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Singapore Taxi Club -> Receptions -> Interesting First Day of work as a Taxi Driver
Post Info TOPIC: Interesting First Day of work as a Taxi Driver
bon_ah


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Interesting First Day of work as a Taxi Driver
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Hi All,

Sharing my first day experience as a taxi driver ..

Shift start from 6-6pm .. but i needed some time to prep myself for this new line of work..

Before the shift starts, i tested the equipment. MDT - Checked, IU - checked, Cashless machine - checked.

So i started around 7.30 after driving my wife to the nearby MRT.

First Passenger

Drove down a road and saw a pregnant Indian lady flagging for me to stop.. ok 1st passenger ..

I stopped in front of her and she opened the door "Do you accept Nets?" "Yes we do" .. and she boarded.

Changi Airport T2 was her destination.

Along the way, i noticed that she kept fidgeting and was taking hard and deep breathe. I was like .. "Not so zhun lah" .. and heng really not so zhun .. she's just trying to make herself comfortable.. haha.

Made some small talk and found out that she's on the way to pick her mother up. And in return i told her it's my first day driving as a TD.

Reached T2 .. stopped the meter @ $18 while she handled me her ATM card .. But cashless machine hanged!! I panicked and she tried to help by passing me her EZlink card. I told her that the machine is jammed and cannot receive her payment .. she volunteered to look for an ATM machine .. but cannot find .. I told her that it's ok for me to forfeit the fare cos it's my fault also for not ensuring it's working (But i did x_x ) .. at the end she passed me her name & HP number .. she told me sms her my bank account number and she will TT me. I said my thanks to her.

First passenger and I have not gotten $ for the fare (Sigh).

(i have just received the transfer from her by the way :D)

Second Passenger

Queued @ T2 to pick passengers. 3 Sikhs carried luggage towards my cab. And i offered to carry it into the boot.

Boarded the cab and ask them where they are going. Silat Road Sikh Temple. Just landed and going to a temple .. must be a famous temple .. but i have not heard of it before to be honest.

I keyed in the location on google map on phone cos I have no idea where it is .. and so does google .. talk about it later.

Travelling on first lane on ECP because a lot of heavy vehicles on middle lane .. then suddenly the vehicle in front of me stamp on the brake .. i follow suit and the sudden braking nearly made the rear passengers fly forward .. i said sorry and cut into second lane .. in front was 4 vehicles accident pile up .. not very serious .. but still got substantial damage. Heng i was not involved.

Back to google map .. it showed me that i have to take the fort road exit and then go around the roundabout and then back to ECP ... i thought there must be a mistake .. so i didnt turn back .. and it's much worse.. need to make a U-turn back.. i said my sorries to the passengers and told them i will give them a discount. Damn you google map !!

Reached the temple. Fare was $20.90 .. and i noticed .. i didnt press Changi3 !!! x_x .. oh well treat it as first day jitters ... will learn from it.

I told him $20 is enough due to the wrong turn i made .. the passenger then pass me a 20USD .. haha ! I told him we only accept SGD or cards.. then they looked @ each other .. and said never mind .. just take it. Rate now is around 1.25 .. so it's S$25 for me. :D

Third Passenger

From Jalan Bukit Merah drove down to Alexandra Road to meet up a friend @ Komoco for chit chat .. while driving out from the premises .. someone knocked on the rear door .. my 3rd passenger .. (also Indian!) He wanted to go to South Circular Road .. I searched on map .. there's no south circular .. only circular and upper circular .. I asked him is it in Town area.. he said he not sure because he's here for a business trip. He called someone .. and gave me the exact address .. Upper Circular.

Took directions via Google Map again .. brought me to Carpenter Street and then asked me to turn left .. i was like Turn left? That's a carpark! I drove forward a bit .. then i realised .. damn .. only right turn. I told passenger sorry (again!) that I've made the wrong turn .. and if I continue .. it will be a big detour.. told him it's just a short walk to the next street. He said ok and alighted with $9.30 fare and a slightly unhappy look.

So for my first 3 passengers .. i said sorry 3 times and faced 3 different situations .. failed cashless machine.. passenger TT me the fare .. passenger no SGD .. pass me USD .. passenger gave me wrong road name .. and i took a wrong turn. The only similarities are that they are all non locals and all gave me a challenge i didnt expected.

The rest of the day are quite normal and I've made an earning of $80 after rental & fuel cost. I will just be testing water for a few days to see how best to earn a living.

I've taken 2 advance booking in the morning @ 7am and 8.25am tomorrow.

All the best to me !

Thanks for reading !



-- Edited by bon_ah on Monday 14th of April 2014 11:11:09 PM



-- Edited by bon_ah on Monday 14th of April 2014 11:17:15 PM

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smoothrider


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A memorable day
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Well done ! Most drivers can never forget their virgin drive.

For me, my memory susah, so after 8 years on, it has faded. Anyway, I only think about the nice people I meet.

Wish you all the best and have a good learning journey ahead.



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Smoothrider


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RE: Interesting First Day of work as a Taxi Driver
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bon_ah wrote:

I've taken 2 advance booking in the morning @ 7am and 8.25am tomorrow.

All the best to me !

Thanks for reading !



