I REFER to the letter by Mr Raymund Koh, "Tax reliefs? But cabbies still choosy" (Feb 2).
While I empathise with his family on not being able to get a cab, I wish to say that his comments are rather unfair.
Not all taxi drivers are so choosy. While some drivers are "unethical", there are many others who do their best in this service industry. And they certainly deserve help from the Government.
In my conversations with some drivers, they too agree that in every business, there are bad hats. But there are just as many terrible customers. Some try to flag down cabs at odd or inconvenient spots, expecting taxis to stop as and when they are flagged.
Even with the Central Business District (CBD) surcharge in effect, there are many other taxis plying routes outside the CBD.
Cabbies need to survive too. If they are able to earn only enough to pay for rent and diesel, they might as well not work.
Like everyone else, they are working to earn a living. While there is still debate on removing some of the surcharges, which affect their income, why not just remove the Electronic Road Pricing charges for taxis? This way, it will be less burdensome on passengers and not affect the livelihood of taxi drivers.
I would like to make a recommendation to the Land Transport Authority to allow taxis to use bus lanes. This will make it easier for cabbies to pick up or drop off passengers.
Agnes Kwok (Ms)
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If you are willing to admit faults, you have one less fault to admit.
FYI,,, in UK ,,, all Taxi need not to pay CBD charge and Taxi can also use the Bus Lane as they consider Taxi is a Public Transport !! But our world class (in term of salay) govt said " Taxi is not a Public Transpot ,,,, BUT it become a Public Transport when WTO period ,,, so taxi driver got to attend special courses to make our PUBLIC TRANSPORT a world class one" hahaha,, what a jokes !!!
