haha, yesterday comfort delgro announced the overhaul of the taxi fares. actually i dun think it is an overhaul lah, cuz the system doesn't change much, it's just an increase of surcharges, metre fares, basically increase of everything, except for taxi rental fees temporarily. although it doesn't really affect me, but then i was still attracted by this news yesterday, cuz i was once a taxi commuter :)
actually i think the rise in the fares is justified, as diesel prices really rose a lot, along with petrol prices which really rose a lot in the past few months. this kind of oil price increase, basically singapore can't do much about it, since we are merely importers. i guess next yr's inflation rate would hit a new high, and the government would have to do something about it, even though inflation is a natural side-effect when the economy is doing well, and interference by the government might have undesirable effects.
although i have nv studied economics before, i still know that economy and prices should be left to market forces which would result in the fairest equilibrium. all these years, taxi prices are manipulated by the comfort delgro, and i dun see any sense in their system. cuz the taxis simply do not appear at the right time at the right places especially during peak hours and nite hours.
i think to better distribute taxis around the island, it's best to do without all the surcharges, and taxi drivers with their experience would go wherever there are more passengers. with the help of technology, i think taxi drivers can also be informed where there are too many taxis waiting for passengers. in this way, they would go to other better places, rather than waiting in an empty car and waste time. without the surcharges, i believe long queues of taxis at the airports and no taxis at the certain hours would gradually disappear.
i think taxi companies should be fined more drastically when people complain or what, so that there would be more incentives to better distribute their fleet of taxis. cuz i think currently they are rather passive about adjusting taxi fares, improving the services of taxi drivers... as they have a stable income from the daily 90 bucks taxi rental fee from each of its drivers.
enough have been said, i am still waiting for a complete overhaul of the taxi fare system. that can come with a higher flag down rate, eliminating all surcharges, and maybe dynamic taxi rental fees. well, i am not in the position to say much, since there are a lot of internal logistics and problems which we as the public dun know. but then, the fare system definitely needs to be changed, cuz people are still having trouble getting taxis when they need them most.
