Heartless in the city

[ALstonLoong]

This morning just read this piece of news from thestar..... Where is your heart city forks .. pls dont let money blind your heart.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...033&sec=nation




WHEN our local taxi drivers see a disabled person trying to flag them down, more often than not, they turn a blind eye.

“If you are a disabled person, chances are you will go unnoticed in Kuala Lumpur”, is what the disabled have been telling the media and friends.

We put this to the test to gauge whether cabbies are sensitive to the needs of the disabled.

I went undercover in a wheelchair around the city for four hours. And I found out ... Yes! Taxi drivers pretend that a disabled person in a wheelchair does not exist. They look the other way.

Only one in 12 taxis that I tried to flag down stopped for someone in a wheelchair. The others just drove by.

All in all, I tried to flag down almost 60 taxis. Only five taxi drivers stopped to ask where I wanted to go.

Of the five, two tried to swindle me.

“If I take you to Kajang, I will have to return empty. So I have to charge you both ways. One way is RM30, so the fare is RM60,” said one.

Another cabbie at the Bintang Walk, stopped and ogled at a foreign tourist and boasted that he had made love to almost all nationalities who were his passengers in the past 12 years.

He went on for 10 minutes and then parted with a word of caution: “Tell all your friends not to let their daughters marry a taxi driver.”

My undercover work started at 10am when The Star van dropped me off at the Hilton Hotel car park, and I tried to wheel myself across to the taxi stand at KL Sentral.

A policeman who saw me struggling rushed over and helped me across the road dividers.

There were about 10 taxis waiting in single file for passengers. I tried to hail them but they ignored me.

Of the 23 taxis I tried to stop at KL Sentral, only two stopped to ask where I wanted to go.

Ahmad Yahaya, 43, said he was willing to take me to Kajang.

“If you wait here, I will go and get you a coupon and I can take you to Kajang.”

“Can my wheelchair fit in your taxi?” I asked him, and he said, “No problem. I have taken wheelchair-bound passengers before.

“It is my duty to take anyone who wants to go in a taxi. Thank you for stopping me and asking me to give you a ride,” he said.

Ahmad was a helpful taxi driver and I could see his enthusiasm in wanting to help a disabled person.

In contrast, the majority of taxi drivers ignored the disabled. Many of them pretended to talk on the mobile phone, covered their face behind a newspaper or just ignored me and drove away.

My next stop was the Kota Raya bus stand.

Just like the taxi drivers at KL Sentral, the cabbies here did not look at me.

However, one taxi driver responded.

As he walked towards me, he asked me: “Where do you want to go?”

I said: “Rawang”.

“Okay! But it will cost you double.”

I asked him why and his reply was the same as the earlier taxi driver.

After lunch, I sat patiently by the main road next to the Salak South post office and of the nine taxis I tried to stop, only one did.

The driver, Wong Kam Sang, 67, was prepared to take me. But because I was supposedly heading to Rawang, he apologised for not being able to do so as he had a prior appointment in 20 minutes.

I told him I understood and appreciated the fact that he cared enough to stop.

The rain came soon after and it was time to call it a day.

Despite the bleak conclusion about how heartless the city is with regard to the transport needs of the disabled, I saw a ray of hope in people like Wong and Ahmad.

[zy]

wow .. nice story :O ..
yea.. i really dont like to travel by taxi ..
thats because they love to charge you extra ..

the statements like "i have to travel 2 ways" are quite common
they try to sweet talk you sometimes..

sometimes at bus stations .. etc ..
they will always try to get you to travel by taxi ..
example @ genting skyway station ..
we were trying to buy bus ticket .. we miss the earlier bus .. so we bought the later ones..
then they started saying that we miss the bus .. we can travel by taxi .. saying taxi is much faster

some will even try to say there is no bus going there .. etc etc

[McTavish]

Imagine you are a taxi driver. You have to work 80 to 100 hours a week just to make a living. Your wages are a percentage of what the car takes, so you want to do as many individual fares as possible. If you know one fare is going to take at least as twice as long to do for no extra money then you would be reluctant because it means you are going to personally loose wages. You don’t consider yourself a public service or a charity, you are working long hours in a stressful job to try and support your family.

Then there is the likley possibility that the person in the wheel chair will have a colostomy bag, which may leak or smell. The smell alone may be enough to put you personally off, but you also have to think about your next passengers. If the bag leaks then you could be off the road while you clean and dry the car.

