Long wait for passengers By Lediati Tan February 24, 2009 Print Ready Email Article
HE LEAVES Johor Baru before 6am every day and makes the hour-long journey to the Queen Street taxi terminal in Singapore. Click to see larger image SLOW BUSINESS: Malaysian cabbies taking shelter from the sun in the shade of a wall as they wait for passengers. TNP PICTURES: JONATHAN CHOO
Then it is an agonising wait of up to 10 hours before he picks up any passengers to make the trip home and end his day.
Once or twice a month, he returns to Malaysia without a single passenger.
Taxi driver Haji Mohamed, 60, told The New Paper that this has been his routine since the middle of last year. It is typical of what Malaysian taxi drivers plying between Singapore and Johor Baru face every day.
When The New Paper visited the taxi terminal on Thursday afternoon, there were at least 70 bright yellow Malaysian taxis waiting under the scorching afternoon sun.
Around the terminal, drivers could be seen taking shelter from the heat under the shade of trees and walls while waiting for their turn in the taxi queue.
With many commuters opting to take the bus to JB, which costs less than a quarter of the price of taking a cab, the recession has affected the Malaysian cabbies badly.
From Queen Street, it costs $10 per head to take a cab across the Causeway. But it costs only $2.40 if you catch the express coaches or $1.67 on SBS service 170 if you pay by ez-link.
There are also express coaches from Jurong East and Kranji, and SBS and SMRT services from other locations in Singapore. Click to see larger image
If you take a taxi for $10, you may have to wait till the driver gets three more passengers before you start. However, if you get a Malaysian taxi, you may be able to get the driver to drop you at your destination rather than at the terminal in JB.
Said Mr Mohamed: 'Two years ago, I could easily do two or three return trips, but now to do even one return trip is hard.'
It is easier to find passengers in JB, he said, because the exchange rate makes the RM10 ($4.20) they charge there much cheaper than the fare from here.
Most taxi drivers The New Paper spoke to believe that their business began to take a real tumble after the introduction of a second express coach service in 2004.
And they said the economic downturn slowed down the business even further.
Taxi driver Yahaya Saaid, 54, said: 'There are so many bus services that our customers take them instead.
'If there are no passengers, some drivers sleep overnight in the car and wait for the next day, others go back with empty cars.'
A 64-year-old Malaysian taxi driver who wanted to be known only as Mr Wu said in Mandarin: 'After subtracting my expenses from the RM40 for a trip from Malaysia, I'm left with just RM20 plus.'
There are around 400 taxis operating from the Queen Street terminal, half of them Malaysian. The other half are from Singapore.
Singapore's taxi drivers are slightly better off as they can also pick up passengers around Singapore.
But the Malaysian drivers can do little except wait.
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Agree Singapore taxi is slightly better. After midnite, look at taxi q along Cavenagh Holiday Inn when we on CTE, Clark Quay, airport... life is getting worse.
Ya... I salute remnants of the SARs! Hearsay at that time thousands taxi return back to coy. Lucky one can only earn $30-50 per 14 hours. Sifus always say that if everywhere got passenger, everyone can be a good taxi driver.
look at the bright side. time was even worst during the time of SARs. :)
those who can survive during the SARS period will be able to survive this downturn oso. compared to SARS period, this is sup-sup-suay. those days, can break even oso happy liao.
What recession ? What economic downturn ? Last night 27/2/09, everywhere also pick and go.Pax all over the streets. Our bros still can happily sip coffee together @ LTK for over one hour. Thus we CANNOT lower taxi fare to please the public.
All bros, when times are good,work hard,earn more and save. When times are bad,relax,make effort to keep fit and stay healthy. More important,spend time with your family and love ones.
Yeah..because of the rain,,I got many trips Taka to centrepoint..centrepoint to lucky plaza, lucky plaza to chatsworth road;... china embassy to Orchard mrt many many short trip under $10/- I quote Protaxi..Raise the Taxi flagdown fares to $10/-
Wuahahaha....bro Drive, when the MRT is more establish, trips less than 3km will be plenty, that's the reason why i said our fare cannot go down and our flag down need to be raise to at least $5.00.
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Yes man,bros Drive,Bluenuts,Protaxi,etc. flagdown fare needs to go up by at least a dollar or 2. Now not only short trips but also many trips like pick up from IRQ then pick another person at Battery Road to go destination.
Few days NATAS fair, saw so many thousands people swamped Singapore Expo to go pay for holidays.Financial crisis ? money no enough?? Long queue of paxs waiting patiently at expo taxi stand.Who cares a damn about the $2 location surcharge.All they want is to get into a cab.
Yeah..because of the rain,,I got many trips Taka to centrepoint..centrepoint to lucky plaza, lucky plaza to chatsworth road;... china embassy to Orchard mrt many many short trip under $10/- I quote Protaxi..Raise the Taxi flagdown fares to $10/-
wow... i hope u kena all this trips on weekdays after 5pm... every trip extra $3 cbdhttp://www.sparkimg.com/emoticons/smile.gif
