Some cabbies seeking bets, not fares
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Industry observers estimate 5 to 10 per cent of taxi drivers are habitual gamblers.Checks at carparks of the two integrated resorts reveal a sizeable number of parked cabs - often during peak demand hours for them. On horse-racing days - Fridays and weekends - carparks at satellite betting centres are also filled with taxis.There are 10 such centres here, and the most popular one is in Bukit Merah. A recent check revealed more than 50 parked cabs there between 6pm and 7pm on a Friday.Said Neo Nam Heng, chairman of the Prime group of companies, including Prime Taxi: "This is the worst problem of taxi drivers. And there's no rule to stop them."Prime Taxi general manager Eric Ang said: "Gamblers do not only miss rental payments, (but) they are not meeting service requirements too."Their mentality is strange - instead of making money during the peak period, they'd rather gamble. Some of them will say: 'If I win, I will win more than the rental.' "Premier Taxi managing director Lim Chong Boo said: "It is not a new problem, and it has worried us a lot all this while."Trans-Cab general manager Jasmine Tan said gambling is one of the top causes of drivers missing rental payments, "but so are drinking and womanising"."We try to help them by giving them a repayment scheme. But if they don't follow it, we terminate (their services)."A ComfortDelGro spokesman said gambling is not a major problem, but that it is keeping a close watch on the situation. The phenomenon is no comfort to commuters, who complain that it is often hard to find a cab even though Singapore has the highest taxi population per head among developed cities. There are 5.2 cabs per 1,000 residents here, compared with 3.3 in London, 2.6 in Hong Kong and 1.5 in New York.The situation is such that commuters are now choosing parallel taxi services on apps such as Uber and GrabTaxi - even when the cost of a ride is often much higher than that of a conventional cab.Human resource consultant Alex Yew, 43, once saw close to 100 cabs in a carpark where a Singapore Turf Club betting centre is located. He said: "That was just one carpark - there are three carparks in the vicinity. If you multiply that by the number of betting centres around the island, it is a significant number of cabs."So I can understand why people feel that's it's difficult to get a taxi during peak hours." The Straits Times talked to a couple of cabbies at the Resorts World Sentosa carpark earlier this month on the condition of anonymity. Said one of them, a 40-something SilverCab driver: "It's my first time here. I've been to Las Vegas, Macau and Perth, but I've not been here."Asked why he was visiting a casino when it was peak period for fares, he replied confidently: "I'm only driving part-time. I work in a logistics firm, I work 15 days, I get 15 days off."So I thought I'd drive a cab when I'm off. When I'm not driving, I'm with my family. We've a three-year-old, so I can't come here when I'm with them." Another cabby, with leading operator Comfort, denied that he was there to gamble."I am here to meet friends for dinner," the 50-something said as he was getting back into his taxi in the VIP section of the carpark just before 6pm."I was in the area, so I thought I'd call them to meet up for dinner"
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Who ar..who ar??
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Good for the rest of us lah. Less competition for pax.
Just don't understand gamblers. They think they can win at the casinos but if they win, how the casinos make so much money?
Just 3% advantage is enough to make $millions for the house. Proven strategy and yet so many gong kias go & donate money to them.... but it means more business for us TDs lah....huat ah!
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Human resource consultant Alex Yew, 43, once saw close to 100 cabs in a carpark where a Singapore Turf Club betting centre is located. He said: “That was just one carpark – there are three carparks in the vicinity. If you multiply that by the number of betting centres around the island, it is a significant number of cabs.”So I can understand why people feel that’s it’s difficult to get a taxi during peak hours.”
Amazing logic...A dog has 4 legs, therefore any animal I see with 4 legs must be a dog...
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Originally posted by bowah:
Who ar..who ar??
”Trans-Cab general manager Jasmine Tan said gambling is one of the top causes of drivers missing rental payments, “but so are drinking and womanising”.”We try to help them by giving them a repayment scheme.Must be our CT and Hammer spoil market lah...
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Aiyah want to gamble drink womanise it's personal thing ma
who are tis ppl to comment???
We paying rental leh not free hor
Knn everything wanna interfere
again come n disturb tds only
There are so many other issues in sg to focus leh ccb
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ya lor...chiak ba boh sai pang...
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Knn, this media will ai si many TDs, even those hardworking one.....
Why? Taxi drivers LJ sway ki? Cannot go casino? Only those so call professional can go?......
Knnbccb, nothing better to report.....
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Whoever wrote it seems to be targetting against taxi drivers to push for foreigners to enter the industry or driverless cars. Try commenting on MSN, Straits Times and asiaone website and you would find you could not unless you say something bad against the taxi industry. Even if you could submit it in, it would be deleted immediately.
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Our rice bowls are at stake (read this http://www.citylab.com/tech/2015/06/singapore-is-already-planning-for-a-future-of-driverless-taxis/396707/ ). Some organization in Singapore is trying to get rid of 50000 Singaporean taxi drivers'b job for foreigners that came up with this and for a small number of Singaporeans. They tested using 23 vehicles in USA and already had 11 accidents when travelling on less congested roads in USA ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car ).
This is despite us having some of the most competitive taxi fares by developed countries' standards: http://www.priceoftravel.com/555/world-taxi-prices-what-a-3-kilometer-ride-costs-in-72-big-cities/ .
