Pricier taxis

ComfortDelGro, Singapore's largest taxi operator with a fleet of 15,700 taxis, will adjust its taxi fares next week.

According to The Straits Times, the fare changes are these:

Basic fares: Flagdown fares will increase by 20 cents for most taxis, and by 70 cents for limousines. Meter fares will go up by two cents per fare band, over a slightly longer distance.

Peak period surcharge: The peak period will be lengthened in the morning from 6am to 9.30am, compared to 7am to 9.30am now. The evening peak hour surcharge will now also apply on Sundays and public holidays, and run from 6pm to midnight compared to 5pm to 8pm from Monday to Saturday at present. However, the surcharge will be reduced from 35 per cent to 25 per cent of the metered fare.

City surcharge: The $3 city surcharge from 5pm to midnight will apply on Sundays and public holidays as well.

Call booking fees: Current call booking fees will cost 20 cents less than now at all times, but those booking a taxi in advance will have to pay substantially more - $8 compared to the current $5.20.

With higher flagdown fares and meter fares, my taxi expenditures, which are incurred mostly during office hours when I head out for meetings and interviews, will climb. Already, it usually costs me almost S$20 to cab from office in the west to the city centre. I wonder how much my fare will be from next week on!

This fare adjustment pissed me off because customer service has not improved along with the last fare adjustment. Taxi booking call centre operators still sound half-dead. Too many taxi drivers still pick and choose their customers, rudely rejecting passengers who are not bound for the airport or who need to go into the not-quite-attractive far ends of the island. Too many empty taxis cruise around town during peak hours or rainy days, slyly waiting for a better-paying taxi booking to come in.

The quality of taxi drivers have not improved too. Some drive like they are operating a slow-moving scenic car ride, others race like Grand Prix stars.

A new addition to ComfortDelGro's crappy service comes in the form of its SMS taxi booking confirmation. In the past, when you call to make a taxi booking, you will be put on hold while a taxi is being secured. An automated message will then inform you of the taxi's number plate.

Today, you may be asked to hang up and wait for a confirmation by SMS.

On the few occasions I was made to wait for the SMS confirmation, I had only one successful booking. The SMS confirmations often took too long to come in, and I had to walk out in the rain to try my luck flagging a taxi off the road. Twice the SMS confirmation came after I've already boarded a flagged taxi and was five minutes into the ride – and one of the spurned taxi drivers called to scold me.

Anyway, what inspired me to write this post was this paragraph I saw in The Straits Times article:

In a statement released soon after ComfortDelGro issued its fare changes, the National Taxi Association (NTA), which represents taxi drivers here and currently has more than 11,000 members, urged the other five taxi operators - Trans-Cab, SMRT, Premier, Smart and Prime - to follow suit.

Hey! Isn't that price fixing?

In 2009, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) fined 16 coach operators and the Express Bus Agencies Association for fixing the price of coach tickets to Malaysia.

It seems to me that NTA is publicly urging the other taxi operators in Singapore to commit a crime!

But why do I have the feeling that CCS will not rap the knuckles of NTA?

I hope the other taxi companies will have the brains to poo-poo ComfortDelGro and maintain their current fares. That way, commuters will all switch to the cheaper options and forego ComfortDelGro.

Unfortunately, reality is a different story. With ComfortDelGro running the majority fleet of taxis in Singapore, ComfortDelGro shunners will have to wait forever to get a taxi.

Then you have someone like Cedric Foo, head of Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, who rubs salt in commuters' wounds by saying that the certificate of entitlement is too high for everyone to own a car now and public transport is still not comprehensive enough.

And he was quoted by the newspaper: “Commuters can then vote with their feet. If they feel the fares are too high, then they can take a cab with another company.”

Read between the lines, my friends. Foo was really telling us to suck it up. The deal is this - if you are too poor to own a car and to take taxis from next week on, you can either squeeze with the crowds on Singapore's inadequate bus and train services or walk to your desired destination.

Some people we have in the government. Sigh.