Singapore has the world’s worst taxi drivers

[immanuel17]

This article is defaming our hardworking taxi drivers. Is this not a ground for declaring the writer a 'persona en grata'?

http://sbr.com.sg/transport-logistics/c ... xi-drivers

[the lynx]

This article is defaming our hardworking taxi drivers. Is this not a ground for declaring the writer a 'persona en grata'?

http://sbr.com.sg/transport-logistics/c ... xi-drivers

Ah Chris Reed at his best again. This is not the first time that his article got winded up here for discussion.

[zzm9980]

This article is defaming our hardworking taxi drivers. Is this not a ground for declaring the writer a 'persona en grata'?

http://sbr.com.sg/transport-logistics/c ... xi-drivers

So if someone doesn't agree with you he should be deported? Maybe one day government policies will continue the next logical level and just deport people below a certain IQ. You better head over to a tuition center buddy.

[nakatago]

Oh, learn to take some criticism.

You aren't a cabbie, are you?

Also, http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... asc-0.html . We've had a cabbie here and he was apologetic about the bad apples.

[sundaymorningstaple]

This article is defaming our hardworking taxi drivers. Is this not a ground for declaring the writer a 'persona en grata'?

http://sbr.com.sg/transport-logistics/c ... xi-drivers

It's interesting, immanuel17, that you do not know the meaning of words that you so pompously use. You say the article is defaming? Do you know what defaming means?

de·fame (d-fm)
tr.v. de·famed, de·fam·ing, de·fames
1. To damage the reputation, character, or good name of by slander or libel.
2. Archaic To disgrace.

I didn't see anything defaming at all. Speaking the truth cannot be considered defaming. Please, get your facts straight.

[Saint]

My old man was over for a visit last month and on the day he was flying home Mrs S called for a taxi. Mrs S went to the lobby with my old man and when the taxi arrived told the driver "Terminal 3 please"

A couple of day after getting back to UK this is what my old man emailed me

"The journey back was a little more arduous than coming out, starting with the Taxi driver; I told her I wanted to go to terminal 3 and she said OK. It was only as she was pulling into terminal 1 that she said “Oh, it was terminal 3 you wanted wasn’t it!”

[the lynx]

I don't know, but half of the time, the taxis that I hailed were really very nice and service-oriented, while the other half, umm... well, let's just say that my experience was worse than Chris Reed's.

There is always good among the bad ones (or is it supposed to be the other way round?).

[nakatago]

There's also that cab I hailed at NUH who didn't know how to get to the alumni center of NUS and wanted to take me to the city instead even after telling him I can show him how to get there.

[Mi Amigo]

I sometimes seriously wonder whether there is in fact a kind of 'game' that some taxi drivers play, where they try to act as idiotically as they can, possibly in order to 'win' in a kind of pseudo-kiasu way? I've lost count of the number of times I've said, very clearly (for example) 'Take the next left turn", only to have the driver start turning right, or say "Turn right, ah." They can't all be deaf and I refuse to believe that they actually are that stupid. So it must be some sort of 'show' they put on, surely?

And some taxi drivers just plain don't know how to drive. I mean, seriously, they are totally inept (and sometimes dangerous too). If I were a taxi driver I'd try to be the best taxi driver I could be, but for some it seems to almost be a badge of honour that they can get away with such an appalling driving 'technique' (if I can use that word to describe the tactic of randomly aiming the car and making eclectic adjustments to the throttle, brakes and steering on a millisecond by millisecond basis).

I do have to agree with Lynx though - there are actually some nice, kind, helpful taxi drivers around, and some of them do actually know how to drive too. If only there were a way to take those folks and turn them into role models for the rest of the pack.

[v4jr4]

Well, I never encounter "bad eggs". Once, I met a super talkative taxi driver. He even told me stories around his family

[Mi Amigo]

This article is defaming our hardworking taxi drivers. Is this not a ground for declaring the writer a 'persona en grata'

Did you actually mean to type 'persona non grata'? Or perhaps you were being ironic and meant 'persona grata'? Please do enlighten us.

[morenangpinay]

since moving to bukit timah i have been constantly annoyed and angered by some cab drivers who act out when i tell them the destination! coming from little india, I had no choice but to take a cab since I have several grocery bags. After getting in the cab and telling the driver where to go, he drives but during the entire time, he will be bitching about it and constantly making impatient sounds, banging his hands on the wheel..etc then telling me at the end of the journey that "Why you live here ah! So long way. If like that you need car!"

WTF!...did I not pay for his service?..

[sundaymorningstaple]

This is a perennial thread grouse. I wondered how far into the year it would get before it started again.

[JR8]

Did you actually mean to type 'persona non grata'?

Was going to remark on this too. A local trying his hand at Latin, bad idea I think!

[x9200]

So ever popular locally "cum" is Latin