Cabbies—A Tale Of Two Cities

When I go travelling to foreign places, I prefer to take the cabs rather than other modes of transportation. Well, OK, perhaps the exceptions are when I was in London and Paris. In those two cities, the traffic jams were just too awful, and it's almost a sin to waste those precious hours getting stuck sitting in a cab in the traffic jams. In the end one will be forced to take the trains in these cities.

Both the cities of Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Singapore have the automated train systems too. And they're both very efficient means of transportation. But although the traffic jams in the streets are bad, I'd say they're still bearable. Well, at least those jams are not around the clock. Therefore, whenever I'm in KL or Singapore, I still prefer to take the cabs, and very rarely the trains.

I haven't been to Singapore for a long time until last week, and I have therefore forgotten quite a lot of things about that little country. Apart from running the half marathon, I also spent some time going sight-seeing, e.g. to the Singapore Zoo, Jurong Bird Park, and the many attractions in Sentosa Island. In most cases, I took the cab to move around. It's still the most convenient means of transportation since I had JJ and my mother-in-law with me. The queues and competition for seats in the trains can be very disagreeable to them.

It's a bit amusing that I took quite a while to get used to the cabs in Singapore. The first few times I got into the Singapore cabs, I automatically started negotiating the fares for the rides. It's a peculiar habit that was a direct result of taking the cabs in KL.

In KL all the cabs are installed with meters which are supposed to show the passengers the distance covered as well as the amount due. The cabbies are supposed to charge based on what's shown on those meters. I was given to understand that those meters are tamper-proof, and at any rate if the cabbies try to meddle with them, they can get into big trouble with the authority.

But the cabbies in KL hardly ever use those meters in their cabs. Most of the times, one will have to negotiate with the cabbies before even starting the journey. The fare would normally be much higher than what's supposed to be if the meters are used.

Some of the cabbies are kind enough to explain why they're doing that. One popular version is that during the peak hours, it takes a long time to get from one point to another in the city; and after dropping off their passengers, they will continue to get stuck in the traffic jam for a long time, thus burning fuel for nothing! Therefore, they need to charge more to cover for those idle moments in the jams. Of course it is also possible that they are able to pick another passenger, but they can't be sure of that.

In some cases, the cabbies will decline passengers heading for the traffic jam areas, unless the passengers are willing to pay double or triple the usual fares.

The taxi systems in KL and Singapore are apparently the same. Some very lucky people will get the exclusive right to the taxi licence. They typically get up to hundreds or thousands of taxi permits. They then rent those permits to individuals who wish to become cab drivers. After allowing for the rents to these lucky people, the cost of repairs and maintenance of the vehicles (usually borne by the cab drivers), the fuel and tyres etc, there is not much left for these cabbies to make ends meet. So the only way to survive is to cheat on the meters.

A typical cab driver in KL works about 10 to 12 hours per day; and many of them have to work everyday because the rent they're paying are based on daily rates regardless of whether the vehicles are working or not.

In Singapore, I was told that there're 8 companies granted the taxi licence. There are plenty of choices, and one can find a cab in almost any street of the city; and at any time of the day. And even if you can't find one on the street, a quick call to any of those 8 companies, and just a few minutes later a cab will come by. Because of the competition, as well as the regulation imposed by the Singapore Government, the cabs are also generally newer than their peers in KL. It is far from the monopoly situation we have in KL.

I must have taken the cab at least 10 times within those few days I was in Singapore, and not once did a cabbie try to do without the meter. There was also no need to negotiate about the destinations. You just get into the cab, tell the cabbie where you want to go to, and he'll start the meter and then the journey starts. When you reach your intended destination, you pay the amount that's shown on the meter.

Two big cities with apparently similar cab-licencing systems. I'm sure there are many good things I can say about Malaysia against Singapore, but I hate to admit that I prefer the Singapore cab system much more.