Fabulous Rewards !

Last night as I waited at the Clarke Quay Taxi stand behind three other stationary taxis, I was pleasantly surprised by a young lady who tapped on my left passenger seat window and gestured to want to talk to me. I wound down my left window and she handed me a pamphlet, telling me that every taxi driver is entitled to a FREE ride on the Singapore Flyer upon presentation of our identification tag from now till the end of this month 31st, Oct. 2011. Each subsequent guest we are allowed to bring will also be entitled to a 25% discount for up to 4 persons. She continued and said smilingly, Singapore Flyer Pte. Ltd. is pleased to offer all taxi drivers in Singapore a FREE flight to reward us for all our hard work. This is indeed a kind and wonderful gift I thought. She urged me to grab this rare chance to bring my family to this latest lifestyle destination, with exciting views, 'edutainment', food and lots of fun. "Everyday?" I asked in disbelief, and she lighted up saying, "Yes, its the truth, no joke, except for only one ride per day, everyday till the end of the month". I said "Really?, thank you very, very much, thank you!" Just then, I had to move on in front to pick up a waiting lady commuter. After ferrying my passenger to Orchard Hotel, I stopped to read the colourful pamphlet given to me earlier and it contained every single word told to me, its true, its real.
Well, well, well, I must say, as a taxi driver we do sometimes get bonuses and surprise 'perks' from kind and friendly well wishers. I have not yet been on board the Flyer and I am excited, maybe tomorrow I'll take a break and go 'Relak" for a while. "Waa, Shiok man! this time, I can really enjoy my coffee breaks everyday in the air, Oh, how sweet it is!"

day in the life of a cabbie.......

An actual account of what I do for a living.

Yesterday, Monday 4th of January, 2010, at 5.10pm, I picked up my first passenger from United Square taxi stand, a young lady who wanted to go to Leonie Hill, my metered fare was $6.70 after that, I drove to Great World City where I picked up another young lady going to Hong Leong Building, her fare was exactly $8.00.

Next, at Shenton Way DBS Building taxi stand, a caucasian man going to Sentosa Cove and his fare was $12.20 from there I drove out to Vivo City taxi stand, time was 7.00pm, sent this lady to Toa Payoh Lor.7 her fare came to $16.00. It was 7.35pm when I queued and waited at Toa Payoh Central taxi stand where I finally drove this young Malay boy to nearby Lor.1 for $3.80 by then it was already 8.05pm. This time, I started cruising slowly towards town and eventually ended up in the queue at Raffles City taxi stand at 8.45pm, imagine, all the way without a single passenger. About 10 minutes later, a Chinese couple boarded my cab to go to Hilton Hotel, fare was $8.30 and thereafter, also from Hilton, a young Indonesian mother with her daughter wanted to go for a ride on the Flyer, their fare was exactly $7.00. I then proceeded to Esplanade Mall taxi stand, time was 9.10pm, I waited till 9.30pm when a young Chinese couple with their two children wished to go to nearby Swisshotel for a fare of $6.00, and immediately after, two middle aged caucasian ladies boarded my cab to go to a Sembawang Road condo after passing Chong Pang area, their metered fare showed $19.60 but this paying lady insisted on giving me $22.00 which I reluctantly accepted. 
It was then about 10pm when I drove towards Mandai Zoo taxi stand to queue, and boy, it was a long, long queue. Anyway, I decided to read my New Paper as I slowly jogged along and finally picked up two European ladies wanting to go to Jalan Besar Road near Petain Road, their fare came to $14.60, it was then that I felt a bit hungry and decided to go to Syed Alwi Road coffee shop to have my dinner, a bowl of prawn mee soup $3.00 and a cup of hot barley drink 80 cts. After eating my meal, I ended up in the long queue at Clarke Quay, it was already 11.50pm when I fetched four young European ladies to Swisshotel for $6.20 and lucky enough for me, after a short wait I ferried this young Chinese girl to Ponggol Central at exactly midnight. Her fare came to $21.90, the time was about 12.30am, I felt quite tired and decided to call it a day. It was a rather unusual day for me as there was'nt much converstions involved throughout my working day. Despite the slowdown in taxi ridership, I still managed a fair but still quite low take home pay, can't complain too much though. 
Thank you for sharing this long journey with your friendly neighbourhood Cabbie and now its time for my cup of "Kopi".