If your taxi has room and access for the person to remain in the chair then it’s not quite so bad, but if you have to stow the chair and they have to sit on the taxis seats then there is a good possibility of leaks, which on fabric and foam seats is something that can take a lot of cleaning and drying. A major leak could put you off the road for half a day. You loose half a days wages and additionally may have to pay for cleaning materials.

I used to drive Taxis in the UK and am talking from experience. I did more than my fair share of wheelchair and disabled runs. I never turned one down and I never tried to swindle anyone.

[aKho]

nice story! feel sad for disabled people.. and taxi drivers.. no such thing as a perfect world.

anyway, a link to the source of this news would be greatly appreaciated.

[Adrian Wong]

IMHO, it's a taxi driver's social and professional responsibility to pick up EVERYONE who wishes to engage his/her services, unless it's for an illegal purpose, of course.

In return, the taxi driver should be receive reasonable reimbursement for his/her services.

But in this case, I think that asking for double rates or insisting on ridiculous rates, instead of using the meter is really unacceptable. It's not only unethical and gives cabbies a bad name, it also discourages people from using the taxi as transportation of choice.

Look at the Malaysian scene for example. Most of us rather buy a vehicle and pay for its maintenance or take a bus, rather than taking a cab. Why? Because many taxi drivers REFUSE to use the meter or take you to destinations that are not "in their way".

It's a vicious cycle, and only the cabbies can do anything proactive about it.

[McTavish]

IMHO, it's a taxi driver's social and professional responsibility to pick up EVERYONE who wishes to engage his/her services.

I agree with you in principal Adrian but I think the point that most people miss about taxis is that they are not public transport and are not funded or supported in any way by society – on the contrary in fact, they have to pay sometimes quite excessive amounts to local authorities to be able to operate. They are a commercial business just like any other in a capitalist society and their primary concern has to be to remain solvent and in business.

My experience of taxis in the UK is that most are small self-employed businesses that are always struggling just to make a living. They don’t have the luxury to consider social responsibilities. If there was money to be made in operating taxis then big business would have taken over long ago.

In return, the taxi driver should receive reasonable reimbursement for his/her services.

Drivers know that is never going to happen so they have to make their own decisions on how best to maximize their wages. Taxi drivers in the UK earn very little an hour and so 80 plus hours a week are the norm for most full time drivers.

I’m not trying to defend the actions of selfish or disonest taxi drivers. I’m just pointing out that the issue is more complex than that newspaper article suggests.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by McTavish

I agree with you in principal Adrian but I think the point that most people miss about taxis is that they are not public transport and are not funded or supported in any way by society – on the contrary in fact, they have to pay sometimes quite excessive amounts to local authorities to be able to operate. They are a commercial business just like any other in a capitalist society and their primary concern has to be to remain solvent and in business.

My experience of taxis in the UK is that most are small self-employed businesses that are always struggling just to make a living. They don’t have the luxury to consider social responsibilities. If there was money to be made in operating taxis then big business would have taken over long ago.


Drivers know that is never going to happen so they have to make their own decisions on how best to maximize their wages. Taxi drivers in the UK earn very little an hour and so 80 plus hours a week are the norm for most full time drivers.

I’m not trying to defend the actions of selfish or disonest taxi drivers. I’m just pointing out that the issue is more complex than that newspaper article suggests.

Yeah, it's certainly more complex than what the article suggests.

But locally, many taxi drivers refuse to pick up even able-bodied passengers unless they are willing to pay the price they are asking. They will refuse to take you if you ask to pay the meter rates or if you wish to go "out of their way".

It's certainly a bigger problem than just not picking up the disabled.

[doraemon]

the main problem for our taxi driver here is, they dun want to use the meter even they need to do so! And always take advantage of the customer, is this the way they do business? is it because they cant earn more and they can do that?

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by doraemon

the main problem for our taxi driver here is, they dun want to use the meter even they need to do so! And always take advantage of the customer, is this the way they do business? is it because they cant earn more and they can do that?

Yeah, that's the problem. Once, I wanted to take a taxi for less than a kilometer. The base charge, I think, is only RM 2.50 for the first kilometer. But he refused to take me there for anything less than RM 6.

Note that many taxis are now using natural gas which allows for much lower operating costs. So, they CAN earn good money. They just need more passengers. But why should we take taxis when they are so unscrupulous?