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Why are the Taxi drivers so rude

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hiromice
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Post by hiromice » Wed, 19 Aug 2009 9:59 pm

I have not had any bad experience with any taxi driver yet.

They have clean cars, good service, never over charge me.

They like to ask me where I was from, but I think they are trying to be friendly, nothing personal.

Some of them do talk A LOT ( like they haven't talked in the last 10 days), I actually enjoy having conversations with them, you learn a lot about Singapore from them! :)

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Post by jpatokal » Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:52 am

terrymc wrote:Why ? my company fired me so what job should I go for now,taxi driver of course,no need high diploma or PHD,hehe.
...not that it hurts:

http://taxidiary.blogspot.com/

Can't help but think there's something badly wrong with this country when Stanford PhDs who write stuff like this end up driving cabs on the night shift...

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/jour ... 9/abstract
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Vaucluse
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Post by Vaucluse » Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:27 pm

Maybe because they are not capable of landing a job . . . you seem like the type of person who lives by the Entitlement principle.

[-( I have a degree, so someone owes me a living! [-(


Why not look at it the other way and say how wonderful a place Singapore is because people like cab drivers have a job, or waiters or accountants or masseurs or etc etc ad infintum.

Entitlement, entitlement, entitlement . . . you see it here in Malaysia every day with the Malays . . . pathetic.
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road.not.taken
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Post by road.not.taken » Fri, 21 Aug 2009 5:42 am

Vaucluse wrote:Maybe because they are not capable of landing a job . . . you seem like the type of person who lives by the Entitlement principle.

[-( I have a degree, so someone owes me a living! [-(


Why not look at it the other way and say how wonderful a place Singapore is because people like cab drivers have a job, or waiters or accountants or masseurs or etc etc ad infintum.

Entitlement, entitlement, entitlement . . . you see it here in Malaysia every day with the Malays . . . pathetic.
Speaking of entitlement, I just spent the last week driving around the Eastern US. Including of all places... Detroit! Couldn't help but think of my cyber-buddy who hung his hat on it's well-tailored outskirts at one time...

If it is one thing that is miring down and hindering the American spirit I love ~ it's the sense of entitlement that has left it's stain on my commrades since the the blush of affluenece that took hold in the post-war/1950s era.

An overblown sense of entitlement.


It's a damned dangerous thing.

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Vaucluse
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Post by Vaucluse » Fri, 21 Aug 2009 9:33 am

road.not.taken wrote:
Vaucluse wrote:Maybe because they are not capable of landing a job . . . you seem like the type of person who lives by the Entitlement principle.

[-( I have a degree, so someone owes me a living! [-(


Why not look at it the other way and say how wonderful a place Singapore is because people like cab drivers have a job, or waiters or accountants or masseurs or etc etc ad infintum.

Entitlement, entitlement, entitlement . . . you see it here in Malaysia every day with the Malays . . . pathetic.
Speaking of entitlement, I just spent the last week driving around the Eastern US. Including of all places... Detroit! Couldn't help but think of my cyber-buddy who hung his hat on it's well-tailored outskirts at one time...

If it is one thing that is miring down and hindering the American spirit I love ~ it's the sense of entitlement that has left it's stain on my commrades since the the blush of affluenece that took hold in the post-war/1950s era.

An overblown sense of entitlement.


It's a damned dangerous thing.
Well hello road.not.taken . . . nice to see you back!

What on earth made you drive around Detroit??? Did you go to my old stomping ground, Grosse Pointe? Did you visit my old Elementary School? Did you visit the baseball field where I hit a home run over left field off Lloyd MacEacheran's pitching??? :) Memories . . .

And this feeling of entitlement simply makes people less aggressive in pursuing what they wish to have . . . Catch-22.
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jpatokal
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Post by jpatokal » Fri, 21 Aug 2009 4:49 pm

Vaucluse wrote:Maybe because they are not capable of landing a job . . . you seem like the type of person who lives by the Entitlement principle.

[-( I have a degree, so someone owes me a living! [-(
I suggest you actually read the blog (from the beginning, where the background is explained) before spouting off. After 16 years at the
Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, he and most of his Singaporean colleagues were unceremoniously kicked out by the new management and -- as far as I can tell from reading between the lines, because he's wise enough not to say it -- found themselves blacklisted. Unable to find a better job and still needing to support his family, he turned to taxi driving and now pulls 15+ hour shifts to earn $20-30 a day. And you call him entitled? :o
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road.not.taken
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Post by road.not.taken » Fri, 21 Aug 2009 6:45 pm

Vaucluse wrote:Well hello road.not.taken . . . nice to see you back!

What on earth made you drive around Detroit??? Did you go to my old stomping ground, Grosse Pointe? Did you visit my old Elementary School? Did you visit the baseball field where I hit a home run over left field off Lloyd MacEacheran's pitching??? :) Memories . . .

And this feeling of entitlement simply makes people less aggressive in pursuing what they wish to have . . . Catch-22.
Oh, I was on a mini road trip. Me and the puppy. 2600 miles worth! I would have swung by and taken some photos of the old stomping ground if I had known Grosse Pointe held such memories.

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Post by Vaucluse » Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:11 pm

jpatokal wrote:
I suggest you actually read the blog
You may suggest many things, like that you'd like to be taken seriously in life despite dressing yourself up like an immature clown who is hanging on to his youth but can't get around the fact that he is a total pencil-dick.

Image . . . Go away boy, you bother me.
road.not.taken wrote:
Vaucluse wrote:Well hello road.not.taken . . . nice to see you back!

What on earth made you drive around Detroit??? Did you go to my old stomping ground, Grosse Pointe? Did you visit my old Elementary School? Did you visit the baseball field where I hit a home run over left field off Lloyd MacEacheran's pitching??? :) Memories . . .

