Taxi Driver Online

Leap year cock-up sparks slow news day

By Fabian Koh and Rennie Whang

SINGAPORE - There were around 100 taxis congregated in one small area, and yet people who needed a ride would not for the life of them be able to get one.

The dozens of cabs were from Premier Taxis and were at the headquarters in Chang Charn Road in Bukit Merah for a taxi meter adjustment on Wednesday.

The meters had to be adjusted because they did not take into account the leap year. They displayed Wednesday's date as March 1, instead of the quadrennial Feb 29, on all receipts.

Mr Vincent Nyeo, 38, a sales executive, was delivering some documents to a company in the area at 1pm, when he found himself in the middle of the jam.

"I was heading to OC Building and it took me 15 minutes just to get onto that small road," said a frustrated Mr Nyeo.

He added that vehicles from the surrounding factories were also stuck in their compounds.

Taxis were lining up along Hoy Fatt Road, which is about 260m from the Premier Taxis headquarters, to turn into Chang Charn Road, and cars were going around them by moving onto the oncoming lane.

"It was really very dangerous," said Mr Nyeo.

He added that there was no one directing traffic and the Premier Taxis staff standing around told him he had no choice but to wait.

At 1.30pm, Mr Nyeo called the Land Transport Authority (LTA), who said they would send down traffic enforcement officers.

The New Paper visited the location at 3.30pm yesterday and saw about a hundred taxis snaking around Chang Charn Road and adjacent Jalan Rumah Tinggi.

LTA enforcement officers and Premier Taxis staff were directing traffic from Chang Charn Road up Jalan Rumah Tinggi into a multi-storey carpark.


Taxis lining up to get into a Jalan Rumah HDC carpark, before going to the Premier Taxis' service centre.

In the carpark, the taxis lined up bumper to bumper to the third-storey deck before winding their way down, out of the carpark, and to the Premier Taxis service centre.

Drivers smoked, read newspapers and got out of their vehicles to chat with each other while waiting. About an hour later, traffic was diverted away from the Hoy Fatt Road entrance, to the Jalan Rumah Tinggi entrance, where new taxis joined the queue.

One of the taxi drivers trapped in the queue was MrSunny Soh, 48, who has been driving his taxi for three years.

He said he received a text message from the company at noon, telling him to proceed for a "compulsory taxi meter adjustment".

"The last time there was a meter alteration was when they increased the fares, and back then, they didn't compensate our losses for the time spent waiting," said Mr Soh.

Another taxi driver who gave his name as Mr Syed, 60, said he first noticed the problem at 7.30am.

"I picked up some passengers and when they alighted, they realised the date on the receipt was wrong," he said.

At 10am, he received the same text message from the company.

An irate Mr Syed explained that the rental for the taxi was not covered, even during that period of waiting.

"I hope the company can compensate us for the business we lost," he said.

Mr Edwin Kiang, 55, who has been driving a taxi for five years, was unhappy that they were called in at that time.

"This hour (in the afternoon), we usually have brisk business.

"I was at the airport when I received the message and had to forgo potential passengers," he said.

According to a taxi driver who wanted to be known only as Mr C.K, 50, he waited almost two hours just for an alteration which took less than a minute.

He said: "That's what you get when you call back 2,000 taxis at one go."

OTHERS AFFECTED

The effects of the queue even extended to drivers who were not queueing.


Cabby Anthony Loo got a parking summons after he parked his taxi outside the compound and went in to settle some other matters.

Mr Anthony Loo, 49, who has been driving for 15 years,had done his meter alteration earlier and was returning to settle other issues.

As there was no place within the compound, he parked his taxi outside and was astonished to see a traffic summons on his taxi windshield when he returned to the vehicle.

Over at the other end of Jalan Rumah Tinggi, traffic was piling up too.

Mr Liew Ser Wan, 64, a driver of SBS Transit bus service 63, was honking away as he was unable to drop his passengers off at the bus stop, with a wall of taxis in his way.

He said: "I've been driving this route for five years. Every time I reach this roundabout, it would only take me five minutes, in and out. Today, it took me almost 15minutes."

Manager Daniel Ng, 30, a resident in the estate, was heading home from work when he got stuck in the congestion.

He blared his horn as it was the only way he could get past all the taxis which he was told were heading to the service centre due to a maintenance system failure.

"If it's a maintenance system failure, then it's beyond their control," said an irritated Mr Ng, "but it's ridiculous that there's no one directing traffic at all."

Afternoon shift cabbies who wanted to escape the long lines at Chang Charn also had little reprieve when they arrived at alternative service centre, K.B. Taxi Meter Service in Toa Payoh, and found it closed after 5pm.

They had started their shifts at 4.30pm, which was when some found out about the meter problem.

A 58-year-old Premier taxi driver, who gave his name only as Mr Lim, 58, said he was informed only at the beginning of his shift, when he collected his car and was told to visit K.B. Taxi Meter Service.

"By the time I cleaned the vehicle and rushed over, it was already too late," he said.

Premier Taxis is Singapore's fourth largest taxi company, with a fleet of 2,100 taxis.

Staff members at the location were unwilling to comment and an e-mail to the company was unanswered at press time.

OTHER CAB FIRMS AFFECTED TOO

Premier cabbies weren't the only casualties on Wednesday.

A manager at taxi service centre, K.B. Taxi Meter Service in Toa Payoh, who gave his name only as Mr Lim, 60, said he had been adjusting equipment for both Premier and Prime cabs on Wednesday.

His shop was open from 7.30am that day. Customers came in right from the start, he said.

A Prime taxi driver who gave his name only as Joe, 55, said he was told about necessary meter changes through his taxi radio only at about 1pm on Wednesday.

He said he had been driving since 6.30am and had unwittingly issued five receipts before he was told.

Calls to Prime Taxi's operations yesterday were directed to one Mr Woo, who failed to answer his telephone from 5.30pm till press time.

A call to Smart Cab, which operates about 2,440 taxis here, revealed that they had been sending out about five to 10 drivers that morning, toprovide drivers with help in reprogramming their meters.

But both ComfortDelGro and SMRT Taxis said that they experienced no such problems with their meters on Wednesday.

Source: AsiaOne Motoring

First of all why had they not anticipated this ? Secondly why bring all the cars off the road surely some could have kept on working perhaps just manually writing the correct date onto the receipts until they were called in

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

They could not as they did not have a tub of tipex and a pen, and they had to shown how to use the tipex