked up in Jurong East who coughed and sneezed all the way to Choa Chu Kang. When it came time for her to pay, I hesitated when she handed me the money. After she left, I sprayed the cab generously with the Lysol disinfectant I kept in the cab's glove compartment.

Then there was the man who sounded like he was from China. Getting into my cab near Bugis Junction, he burped. And burped. And burped. It was obvious that he had just eaten "ma la huo guo", or spicy steamboat, for dinner.

An elderly man who got into my cab in Coleman Lane, at the Grand Park City Hall hotel, wanted me to reverse about two car lengths back into Coleman Street to avoid going round the block so he would save 30 cents.

In Chinatown, a man heading for South Bridge Road told me to take a "short cut" through Temple Street from New Bridge Road. I did, only to find traffic at a standstill along Temple Street - and that was when he paid up and jumped out, leaving me stuck for 15 minutes.

I have to say something about people who eat in taxis. While drivers cannot stop people from eating in their cabs, most dislike it because of the smell and the mess left behind. Thankfully I met only one passenger who ate on the go. The young mother insisted on feeding her toddler biscuits despite my asking her not to eat in the cab.

"The boy is hungry," she insisted.

They left such a mess that I had to spend 30 minutes and more than half their $8.30 fare to have the cab cleaned at a petrol station.

My most unpleasant ride of all was with a woman in her 50s who complained non-stop about my driving from Tagore Industrial Park to Yishun Avenue 3. Her beef was that I drove too slowly and braked too hard.

"You are a new driver and it is my bad luck getting into your cab," she ranted. "I was planning to buy 4D but I will not, because it is bad luck meeting you."

I just bit my tongue.

But my worst passengers were the ones I never met. They were the people who made taxi bookings, then failed to show up.

On a rainy Wednesday morning I was in Telok Blangah Way when I accepted a call booking for Delta Avenue, and headed there rightaway. It took five minutes and I passed more than five passengers trying to hail cabs in the rain. When I got to the pick-up point, the passenger was nowhere to be found.

It was one of three "no shows" I encountered during my stint. Taxi drivers are helpless when this happens.

Each day, however, I would meet at least one or two passengers who stood out by being pleasant, saying "please" or "thank you", or making conversation that helped to make a lonely job less monotonous.

I took three British Airways pilots from Mandarin Hotel in Orchard Road to the Esplanade, where they were going to have supper at Makansutra Gluttons Bay. When we got there, they invited me to join them. "C'mon, take a break," one of them said, and he meant it. I declined because I was just too tired.

A teacher and an architect who spoke with me long enough to learn I was a reporter on assignment and that all my earnings would go to charity paid me in $50 notes and told me to keep the change - which added up to $43.

A passenger I took from the Botanic Gardens to Battery Road sent SMRT an e-mail complimenting me, saying: "I feel that he really went the extra mile to provide a comfortable journey for all his customers and I am really impressed. Thank you, Uncle!"

It made my day.

As my days of being a cabby progressed, I found that my earnings were decent, if not very high.

The most I earned in a single day - after driving 12 hours and deducting what a cabby usually pays for taxi rental and fuel - was $141. It would mean a monthly income of more than $4,000 if every day was like that and I worked a full month. My typical daily takings were between $90 and $100, or about $3,000 a month, and even that would call for driving 10 to 12 hours a day, with no day off.

The median gross monthly income of Singaporeans and permanent residents in June this year, excluding employers' CPF contributions, was $3,276.

My stint was too short for me to befriend other cabbies at coffeeshops, but I managed to pick up some secrets of the trade.
- It's easy to get passengers in the morning when people are heading to work from HDB estates.
- To earn $3 more in the evening, go into the CBD and pick up passengers while the CBD surcharge applies from 5pm to midnight. Sorry, but people waiting just outside the CBD will have to just keep waiting. Even inside the CBD, cabs will be scarce just before the surcharge hours begin.
- Heartland towns like Woodlands and Sembawang offer slim pickings in the evenings, because residents hardly go out then. But hospitals everywhere are good places to find passengers, especially after evening visiting hours.
- Overall, demand for taxis far exceeds supply during the morning and evening peak hours, so a cabby who is disciplined about driving during these periods can earn a decent living.
There are downsides as well.

The long hours on the road affected my sleep, and most nights I slept barely six hours. By Day 3, I was resorting to taking two Panadols before hitting the road.

Backaches were a frequent bother, from sitting so long.

Cabbies need toilet breaks, and the most convenient stops are at petrol stations. I found that many do not have soap, and at a Geylang petrol station, the toilet has no door.

