Saturday, May 12, 2007

Taxi Tantrum!...and lots of news.

I have a rant.

Yesterday I had to do a fair bit of running around, and no surprise; 5 taxi's I tried to hail have the "On Call" placard up (yellow taxis) and 3 wouldn't take me (blue taxi's with GREEN availale "TAXI" sign up). Worst part was, it was already 10.30pm at night; not even peak hour anymore. I eventually had to call one, and my call was picked up within seconds (clearly indicating an availability of taxis in the area - just waiting for someone to call, of course.)

Its just your ordinary Friday night at Cross Street.

Seriously, I really think the public of Singapore should do something about this. On one hand taxi drivers are complaining that business is no good, and that there are too many taxis on the road, but seriously! I say do away with the 'On Call' system, and let customers bid for taxis. Allow me to explain:

To book at taxi at an area where taxi drivers need to drive all the way out for (eg. Woodlands, at 2am), callers can say, "I'll pay three dollars extra", and taxi drivers can then accept the call with the message, and claim it.

Then even in situations where someone needs to go somewhere urgently; you can offer more money. That does away with taxis trying to rip all of us off!!!

How do I bring this up to Parliament? Lol!

That aside...its been a crazy week for me and its going to get worse. Don't miss me if I cant post over the next few days. ;)

This week:
1. I had meetings at Mediacorp over a *hush hush* hosting job I will be doing for them in the very near future; stay tuned here to find out just what show, and further details.
2. I had the Simmons event to host on Thursday (pictures below).
3. I had ESPN Caltex Score Today Friday morning, which meant waking at 4am again. Then I had to rush over to a photoshoot for Courts; where we went on till late in the evening. I was exhausted beyond belief, but am so excited 'cause I will be in most of the Courts Mammoth Ads for the next seven weeks. Stay tuned for that right here!
4. Caltex Score Today again this morning, then had to meet up with my parents who are in town to go to church, and then dinner.

Next week:
1. Fitting at Mediacorp Monday
2. Tuesday: Press conference for the hosting job with Mediacorp (I'll put ALL the details here, not to worry! ;) ), then I've a casting, then an event that goes all the way to midnight.
3. Wednesday: Head to KL for a fitting with my designer, Jovian.
4. Thursday morning: Radio Interview with Fly.fm in the morning, then catching the first flight I can back to Singapore; head to St. James Power Station where I will be hosting this year's Elle Awards.
5. Friday morning - catch 7am flight back to KL, to attend a ball; wearing the dress Jovian so kindly made for me.

Jeez I almost got a cramp in my hand typing all that down. Lets hope we make it through the next week alive. Not dreading it at all - more excited than anything.

Oh and keep the comments coming, guys. Its nice to know that I have people reading my blog; do leave a comment, even if its just to say hi. :) Also, if you come across any pictures online or in mags that you dont see up here yet, do let me know of it, and I'll put the pic up and recognise that you sent it to me of course.

Take care, and I hope you're having a rockin' week just like me! :)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

perhaps renting a car will help? seems lots of people face this taxi problem but nothing's being done that's working

Anonymous said...

they should abolish the booking fee, or at least make sure the taxi drivers don't get to keep the booking fee. the sit and wait for on call, and dont care about people queuing with children in the rain. their behaviour is disgraceful and I have taken to writing down taxi numbers and complaining to the taxi companies. I've already been given coupons from the companies as apologies!!

Andrea Fonseka said...

Chocminttruffle: The whole point of taking cabs is to save money on buying a car, and save time on looking for parking lots. heh. That's why I do it anyway... renting a car is not the solution; traffic is as bad as it is right now.

anonymous: Yes, I've been doing that too. Writing down numbers that is - but really what we need is to really do something about the situation. Also, I feel really rotten when I complain though as alot of these drivers rely on their taxi job to make ends meet - what if my complaint gets them fired? Besides, what if they *really* had a booking to go to?

Anonymous said...

someone did a calculation on taxi fares in ST (i think?)..seems it's more ex to take taxis nowadays due to increased charges.kinda doubt it. u're right, parking lots are v hard to find!

Anonymous said...

Hey there..just saw you on dealornodeal! you looked great on screen and I must say...mighty tall in most of ur photos! and that's a good thing! all the best!

zzzul

Anonymous said...

Chatterbox has died on me, and I've tried to post maybe ten times now. I have to go, but I promised you a review of DOND. I guess I'll post the remainder here. All my posts get chopped up anyway. :)

Anonymous said...

least, contestant knowledge)...anything to make play a little less arbitrary. Like I said, however, it's a great show overall. Pang was good (as always), and the girls were even better! ;) I did notice that the producers, quite sensibly, placed the prettiest (and most FIDGETY) girl in the center. I believe she's the TEN. How entirely appropriate. :) You know, I just realized everything in the preceding three sentences...has been mentioned in one of your earlier blog entries. Here I was, congratulating myself on how clever I'd been! I guess I shouldn't be bringing up issues of contestant intelligence. :)

Chindiana said...

Things must have changed in Singapores! I Never had that prob with Singapore taxis. used to go very often for meetings. QUite professional. They were a godsend compared to the sneaky. greedy and lazy idiots in good old KL.

Anonymous said...

the taxi drivers' loss for not picking you up man!

how many guys would die to do that!

haha. looking good in the show! keep it up.


-joel

CatsTail ~*~ BootyFly said...

andrea...

just remember that public transportation in spore is always better than the ones in malaysia...

~meowz~

Uni said...

Have you been to Hong Kong? I read in the papers yesterday of a reporter saying Singapore's transport system can never compare to them for many years to come :S

Anonymous said...

Its really a pain in the ass to get a cab in CBD.. specially in rush hour! but still, it's still better compared to the experience of hailing a cab during rush hour in other cities.. andrea, with your commitments surely to increase, hope you will still have the time to update your blog regularly. Good luck to ya!