Cabbies - the good, the bad and the scary

We are taking fewer cab rides since moving here. Save money! But more important, it saves me a lot of grief over waiting for cab..

I absolutely hate waiting for cabs at night outside office cos:

a) there are no empty cabs. Some cabbies told me cos the cabs were hiding somewhere waiting for a call to come in;

b) but calling a cab may also result in nothing. No enough cabs in Singapore! Yet some cabbies complained to me that they had little business. One cabbie offered that some old cabbies chose to hang around residential areas instead of town cos of language barriers; better to ferry aunties carrying the week's groceries;

c) there are empty cabs but they refuse to take me! Do I look like I'm a cabbie killer??

Now, I'm very particular about (c). A couple of times, I wrote down the licence number on my Pinky and reported the incidence to LTA. So far, one was not valid cos he put "busy"; another was only warned as it was his first offence.

Then, I met with this incident that REALLY got me. I was waving madly at this cab which whizzed by me. I jolted down his number; he must have seen me cos I was out on the road, not the pavement!

Being tired, I decided to call for a cab. And guess what? I got that idiotic driver who ignored me!!

I was going to wait for him to arrive, scold him and NOT take his cab. But after a while, he did not appear. When an empty cab came along, I hopped on. As I was calling to cancel my booking, I realised I used speed booking so he must have been waiting at the carpark instead of the pavement of the same building. And after that, I realised I should not have cancelled and should have just let him wait!

Man, I was pissed! But I forgot to lodge the complaint and my Pinky died. So I vent here :p

I wonder if people lodge such complaints as I do.. I mean, I often hear and read about complaints of the government but what of everyday service? Got a related thing to talk about - later..

Anyway, another cabbie story to share but it's a good one.

We were on the way to XY's place and were chatting with uncle cabbie. Somehow, we talked about songs or something and he said he composed a song about cabbies!! In fact, he had the lyrics with him and showed us. Then we got him to sing :p

Sung to the tune of 南屏晚钟:



And then some cabbies are downright scary. A few times, I found myself having to belt up in the middle of a ride. Once, this cabbie was kind of in a car chase with an idiot in a fancy car! That guy was an idiot cos he almost missed his expressway exit while competing with uncle cabbie, middle finger flashing and all! Come on, how many miles does the typical driver clock compared to a cabbie?!

But now, I prefer my favourite bus 106 to cab. Lucky, we are :)