There are simply no convenient public toilets in the Orchard Road area for taxi drivers, but I discovered that the Ba'alwie Mosque off Dunearn Road lets cabbies use its toilet. I blessed the good people of the mosque when I needed to go desperately one night.

My cab-driving days ended on Day 11 of my stint. It wasn't a good day for me.

Early that morning the 16-year-old schoolboy in my cab was late for school and begged me to drive faster. I relented, stepped on the gas and ran a red light at 6.47am. Instantly, there were two camera flashes and I knew I had been caught by the traffic light camera. That meant $200 gone in less than a second - my earnings from about 18 hours of work!

But that wasn't why I stopped driving. The trouble had begun two days earlier, when I discovered I'd developed a haemorrhoid from nine days of sitting for hours. I learnt that haemorrhoids are a common ailment among cabbies, along with backaches and high blood pressure.

The pain had become unbearable, so I decided to end my cab-driving experiment three days earlier than planned.

A month later, the traffic summons arrived. I hoped the Traffic Police would be sympathetic, but my appeal drew a swift rejection and a chiding: "Make a conscious effort to comply with traffic rules and regulations which are made for your own safety and that of other road users."

Looking back, I still wonder why even passengers much older than me called me "Uncle". It seems that if you drive a taxi in Singapore, you're everyone's Uncle or Auntie.

I returned the cab to SMRT after clocking 2,739km, having earned $2,294.60 for charity and gaining a newfound respect for taxi drivers.





Eyeing a taxi licence? Read on
By Toh Yong Chuan, The Sunday Times, 30 Nov 2014

Only Singaporeans aged 30 and above can drive taxis here.

They have to be certified healthy by a doctor and have a chest X-ray taken.

There is no minimum educational qualification, but the Land Transport Authority (LTA) says cabbies must be able to speak and write basic English. It also screens applicants for criminal records before giving in-principle approval, subject to applicants passing a taxi driving course.

The course is conducted by the National Trades Union Congress-linked Singapore Taxi Academy, the only training school for cabbies. It can be completed in two weeks full-time, or over a month in evening classes. The fees are $335, excluding GST.

Half the classroom time - 30 hours in total - is devoted to teaching aspiring cabbies how to use the Mighty Minds street directory. An instructor chided me for using the Google map application in my iPad for class exercises. "Street directory is better, GPS is slow and some are not updated. Don't try to be too smart," he said.

Only a quarter of classroom time - 15 hours - is spent on customer service exercises such as practising how to help passengers in wheelchairs. Six hours are devoted to road safety.

After the classes, trainees have to pass a series of tests comprising multiple-choice questions, and show that they can handle wheelchairs properly.

Singapore has 28,000 taxis on the road; 10,000 of them are operated by one person, with no relief driver.

There are 99,400 people qualified to drive taxis.

Cabbies can drive until the age of 75. Those above 50 must clear regular health checks, more frequently as they get older: every two years for those aged 50 to 64, annually for those 64 to 72, and more frequently if the doctor recommends it for those 73 to 74.

Last year, LTA introduced taxi availability standards to boost service levels.

Taxi firms must ensure 80 per cent of their cabs clock at least 250km a day and that at least 80 per cent of their fleet is on the road during peak periods from 7am to 11am and 5pm to 11pm.

From Jan 1 next year, the minimum mark for both standards goes up to 85 per cent during weekdays.

It means long hours on the road for cabbies, especially for the 10,000 who have no relief drivers.





Thank you, Uncle

Readers responded to last Sunday's report by Toh Yong Chuan, saying his description of life as a cabby opened their eyes to what taxi drivers experience on the job




Cabby’s job saved brother, brought family together

I am touched that manpower correspondent Toh Yong Chuan was willing to do a stint as a taxi driver to understand what the job is like ("Tales of a taxi 'Uncle' "; last Sunday).

Many of my friends complain about taxi drivers, but the profession saved my brother's life and brought my family together.

My brother was on the brink of bankruptcy when he asked me whether he should become a taxi driver. I told him to give it a shot.

From that day on, I saw how he persevered. The hard work, miserable returns after deducting rental and other costs, and interactions with passengers changed him from a temperamental person into a patient man who is definitely better at managing his finances.

The job brought huge relief to our family, seeing how much he had changed.

Whenever I hop into a taxi, I always make it a point to smile at the driver and ask how he is, because I know how tough it is for him.

Farah Ain Niza (Ms)
ST Forum, 7 Dec 2014




A different side of the story

My father was a taxi driver for four decades before he passed away. My brothers are also making their living as cabbies. When we meet, they will always complain about how hard it can be on the road.