-- Edited by bon_ah on Monday 14th of April 2014 11:11:09 PM



-- Edited by bon_ah on Monday 14th of April 2014 11:17:15 PM

Huh took advance without knowing the traffic situation ? somemore 2 and 2nd day of driving taxi ? Good Luck biggrin



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Zhivago


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Was going to say that too, very risky and not worth it spending two hrs at least to do it .

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Taxilim


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Hey Bon ah, well done. On my virgin drive, my first pax was an Indian lady too.. I try not to use GPS. It can send you to hor lan and you will tend to rely on it too much. Normally, I will use Onemap to confirm the location if I am not sure e.g. Yishun street 22 and then make my way there using the major roads and expressways.

The difficulty when I first started was to find the shortest route from where I am to the expressways or major roads. I need to get the right orientation quickly. Sometimes I got to U turn. Other times, I got to take the small roads.

Up to now, my most difficult locations are still the HDB estates, like Woodlands Dr 64,72, CCK north 7 etc.



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bon_ah


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First booking was just near my neighborhood and second booking is near the firm booking destination



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taxiuncle


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first 3 days is always very sweet, its like you just met a new girl friend...

anxious, but sweet.



than honeymoon...full of energy



after awhile...



haha..maybe just me.





-- Edited by taxiuncle on Friday 18th of April 2014 01:47:10 PM

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bon_ah


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Taxilim wrote:

Hey Bon ah, well done. On my virgin drive, my first pax was an Indian lady too.. I try not to use GPS. It can send you to hor lan and you will tend to rely on it too much. Normally, I will use Onemap to confirm the location if I am not sure e.g. Yishun street 22 and then make my way there using the major roads and expressways.

The difficulty when I first started was to find the shortest route from where I am to the expressways or major roads. I need to get the right orientation quickly. Sometimes I got to U turn. Other times, I got to take the small roads.

Up to now, my most difficult locations are still the HDB estates, like Woodlands Dr 64,72, CCK north 7 etc.

Yah.. i tio hor land also .. but good thing about gps is that .. you just need to know the first or second confirm roads .. then it will auto reroute



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bon_ah


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taxiuncle wrote:

first 3 days is always very sweet, its like you just met a new girl friend...

anxious, but sweet.



than honeymoon...full of energy



after awhile...



haha..maybe just me.





-- Edited by taxiuncle on Friday 18th of April 2014 01:47:10 PM

Yah i understand .. already a bit tired already .. zzz



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joetanks


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Hi Bon Ah,

Taking advance jobs will help supplement your income....provided you have a strategy on how to do it and at minimum stress and risk to yourself. If failed twice, CDG will invite you for tea ....ha...ha.

By the way, I more or less depend very little on my Garmin GPS and use more Google map on my Cellphone. Still, you need to look carefully and sometimes there are inaccuracies there too....so, no GPS system is perfect and with experience, you can patch up the missing link and your mind will be the perfect GPS (combining machine and human knowledge) .....

Good luck and drive safe.

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Taxilim


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Some pax damn funny one. Like today, picked up an ang moh couple from Great World City. They tell me to go to 53 Grange Road. Who the fark can remember all the addresses? Why can't they just tell me to go to Spring Grove, which is where they live. I had to quickly check my phone GPS on the move as once I hit Hoot Kiam Rd, I have to decide whether to turn left or right to Grange rd on either side.



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Taxilim wrote:

Some pax damn funny one. Like today, picked up an ang moh couple from Great World City. They tell me to go to 53 Grange Road. Who the fark can remember all the addresses? Why can't they just tell me to go to Spring Grove, which is where they live. I had to quickly check my phone GPS on the move as once I hit Hoot Kiam Rd, I have to decide whether to turn left or right to Grange rd on either side.

Just ask "Which Condo"



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lglab


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my first ride was a month ago.. fetched someone near my house area..
She mentioned Elizabeth Hospital, I brought her to the wrong one as she wanted to go the one at TTS.

I told her, she can pay me whatever she feels like..

haiz...

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taxiuncle


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Taxilim wrote:

Some pax damn funny one. Like today, picked up an ang moh couple from Great World City. They tell me to go to 53 Grange Road. Who the fark can remember all the addresses? Why can't they just tell me to go to Spring Grove, which is where they live. I had to quickly check my phone GPS on the move as once I hit Hoot Kiam Rd, I have to decide whether to turn left or right to Grange rd on either side.

most FT like to tell me the block number of their HDB flat.

i just get to the street, they have to guide me to their block.biggrin



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Gerard Koo


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Hi all fellow taxi drivers

Hah!!! My first day as the taxi relief driver experience is almost similar. I remember also using Google map as my GPS tool...it did accurate bring me to the right location and sometimes long distance which I experience the passengers comment why the journey take so long and some have scolded me for making the detour and short change the money by maybe a few dollars well I just treat it as experience learnt. I also done 1 mistake maybe most of you guys know....to forget to turn on the meter until the passengers reach the destination then I realized it....haha... but the experience is somehow good....

Now I m using an actual GPS as my Google map one day got hanged at the middle of the journey but lucky mybiggrinown natural GPS did not fail me and got to the destination successfully. ..really heng!!! Ah...smile



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