Someone posted a poll on Cosiety asking whether it is "fair for cabbies to circle n cause commuters to call n incur an increased fare of up to $4". Among the fourteen people (at last count) who voted, nine thought its not fair, finding it "underhand and irritating". That leaves me to conclude that not many people know how difficult it is to make a living as a taxi driver.

Taxi driving in our motherland is actually one of the worst jobs one can get. Taxi drivers have no base salary like salesmen have (and earn more from comissions), and their earnings depend solely on how many passengers they take, how long their journeys are, and perhaps how short they take to eat their lunch and pee. Look, it cost ~$90 to rent a taxi everyday The old 2-Litre Toyota Corona cost only ~$80 in rental, but because commuters find those too small to have comfortable legroom, they were eventually phased out and replaced with the bigger 3-Litre Toyota Crown. Of course, bigger = higher rental fees.

Taxis run on fuel, and it takes ~$30 worth of diesel to fill up the tank. With a total of ~$120 to cover, how many of those $4 rides do taxi drivers have to do? And then how many more of those $4 rides do taxi drivers have to do in order to earn money decent enough to pay electricity bills, buy rice, and send their kids to school?

Rental fees applies regardless whether the driver drives or is sick and decides to take a rest.

Commuters complain that there are not enough taxis, so the government released more licenses for taxi companies, resulting in a surge of taxi drivers. It is common sense that more taxis = more competition.

Thus, we can see that taxi driving is no easy job of simply sitting on leather seats in air-con. Taxi drivers have quite alot of burden to shoulder.

Having said all that, I am not saying that it is entirely fair for cabbies to take a detour to earn that extra bit of money. Like all other things on earth, it is that handful of black sheep that caused this steorotyping, partially thanks to us human beings who never remember the good things, but never forget the bad things. Most taxi drivers do try to get their passengers to their destinations using the shortest route possible. However there are times when drivers forget there is a shorter route to a particular destination, or they are unfamiliar of that particular area (Who can actually remember each and every single road and street in Singapore? Well some may say they can, but do bear in mind that many taxi drivers in Singapore are well past retirement.)

Lastly, I guess there may be a temptation somewhere to drive a slightly longer route to earn a cents more, something like peeping at your friend's answer scripts during examinations. Taxi drivers are also humans, but they are definitely not greedy when they want a few more cents from you. They just want to end their day earlier so that they can go home earlier to accompany their families or have a good rest.

Then again, the length of routes are quite subjective. What the passenger thinks is long may not be long to the driver.

Waiting for calls and taking detours all the time are indeed underhand. But one should learn to forgive and forget drivers who make an occassional mistake. When it comes to money, everyone wants to keep as much as possible of those to themselves. Who doesn't love money? Instead of complaining, I think people should think of others and try to understand and compromise each other. I wish to repeat that most drivers do not simply wait for calls or take detours all the times. Only some. (One can't just sit around the whole day waiting for calls. There aren't enough.)

To end off, I want to say that there are other options besides taxi. Not happy, don't take lor.