As reported by Mr Toh Yong Chuan, there are many different kinds of passengers, and cabbies have to put up with their nonsense at times - or risk being the subject of complaints to the taxi companies.

There have been so many reports putting taxi drivers in a bad light, but no one had highlighted their plight and the challenges they face - until last Sunday.

I am sure many taxi drivers out there are grateful to Mr Toh.

Choo Gek Cheok (Mrs)
ST Forum, 7 Dec 2014




Insightful and realistic account

Many of our taxi union members said they found last Sunday's article ("Tales of a taxi 'Uncle'") insightful and realistic.

As Mr Toh Yong Chuan found out, it does require hard work to make a living as a taxi driver.

Cabbies spend an average of 12 hours on the road each day. Adequate breaks are important in keeping them refreshed and safe.

The long hours they spend on the road, seated in the cab, often lead to chronic health issues.

We urge all cabbies to take good care of themselves, and we hope Mr Toh will recover swiftly from the ailments he picked up during his stint as a cabby.

There is definitely room for improvement with regard to the conditions under which taxi drivers operate.

We will continue to work towards enhancing these conditions, and we urge all stakeholders to join us in this effort.

If Mr Toh chooses to return for another stint in future, I hope he will be able to experience driving in an enhanced taxi, with better policies aligned to the needs of cabbies, and enjoy a more conducive driving experience.

Gerald Chan
President
National Taxi Association
ST Forum, 7 Dec 2014




Spurred to treat the cabby like a friend

I thank Mr Toh Yong Chuan for writing about his stint as a cabby ("Tales of a taxi 'Uncle' "; last Sunday). Now I know about the problems that these people face on a daily basis.

For the past couple of weeks, I worked as an intern at a small law firm here. The stint gave me insights into the life of a lawyer.

This experience got me wondering what it is like to work in other jobs. I have thought about shadowing a doctor, an average office worker, the chief executive of a well-known organisation and so on, but never did it occur to me to put myself in the shoes of a taxi driver.

I certainly cannot imagine sitting in a vehicle for hours on end.

Though I hardly take taxis, I will bear in mind what Mr Toh wrote, and treat the cabby like a friend, or at least how I would like to be treated, the next time I get into a cab.

Tan Kit Yung (Ms)
ST Forum, 7 Dec 2014




Find ways to reward good drivers

Mr Toh Yong Chuan offered an accurate depiction of the work of taxi drivers ("Tales of a taxi 'Uncle'"; last Sunday).

In the course of their work, taxi drivers experience challenges as well as joyful moments, and encounter different types of passengers - some nice, others nasty.

The more time they spend plying the roads, the better their chances of earning higher wages.

This means taxi drivers often have to forgo their meals, family time and rest, in order to earn more money. Some people have called for rent-free days to be offered to cabbies, especially those with good driving records, so they can have some time off.

Another way to recognise their hard work and good service is to contribute a small amount to their Central Provident Fund Ordinary Account.

After all, all taxi companies want their drivers to be healthy, safe and motivated.

Lim Lih Mei (Ms)
ST Forum, 7 Dec 2014




Thanks for changing perception of cabbies

Mr Toh Yong Chuan's series of articles, in which he puts himself in the shoes of workers in some of the most unwanted jobs, is extremely meaningful.

I was touched to read about what security guards have to go through in the course of their work ("Just smile, don't talk"; Nov 23), and my perception of taxi drivers changed after reading Mr Toh's article last Sunday ("Tales of a taxi 'Uncle'").

I know life is tough for taxi drivers, and those who complain about not being able to earn a decent living are the picky ones who have no qualms about ignoring roadside passengers, preferring to accept bookings for the extra money.

I thank Mr Toh for speaking up for those who are probably working too hard to have the energy to make a case for themselves, when they get criticised because of a few black sheep.

I have made a mental note to be more appreciative of taxi "uncles".

Annie Chang (Ms)
ST Forum, 7 Dec 2014





ON THE ROAD WITH ST REPORTER

In Part Two of a three-part series, Toh Yong Chuan steps into the shoes of a Singapore taxi driver.

Last week, he reported on his stint as a security guard.

To prepare to be a cabby, he signed up for a two-week taxi driving course conducted by the Singapore Taxi Academy, and cleared a series of written tests. Taxi operator SMRT agreed to let him have a four-month-old Toyota Prius taxi for a fortnight rent-free, with all his takings donated to The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund.

Next week, Yong Chuan will describe working with the elderly.


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