Just to alert my fellow cabbies....******* will book a taxi, when you reach there, no show. You call, he doesnt kup your call, then when your "on call" sign goes off, he flag your cab. This happens at places where there are no taxis in sight and to "lure" us there.
I experience this once at Keppel Towers at Hoe Chiang Road. I saw the fatsoe standing at the taxi stand, i watched him, true enough, he flagged me the moment "on call"sign went off. I was suspicious at first and asked him if he didnt call a cab, he said, "not yet". I would not have been suspicious if he had said he was trying but couldnt get one. I then set this aside and gave him the benefit of doubt.
I fetched a kind lady yesterday and were discussing about taxi bookings and she brought this up. So it confirmed my suspicion. I swear I will not anyone get away with booking fee from now. If this happens again, I will drive away without picking up anyone unless there is a taxi queue and genuine pax.
I did consider to cal him but he was on the phone through the journey. PLUS he could set the phone on silent and i WONT hear his phone ring. Consider it lesson learnt lor.
anyway I don't take any calls in CBD area unless I'm very near to the location. Most of the time I'll just reject it.
Last night at 2am+, I got a call from Harbor Front Walk at GIANT side. Reached there within 5 mins & the was pax gone but he did not bother to cancel the job. Called him the first time, he reject it. He picked up the second time I he said he had cancelled the call.
I told him straight that he did not do that! He was dumb for the next 5 seconds & I hang up the phone. Bad thing about Trans is that I've to call back to the call centre & ask them to cancel the call. Our MDT can't do that even we press 'No Show'. Worse thing is that it's a nightmare to even get through the line...
To let you feel even more delighted, here's more information. In actually fact, SMRT's current bookings has the second largest volume, following closely behind CDG. SMRT also has a decent number of advance bookings. SMRT booking system is not bad too. Only thing I'm slightly uncomfortable with is SMRT's cashless device (not the sytem. it's good enough), which is not as direct as CDG's device (directly connected to the MDT), but of course better than us. haha.
One good point about SMRT is that currently only SMRT accept VISA payment.
In terms of housing areas, Transcab are really losing out in this area. Our Advance Booking is even worse, really F up in a sense that the MDT will prompt the advance to you ONLY when: 1. your taxi is currently not under hired (meaning no pax & MDT not in busy sign) 2. you are in that particular area/town from the source of booking (works similar to current booking but that's really S***** method)
oh my... brain dead. can't think further. end of story for now.
SMRT cashless machine is linked directly to the meter, not MDT. So ok la.
Actually bookings is no biggy. I am on the verge of giving up taking bookings. 2 out of 10 times kena fly kite by pax. I take up bookings when I am stuck in an private estate when I know hardly got people wait at road side e.g. bt timah area.
Advance bookings not necessary good unless its your first job of the shift. Otherwise, if you take up an advance job, you have to block off at least one hour before the job or is only half hour advance. For that one hour, you can make more than $8. So honestly, you are losing nothing much.
SMRT MDT is not as advanced as CDG in that the report does not provide a clear breakdown. CDG report will show your gross takings, ERP, etc but SMRT gross takings include ERP, so the gross is inflated. I have to manually track my cash card balance and check my credit card takings to calculate my real gross.