And this feeling of entitlement simply makes people less aggressive in pursuing what they wish to have . . . Catch-22.
Oh, I was on a mini road trip. Me and the puppy. 2600 miles worth! I would have swung by and taken some photos of the old stomping ground if I had known Grosse Pointe held such memories.
Oh so many . . . remember that we moved there after being in Cyprus for six months due to being evacuated from Beirut . . . Grosse Pointe was Paradise . . . green lawns, kids playing on the street, no geek-Finns around, street-hockey . . . my introduction to 'Corduray' pants which my mother referred to as 'trousers' in front of my friends. much to my deep embarrassment.

Still doesn't explain the lengthy trip, though . . . secerts, eh?

Through the eyes of the innocent and rose-coloured hindsight . . . the best four+ years of my life! :)
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Post by road.not.taken » Sat, 22 Aug 2009 7:12 pm

Vaucluse wrote:Oh so many . . . remember that we moved there after being in Cyprus for six months due to being evacuated from Beirut . . . Grosse Pointe was Paradise . . . green lawns, kids playing on the street, no geek-Finns around, street-hockey . . . my introduction to 'Corduray' pants which my mother referred to as 'trousers' in front of my friends. much to my deep embarrassment.

Still doesn't explain the lengthy trip, though . . . secerts, eh?

Through the eyes of the innocent and rose-coloured hindsight . . . the best four+ years of my life! :)
I drove out to visit friends in Michigan. About 900 miles each way! It was either stay home with the pup (who hasn't had all his shots yet and is therefore limited in his socializing with other dogs) or put him in the car to sleep off his required 18+ hours of sleep a day. So I thought, what the heck? He did beautifully. So alas, no secrets... you can put your wild imagination to rest.

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Bafana
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Re: Why are the Taxi drivers so rude

Post by Bafana » Sun, 23 Aug 2009 6:43 am

Zeenit wrote:I had a driver that collected me at The Tanglin Club today and argues about where I lived. He then said its only HDB there.........which is not true. This went on for about 5 minutes he took the long way and overcharged me.

I have complained to Trans Cabs about his overcharge and attitude.
Have anyone had similar problems?
Understand where you are coming from and don't think you meant to sound elitist even if you do just a little (by accident of course). Have had many arguments with Taxi drivers on where I am going (no matter where that is) and it always ends with them taking a longer route. Maybe they are confused by the discussion or they are just getting back by the only means possible to them. I usually give them a tip and wish them a nice day after such occurrences - Really messes with their heads.

Lot's of taxi drivers in Singapore are well educated having fallen from grace in the 'real' would, are semi retired or work part time. I have seen quite a few guys I have sat in meetings with on government linked construction projects behind the wheel of a taxi after they failed to right the project or took the blame for their bosses.
Be Like Water

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Sun, 23 Aug 2009 1:11 pm

Tell you what, folks, what Baf says is soooo true. Taxi driving is sometimes the only face saving way some of the middle-to-middlehigher management get by after being retrenched (especially after the '97 & 2000 meltdowns. The are a lot of new one currently as well because of the latest mess and a lot of them don't understand that also the expat market is also taking a beating, considering any and all expats as condo/landed property dwellers. A fair number of them are also very new on the roads so tend to get just as confused as we do when trying to find an address. We need to give them a break. A lot had occupations senior to what we had but were a victim just like everybody else, they have no where else to go like we do.
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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Addadude
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Post by Addadude » Sun, 23 Aug 2009 2:09 pm

A good rule to follow in life: the ass that you kick on the way up may well be the ass that you have to kiss on the way back down...
"Both politicians and nappies need to be changed regularly, and for the same reasons."

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Vaucluse
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Post by Vaucluse » Mon, 24 Aug 2009 1:03 pm

road.not.taken wrote: I drove out to visit friends in Michigan. About 900 miles each way! It was either stay home with the pup (who hasn't had all his shots yet and is therefore limited in his socializing with other dogs) or put him in the car to sleep off his required 18+ hours of sleep a day. So I thought, what the heck? He did beautifully. So alas, no secrets... you can put your wild imagination to rest.
1800 miles with a puppy . . . car-sickness? The first time I took our newest addition to the vet he puked all over the place . . . still fishing out bits of carrot from between the seats . . . odd thing is that he doesn't eat carrots!

sms wrote:
A fair number of them are also very new on the roads so tend to get just as confused as we do when trying to find an address. We need to give them a break.
A very good point . . . same thing in Australia. Taxi driving is about the only way to potentially make some good money, at least it's not all declarable . . . a bit of empathy would not go astray.

Addadude wrote
A good rule to follow in life: the ass that you kick on the way up may well be the ass that you have to kiss on the way back down...
Very appropriate . . . I'd prefer not to be kicking any arse either way, and have luckily been spared that, by choice.

When you laugh, the world laughs with you, when you cry . . . you cry alone.
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dazzlebabe
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Post by dazzlebabe » Mon, 24 Aug 2009 1:12 pm

was it confucious who said "He who kicks ass gets shit on shoe"?
Just me

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sundaymorningstaple
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Post by sundaymorningstaple » Mon, 24 Aug 2009 1:18 pm

No, I think is was "He who kicks ass goes to Singapore hospital and pays $25K to extract foot and straighten toe!" :P
SOME PEOPLE TRY TO TURN BACK THEIR ODOMETERS. NOT ME. I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW WHY I LOOK THIS WAY. I'VE TRAVELED A LONG WAY, AND SOME OF THE ROADS WEREN'T PAVED. ~ Will Rogers

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