Dear TRS
I have driven taxi for a few months while searching for a permanent job. I understand why there are so few taxis at certain places and why all the taxis seem to be found at certain places.
You see, each taxi driver has 12 hours and most taxi drivers would not want to complete their 12 hours shift as its very tiring to drive 10 hours straight after subtracting the breaks and the meals. So to hit their target as soon as possible, and they can't sweep the streets for passengers as there are simply not enough passengers.
You see, at different time of the day, most passengers are at certain areas only. Lets take the night shift for a review.
Rental cost for shift = $55 -$60 per shift
Fuel = $30 -$40 per shift
Misc = $10 - $20 per shift
Comfortable break even = $110 per shift
Before the taxi driver can make a profit, they have to rack in an estimate of $110 to cover their cost.
On average, a new taxi driver can make $10 - $15 per hour, an experience driver can make $20 - $25 per hour. The experience driver has to drive 5 hours before he starts to rack in his profit for the next 3 to 5 hours. He has to plan to make the most out of his only few hours each day.
For night shift, there are more passengers in the central area than the outskirts, If he were to sweep the streets in the outskirts for passengers, the ratio are around 5 taxis to 1 passenger, because most taxis took the passengers from the city to their home and became strangled in the outskirts with plenty of empty cabs around. Furthermore, most passengers in the housing estate will take the taxi to and fro from the MRT station or only for short distance. The driver will not be able to hit their target of $20 an hour if they were to do that. Therefore, an experience driver will leave the housing estate for popular areas where there should be plenty of lucrative passengers. Like the airport and other popular areas, etc.
For example when a taxi driver drop a passenger at woodland, he will go straight to the causeway immigration, he will ignore the street or even the causeway point, because the passengers there are mostly short distance. And if he is at Tampines, he will go to the airport or Changi business park. If he is at Tiong Bahru, he will go straight to vivo city or RWS. The taxi drivers are not looking down at short distance fares, but they have to make the most out of their 12 hours shift, else they will end up making $30 from their 10 hours driving. That why many passengers end up booking for cab, with the $3 extra from booking, at least the taxi driver can hit his target easily.
Before the ERP ends, most drivers will not enter the CBD area, why? because they have to queue up for passengers in the CBD areas and its not worth paying $2 to queue. What they do is to go to surrounding areas to pick up passengers where the chances of these passengers entering CBD are quite high, like Garden by the bay (used to be free from ERP), Golden mile, vivo city. etc. Once the ERP stop, they will dash into the CBD.
Most experience drivers have found their golden spots, they know exactly at what time, certain areas have the passengers they wanted. Once ERP are off, if they are at havelock, they will go straight to the CBD for extra taking instead of picking a passenger from havelock to most probably redhill. If they are at Jurong west and they drive comfort taxi, they will hang around the industrial areas where they can get a call booking very soon.
Many people are frustrated by the lack of taxis, I hope I have helped you understand why some taxi drivers behave abnormally. After all, I do admit taxi drivers are wrong for trying to pick their targeted passengers. But I also hope you understand that if they don't do that, they might end up driving 10 hours for a profit of $30. It happened to me many times.
Aaron
TRS Contributor