its been 4 mths since i last posted here. why? because i have been busy chionging otr on 4 cdgtaxis.. very good income! hit a few personal records which i dont think anyone will believe lol
but i'm starting to get very disgusted with CDG...
1. their booking system is very kelong..
-the first call i get is always from a very faraway or inaccessible place, if i refuse to take the call, the whole day i dont get any more calls... even if there are callers standing right in front of me yet the system still despatch taxi from another place...
-sometimes it can be so cb, while already queueing to enter vivo giant taxi stand, i press stc, or pax already alight, the calls coming in are all at sentosa.. wtf?
-other times i press stc while en route to drop pax at a condo, then waited there for 10mins nothing, but see another cdgtaxi come into the condo display "on call"
-ever see many times empty taxi waiting under a tree in tuas for calls that never ever come but go to other TD that are faraway
-no compensation to td for cancel/no show, although i do realise the system will attempt to flash another call asap to try to make up for the cancelled call...
-and best part, fri/sat so many calls come in until my mdt hang.. all the time, then after reset = no more calls (because the system think i am ignoring their calls). but nvm, fri/sat i dont need cdg calls.. it is in fact more detrimental to take their calls on fri/sat
alot of times i believe cdg system is making us drivers run around like mad dogs, if they can just use the system in a fair manner, i think there wont be so many oncall taxi stuck in cbd, having to reject picking up pax after dropping off to fight in the jam to get to the faraway call location. ever wonder why booking king can get 7471 calls in a year? that's 20 calls a day/everyday... the system is indeed kelong!!
2. their attitude towards TD is very yaya
-today i finally receive my first warning and complaint from pax... a indian woman, ccb, the sight of her makes me boil. i had to stop by the side of the road because she was irritating the **** out of me. but i guess she will receive a taxi voucher from cdg and a letter saying i have been warned. so now she can continue her yaya attitude towards other TDs... poor us.
-feedback that TD provide is always ignored. driver hotline is a wayang hotline, nothing gets done from the call, i always have to find the solution for them. and if the solution goes against their regulations, i kena warning, wtf
-cdg doesnt care **** about TD welfare. u kena no show? your problem. ur veh breakdown? wait 3h for tow. u dont wear properly? we sack u. u speeding? we sack u. u kena complain? we sack u. we are the very ones who cdg base their success on, but yet, we are not being appreciated in the least sense. all the "good things" that are featured on the cabby magazine.. so wayang. so fake.
don't know who wrote this but now i can sort of relate to it:
"cdg is actually a training school, many TD heroes and heroines were born there, but after finding much dissatisfaction or self destruction themselves, they move on to other cab companies who give good cash rebate benefits.
So for this group, cdg become like their alumi primary school time, they will miss it, those memories of driving cdg, calls, system, MDT, advance..gives them something that they will cherish and never want to forget, especially those throwing keys moments."
too much to write for now, 4 months of pent up frustrations... i wonder how those TD can drive for cdg for 30-40yrs. they can be buddha
Flykite, here's what I have to say after driving about 6 years with CDG :
1. You need to understand how the job allocation for current bookings works.
2. Do not mixup random events with your favourite complaints - it gets confused.
3. You got one thing right but for the wrong reason : TDs get a lousy deal. It is the staff - not top management - that screw up everything.
To distribute jobs, your location is polled at regular intervals. Due to time lag and the slow response from the MDT, the jobs allocated are probably based on the situation about 10 or more seconds ago. Secondly, you need to bid for the job. Here, the faster finger wins. Most of the job offers are automated, so you cannot say that it is kelong. So, alot also depends on luck and your timing and strategy..
Officers try to do their jobs but often they are only protecting their ricebowl. They hate to entertain the customer (public and private) or handle their complains so the TD becomes the victim most of the time. TDs can only fight back properly when they have very solid evidence or defence. Otherwise, it is usually a losing case for them.
What you need to do is play your cards well, or find another company.
I can carry on at length but I stop here. You step back, take a long deep look and decide what you want to do.
If I have a difficult pax, the most I tolerate is about 20 mins or so. After that, I never see him/her again. But, if I have a difficult boss or colleague at work, I have to face him/ her everyday. That's more stressful.
There are more drivers than taxis available, so any company can afford to be yaya. It's a fact of life. Who needs who more. I don't drive for CDG, so I cannot comment on them.
When I sit behind the wheel of my taxi, I throw away all my pride and ego. If I have very nice pax, I treat it as a bonus. I accept the fact that people don't think highly of taxi drivers. So, I don't expect any nice treatment from them.
I was at a Starhub Shop a few weeks ago. They have a notice there that says that they have the right not to serve customers who are rude and abusive.
Unfortunately, we do not have that privilege nor protection as taxi drivers. Having said this, we do need to be alert against pax who are abusive to the point of being violent. How can I protect myself? I don't know as I have not come across such a situation yet, thankfully. Maybe I will stop the taxi and get out of the vehicle and fight him. I am a sitting duck if I remain in my seat.
-- Edited by Taxilim on Monday 14th of April 2014 11:28:37 PM
It is a job that you chose....you can walk away for now but you can never walk away forever. Whether it is CDG, Transcab, Premier, SMRT or any other company...you will DEFINITELY face the same set of problems...some even worse that you can imagine....
So, what you do...you adapt, you survive and you carry on.....no bed of roses but a box of chocolate...some pax are nice and you enjoy serving them...some pax are horrible but you can only tell yourself that at the end of the day, you take your money and hope never to see them again....Good luck and drive safe!!!
I can only say the current system adopted are still 'based' on less convincing older generation and less committed middle mgmt.
CDG is like that, the others are worse.
To change the era, the younger generation group need be persistent and convincing in your claims in order to wake them up.
Note: u are dealing with a bunch of take for granted staff who believed since majority drivers can accept, why are u so special. The majority drivers remains the older generation.
Use dro feedback efficiently and postively wirh no emo. U will win the game. Then again, it need a efficient and has power dro to handle your feedback.
If we based on a job that u chose just LL suck thumbs, we're just useless and selfish just hoping changes will take place. Well, thats why cdg knew it.
So what with that load of experiences, when facing taxi companies, u are just helpless as well.
