Dear Lord,
For the first time in my life, I met a very smooth-talking and well-meaning-sounding cab driver whom I did not like. In fact, he reminded me of slime.
I boarded the cab at YWCA around 9.30pm. He asked in a very polite tone: "Hi Madam, where would you like to go?" When I replied: "Bukit Panjang, Fajar Road", he followed up by explaining very nicely why some cab drivers don't like to pick up passengers heading to places like Bukit Panjang around 9.30pm from town - because they can't get any passengers there and so they waste time driving an empty cab back to town. Then he said: "But, you're the boss and it's the luck of the draw for us, so I go where my customers go." I replied with a "ha ha".
He then moaned about his spate of bad luck at Changi Airport. Of the six passengers he picked up over the past two days, all of them were heading for nearby places like Pasir Ris, Tampines or Siglap. He then explained, very nicely again, to me why some cab drivers would queue up for one to two hours at Changi Airport - because they may get foreign tourists or business travellers who would give them $50 for a trip costing only $25 and say "keep the change".
He also said that sometimes, he will pick up locals who tipped him generously because they were heading for Pasir Ris and wanted to compensate him for his long wait at the taxi queue.
He then mentioned that he was very upset once when he was helping a lady with the luggage, and the lady's elderly mother said: "Let the driver do it, don't hurt your back." He told the elderly lady that taxi drivers were not legally required to help with the passenger's luggage and that under the Workman's Compensation Act, they could be compensated only if they were injured or hurt inside their cabs, and not while they were out of their cabs, and that if he had injured his back carrying their luggage he would not be covered. But he stressed to me that although he was quite angry, he told them in a cool and calm tone.Then he added that a lot of passengers were not aware of the fact that cab drivers were not obligated to help with passengers' luggage.
Following that, he talked about how he would avoid places like Clarke Quay at night because he didn't want to pick up drunks as that would set him back by one to two hours if they puked in his cab and he had to do the cleaning up. He said: "Miss, they usually offer to pay me $20 for the inconvenience but that is not enough to cover the hours and revenue lost when I've to clean my cab."
He also explained, very nicely again, why cab drivers didn't like to pick up a group who were heading to three to four places in a single trip, because they would lose out on the $2.80 starting fares that they would have earned if they had picked up four different passengers on four different trips.
I told him in a similarly nice tone that as a cab driver, he must have seen all sorts of passengers - the good ones and the bad ones, and that he must have very good days and very bad days. And I reiterated to him what he had said earlier: "Yes, it's the luck of the draw."
The journey drew to a stop, and the fare was $15.60. I gave him $17 and it seemed as if he was waiting for me to alight from the cab. I remained seated in the cab, and then he reacted by giving me my change.
Lord, there has to be some lessons somewhere in this for me. Could it be that:
- Some people tell sob stories to derive some benefits they do not deserve?
- Some people who sound polite and nice may not be so and have their own agendas?
- Some people do not believe in a fair day's wages for a fair day's work?
- The Holy Spirit in me is a very discerning judge of character?
Lord, forgive me for being so harsh on this cab driver but I really honestly didn't like him. His superficiality made my hairs stand on their ends at the end of the trip.
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