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Try defending taxi drivers' interest on any of these three websites and you would find you would not be able to do so. Even if you could comment, it would be deleted off immediately:
1) http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/some-cabbies-seeking-bets-not-fares
2) http://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/other/gambling-cabbies-contribute-to-taxi-shortage-during-peak-hours/ar-AAcZ4ZE
3) http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/where-are-the-cabs-when-you-need-them
All my comments got deleted off immediate. Someone is out to sabotage us.
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Originally posted by Taxilim88:
”Trans-Cab general manager Jasmine Tan said gambling is one of the top causes of drivers missing rental payments, “but so are drinking and womanising”.”We try to help them by giving them a repayment scheme.Must be our CT and Hammer spoil market lah...
Lol spoil simi market? We no more red leh
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I wanted to post this comment on one of the websites but it got deleted off immediately. So I am posting it here:
You cannot expect 100% of taxis to be operating every single day 24 hours. Taxi drivers need to take turns to rest too. There are more than 28000 taxis in Singapore. Some drivers would be resting on Friday nights but very likely these who rest on Friday nights would be operating on Saturday and Sunday when other taxi drivers are resting. Like most other Singaporeans, many taxi drivers prefer to rest on weekends when demand for taxis would be the lowest. Most taxi drivers already work longer hours than most other Singaporeans driving 12 or more hours at least 6 days a week. During peak hours, public transportation like buses and MRTs are also fully packed; it cannot be helped. It is also not feasible to add more taxis as the demand for taxis would not be there during off-peak hours. By 6pm to 7pm, many single shited taxi drivers would have already driven at least 12 hours since they started off as early as 5am in the morning to cater to the needs of people that need to go to work. 300 taxis resting on a certain night is only just slightly more than 1% of the fleet. I seriously doubt there would be so many taxi drivers betting at other betting stations as many are very profit oriented and would choose to earn if they could. And let us not forget, taxi drivers work long hours, do not receive CPF, do not receive bonuses and do not have holidays and medical benefits. But back to the main issue, the main reason why people find it difficult to get taxis during peak hours in because the demand during that period of time is much greater than the supply of taxis and we cannot just increase the number of taxis to meet the demands during peak-hours because the demand during off-peak hours would not be there. Also we cannot force self-employed single-shifted taxi-drivers to drive between 12-16 hours a day especially with the understanding that most Singaporeans only work on the average 8.8 hours per day. So be patient and wait a little longer during peak hours. Many single-shifted taxi-drivers would rest in the afternoon just to take care of evening-peak hours customers. Also double-shifted taxi-drivers would be there too.
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Originally posted by hammerhammer8888:
Lol spoil simi market? We no more red leh
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They r just giving excuses,gambling problem is not exclusively belong to taxi drivers,, anybody can have this gambling addiction.
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Call prositutes consider womanising or not leh? Knn, they think TDs not human ar? we also hv our needs mah. Gambling is consider adult game and toys Drinking is consider adult cooling and stress relieve Womanising is consider normal in every man, if not, must be gay or eunuch, can alway consult Mr Palmer, my former Sengkang MP
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Women in Singapore do not like guys to call prostitutes especially those who are married. However, they forgot they also make love with their husbands at least a few times a month. So for those without wives, what do they do? I bet these ladies make more love with their husbands on the average than singles would call prostitutes.
Drinking is socializing with friends; hardly anyone would drink frequently alone.
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No lah, I drink alone, cos only got $30, scare later meet up with peoples like KTC, CT or Hammer or taxilim or f1driver..cannot afford to spend them drink, you know lah, all these guys, no free drink, no brother type.
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I only order 1 ang di cau and one beer, then slowly mix and drink, also order Zhe Char like sambal sotongs to go with it. Then watch those lau char bor serve and pour beer for me...after drinking, they look like fairy
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Originally posted by bowah:
No lah, I drink alone, cos only got $30, scare later meet up with peoples like KTC, CT or Hammer or taxilim or f1driver..cannot afford to spend them drink, you know lah, all these guys, no free drink, no brother type.
I see you one time beat you one time, lim smlj beer.....
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With rental so high, taxi drivers must slog 7 days a week to make ends meet. No work life and sex balance, especially night drivers. Day time sleep and lau char bor go work, night time drive teksi. How to have sex? So, many resort to womanizing lor.
Except people like bowah lah...drive day shift make $30, got night time for sex, still prefer bak bak and have his ang di cau than to blanjah his hardworking bros here.
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I only can afford pcc.
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Originally posted by bowah:
Call prositutes consider womanising or not leh? Knn, they think TDs not human ar? we also hv our needs mah.
Gambling is consider adult game and toys
Drinking is consider adult cooling and stress relieve
Womanising is consider normal in every man, if not, must be gay or eunuch, can alway consult Mr Palmer, my former Sengkang MP赌�练头脑
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Originally posted by Taxilim88:
With rental so high, taxi drivers must slog 7 days a week to make ends meet. No work life and sex balance, especially night drivers. Day time sleep and lau char bor go work, night time drive teksi. How to have sex? So, many resort to womanizing lor.
Except people like bowah lah...drive day shift make $30, got night time for sex, still prefer bak bak and have his ang di cau than to blanjah his hardworking bros here.
yah, married night shift drivers quite poor thing, lifestyle different from rest of family
when the night gets quiet, passing by lavender, very tempting to go for a rubba rubba
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Some like night shift more than day shift because more cooling and drive less hours can make more...Many close shop at 2am then sleep 2+am to 9am. See wife 9am to 5-6pm.