Singapore has the worst taxi drivers in the world, said Chris Reed, an expatriate who has been living here for the past three years.The 42-year-old director of a marketing firm wrote a commentary in Singapore Business Review on July 23 about the incompetence of a small group of cabbies. He said that 25 per cent of his taxi experiences in Singapore were less than ideal.
Reed's main gripe is that cab drivers here do not know their way around the city. He believes that there is no excuse for this, since all taxi drivers here have to be Singaporean. He also blamed cab companies for not training their drivers.
In his commentary, Reed, who takes between two and six taxi rides a day, listed examples of the many incorrect routes that he was taken on: He ended up in Little India when he wanted to go to Marina Square, a cabby did not know his way to Nicoll Highway from Bugis, he had to ask three taxi drivers before someone knew how to get to Rochester Mall, and was taken to Suntec when he had said Novena Square.- Comparing local taxi drivers' knowledge to London black cab drivers, Reed said that London drivers must know every street, hotel and landmark before they are issued a license.
Reed argued that the Government has a part to play in the taxi industry and that if the jobs of cabbies are opened to non-Singaporean Asians, it would make current drivers "more competitive, less ignorant and complacent".Getting cab drivers to take personal responsibility to know their own city streets, being properly trained by companies and creating a competitive market place with non-Singaporean rivals for their jobs is the only way forward for Singaporean cab drivers, said Reed.
"If nothing changes they will continue to be the world's worst taxi drivers and continue to be the black mark on the tourism and business marketing of our otherwise amazingly run city state," he wrote.
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