Taxis in Singapore and Other Cities

Well I don’t see dead people but I see many colourful taxis. I think it is safe to say that no other cities in the world have such an array of colourful taxis other than Singapore.

We have the old yellow top black body (Yellow-Top Taxi), yellow (CityCab), red (TransCab), light green (SMART Cab), light blue (from Comfort Taxi), dark blue (Prime Taxi), silver (Premier Taxis), copper (Prime Taxi) and white (SMRT Taxi & SMART Cab). Adding to the colourful arrays is when some of the taxis are painted with advertisements on their bodies.

Not only are they of different colours, they are also of different made. For examples, yellow CityCab taxis can be Nissan Cedric, Toyota Crown or Hyundai Sonata. They also come in different sizes, according to their made and the number of seats, from the usual 4-seater to 8-seater. It is estimated that Singapore has 23,000 taxis of 29 different types.

Once upon a time, you can easily identify a taxi by just the shape and colour of the vehicle. Now it is better to just look out for the taxi top lights. If there is one on top of an approaching vehicle then it is a taxi. Of course, if the light is blue then it means that taxi is vacant and available for hire. If it is red, it means it is not available for hire, which is the opposite of what it is in Tokyo. In Tokyo, red light means available, yellow light means not available and green light means available but the night time surcharge (20% on top of the metered fare from 10.00 pm to 5.00 am) is in operation.

Besides being colourful, I think the fare structure must also be one of the most complicated. There are simply too many different charges – peak hour charges, midnight charges, location charges, public holiday charges – and they varies according to the time and day of the week too.

I don’t want to comment on the various charges except the CBD (Central Business District) Surcharge and the Current Booking Fees (the charges when you call for an immediate taxi).

Trips originating from the Central Business District Area incur a CBD Surcharge of $3.00 from 5.00 pm to midnight on Mondays to Saturdays. I think to levy this on Saturdays is totally not justified.

During the weekday peak hours, which last from 7.00 am to 9.30 am and 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm Mondays to Fridays, one has to pay an additional 35% on top of the metered fare. Calling for a taxi during these peak hours costs $3.50 instead of the usual, non peak hour’s rate of $2.50. However the booking fee of $3.50 applies till 11.00 pm, and not 8.00 pm, on weekdays. This is something which I don’t understand and don’t think it is fair that the higher charge applies till 11.00 pm.

I remembered distinctively that calling for an immediate taxi in Honolulu was free of charge. In Hong Kong, there was even a 10% discount on the metered fare!

Taking taxis in Penang and Kuala Lumpur was a bit off-putting as you need to know whether the driver would use the meter, as required by law, or he didn’t intend to and charged you a higher fare.

I remembered an incident when I wanted to go to Klang from Kuala Lumpur. I didn’t know that certain taxis were only allowed to operate within certain locations. The taxi that I took was not allowed to drive to or into Klang. But the driver said nothing till he came across a traffic policeman. It was then that he was a bit worried and told me that the truth and that he could be fined. My immediate thoughts then were, one, I would not be responsible for the fine, and more importantly, I would not want to go to any police station to file any statement and delayed my journey as I was expected at Klang at a certain time. Eventually, the driver paid off the traffic policeman to let him go. I reached Klang without much delay and was half hearted as to whether to pay the unfortunate, though it was his own doing, driver something extra.

There were some drivers in Bangkok who also wanted not to charge according to the metered fare but they were generally less aggressive than their Malaysian counterparts. There were occasions when they took more passengers than what was legally allowed.

In Sydney and New York, there were slight language problems with those non-native cab drivers.

I think if Singapore allows people from China to drive taxis, tourists as well as locals will also have language problems. As it is now, I have witnessed several cases where bus drivers from China were not able to respond to queries in English.

The best taxi services I had experienced so far are in Tokyo and Osaka. The taxis are clean, very comfortable, fully automated doors, and operated by neat, professional looking and polite drivers who wear white gloves. Well I suppose one should expect such standards since it is not cheap to travel by taxi in these cities.

Flag-down charge is JPY710 (used to be JPY660) or SGD10.65, base on exchange rate of SGD1.50 to JPY100. But this is for the first 2 km. Compared to Singapore’s flag-down charge of $2.80 or $3.00, depending on which taxi you hailed, for the first 1 km. At SGD0.20 for every 385 metres, a 2 km ride will cost SGD3.40 to SGD3.60 just based on distance.

Every 288 metres will cause the meter to go up by JPY90 (SGD1.35) compared to Singapore’s SGD0.20 for every 385 metres for journey below 10 km and SGD0.20 for every 330 metres above 10 km.

Stalled traffic in Singapore will cost SGD0.20 for every 45 seconds, compared to Tokyo’s JPY90 for every 105 seconds of waiting time. That’s roughly SGD0.60 for every 45 seconds of waiting time in Tokyo.

In Singapore, the Midnight Surcharge, between the hours of 12 midnight till 5.59 am, is 50% of the metered fare. In Tokyo, it is 20% of the metered fare between the hours of 10.00 pm till 5.00 am (used to be 30% from 11.00 pm to 5.00 am).