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Showing posts from February, 2009

Lower Fares Will Hurt Cabbies?

Lowering taxi fares will hurt cabbies WE REFER to Wednesday's letter by Mr David Goh ('Taxi costs') and his suggestion to lower taxi fares. We recognise that in the present economic downturn, everyone, including taxi drivers, is affected. Our fellow drivers have seen a drop in daily income due to general belt-tightening which led to reduced demand for taxis. We doubt that lowering taxi fares will help as there is no guarantee that reducing fares will lead to more people taking taxis, but it would certainly hit drivers by further reducing their income, which has already suffered a drop. We are therefore very concerned that thoughtless reduction in taxi fares would lead to hardship for drivers, many of whom are main or sole breadwinners in their families. We believe any suggestion to help should have maintaining drivers' income stability as the primary consideration. In fact, there are many ways to help drivers. A better way would be for taxi companies to do more to promo