Taxi Tales (3)

Went to my favorite spot at Vivocity to pick up passenger in the evening. GrabTaxi goes off, destination Yishun ring road, since I want to make this my last job. I bid for it with my fastest finger. Got the job with a wide grin.

Went in to the taxi stand with a BUSY sign. Picked up a young lady with a long white dress, did not have a good look at her as I do not have this habit of studying their face or body language. I am here to send them point A to point B, not to make friends.

On the way, I hear her sobbing in the back. It gets on and on non-stop. This get awkward as the time goes by.  I starts to wander what happened? All sorts of scenario went through my head. Did she just broke up with her boy friend? She lost her job? Should I help her by lending a listening year?

I did not do anything. She stops crying once we hit Lentor Avenue.

She has time to composed herself, she looks normal or rather composed when she handed me the fare, the fare for this weird journey is $28 to my pocket.

LTA, if you are reading this. Taxi driver will go all out to get the last trip near home at the end of the shift. We do not want to choose customer, but in this case of graptaxi, it helps the passenger to get home earlier, it helps me to get home without wasting diesel and time. WIN WIN.

Super Relief driver

I will be trying out a new way of life in Taxi driving as a Super Relief driver.

Super Relief will not have a fixed Taxi from a fixed hirer to drive for a living. When a hirer goes on vacation, especially if he is an OMO driver. He cannot stop the payment to the Taxi company even he is on vacation. Thus super relief comes in to deflate the rental cost by driving as a "super" relief".

Because of the uncertainty of the job plus the condition of the Taxi is unknown. There are no fixed rate for this market segment. I did managed to dig out some information based on my research with hirer by negotiating with them.

1. Sonata/ magentis - $50 - $60 a day.
2. Prius /renault / Optima - $80 - $90 a day.

Although you will get a lower rental for driving as a super relief. There are some dis-advantages to it. 

1. You do not have a permanent taxi/car to get used to. The moment you are familiar with its car characteristic, it is time to move on to another.
2. You will not have a fixed income due to the fact you might not have a booking everyday. Especially not within the school holiday season. Thus you may be only driving about 20 out of the 30 days in a month.
3. Every Taxi company you sign up as a relief driver, you need to have a security deposit with them. They ranged from $1000 for transcab to $2000 for Prime.