Disappearing passengers fail to show up after booking
13 Oct 2014|2,551 views
Taxis 'disappearing' just before peak hours is a common complaint by commuters, but cabbies say passengers are guilty of doing the 'vanishing' act too, reported The Straits Times.
While no official figures are available, taxi drivers told the local paper that one in five bookings they accept gets cancelled, with most cancellations occurring during peak hours. And although some passengers do call the taxi company to cancel their bookings beforehand, others just fail to show up.
Before a booking can be classified as a 'no-show', cabbies must wait for about 10 minutes at the pick-up point.
Taxi drivers say passengers call a slew of taxi companies at one go and still look for empty cabs driving along the road. Such attitudes have not deterred cabbies from taking bookings, but some now call passengers before reaching the destination, to make sure they are still in need of a ride.
Some taxi drivers said companies should impose a penalty on passengers who cancel their bookings indiscriminately - as is the case for passengers who use taxi booking apps. UberTAXI charges a $2 cancellation fee, while GrabTaxi and Easy Taxi ban users in extreme cases.
Currently, there are no known penalties imposed by taxi companies on errant passengers, although some cabbies told the local paper that they are put either on a blacklist or at the bottom of the call queue.
Taxis 'disappearing' just before peak hours is a common complaint by commuters, but cabbies say passengers are guilty of doing the 'vanishing' act too, reported The Straits Times.
While no official figures are available, taxi drivers told the local paper that one in five bookings they accept gets cancelled, with most cancellations occurring during peak hours. And although some passengers do call the taxi company to cancel their bookings beforehand, others just fail to show up.
Before a booking can be classified as a 'no-show', cabbies must wait for about 10 minutes at the pick-up point.
Taxi drivers say passengers call a slew of taxi companies at one go and still look for empty cabs driving along the road. Such attitudes have not deterred cabbies from taking bookings, but some now call passengers before reaching the destination, to make sure they are still in need of a ride.
Some taxi drivers said companies should impose a penalty on passengers who cancel their bookings indiscriminately - as is the case for passengers who use taxi booking apps. UberTAXI charges a $2 cancellation fee, while GrabTaxi and Easy Taxi ban users in extreme cases.
Currently, there are no known penalties imposed by taxi companies on errant passengers, although some cabbies told the local paper that they are put either on a blacklist or at the bottom of the call queue.
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