Singapore Expats

So several times now I've ask the taxi service operator to list ONLY my home address and work address as options. Good, they fix it- for a day or two. Next thing you know, there are options to the moon and other odd places that I may have been to last century. And all because my phone call may come in at exactly the same time as some previous trip to to that obscure place. What's with that? Does it have to be that way? Great oddness....

A good enough reason for using SMRT instead of Comfort.

ozchick wrote:So several times now I've ask the taxi service operator to list ONLY my home address and work address as options. Good, they fix it- for a day or two. Next thing you know, there are options to the moon and other odd places that I may have been to last century. And all because my phone call may come in at exactly the same time as some previous trip to to that obscure place. What's with that? Does it have to be that way? Great oddness....

Typical. Part of the package. Not entirely sure what is this dependant on though. For me it always worked fine (I mean the way it should be) but my wife can get suddenly out of the sky the Takashimaya taxi stand (as the first address) we used once or twice like 4 years ago.

ScoobyDoes wrote:A good enough reason for using SMRT instead of Comfort.

OK yeah now did have their number when I first came here. Wasn't aware of different system though but am sure happy to try it. Thanks for that. Doesn't hurt to have both AND a boat in times of heavy rain too!

Why don't you try sms-ing for your cab? I do that everyday and you just need to send your postal code to 71222(which I am sure you know for your office and home). It usually takes less than 2 mins from the time I send, to the time I get my cab number.

It cut all the hassle of waiting for the phone operator to speak to you (10 mins listening to a broken record) followed by another 10 mins of waiting for a cab driver to decide to pick you up.

Love that SMS option.

Can you please send me the numbers? AM moving over to Singapore soon and would be great to have all handy numbers already!

The number to SMS is "71222". Every address have a 6-digit postal code, so you just send "Book 123456" via SMS to "71222" and wait for a response. I have been using this service for almost a year, minimum 5 times a week and up to 10 times a week, so my review should be fairly accurate. So far, there is only 1 circumstance when I got an SMS back saying they cannot locate a taxi.

Sometimes, a cab may take up to 9-11 minutes to come. When that happens, I just text back "cancel" and resend again. They can usually find another cab within 1 minute, and the cab will probably take about 5-7 minutes to arrive.

Girl_Next_Door wrote:The number to SMS is "71222". Every address have a 6-digit postal code, so you just send "Book 123456" via SMS to "71222" and wait for a response. I have been using this service for almost a year, minimum 5 times a week and up to 10 times a week, so my review should be fairly accurate. So far, there is only 1 circumstance when I got an SMS back saying they cannot locate a taxi.

Sometimes, a cab may take up to 9-11 minutes to come. When that happens, I just text back "cancel" and resend again. They can usually find another cab within 1 minute, and the cab will probably take about 5-7 minutes to arrive.

This looks like is the way to go yeah? And I can save my regular request in my saved messages and just re-send it each time. That should work. A question? When I want to cancel do I have to type in the postcode again ?
And when the cabbie arrives how do I prove I'm the right booking- is it by phone number or is there a registering system to start with? Appreciate your help- this could make things a lot better, maybe in heavy downpours too cos the phone-in system gets jammed at times. Thanks G.N.D.!

To cancel, you just key text "Cancel" and send to "71222".

Oh, another trick I do... Sometimes when I am in a short taxi quene that don't seem to be moving, I will book a cab too. I will see which one comes first (taxi in the quene or the cab I booked). If I get a cab before the cab I booked arrive, I will also just send a SMS to cancel it. No penalty.

Once the system found a cab for you, you will get a sms, telling you the make of the car and number, e.g. "Citycab Toyota Crown taxi 0565 witha booking fee of $3.50 will arrive in 5 to 7 mins. Pls proceed to your pickup pt. Thank you for using Comfort & Citycab."

Most of the time, I simply get on the cab when I recognise the cab number. So far, only twice (I think), did the cab driver asked me for my mobile phone number (which is used to verify you booked the cab).

Oh, two more downers.
- You cannot do multiple booking via SMS, i.e. you and your friend are out and both of you need a cab. Each of you have to book a cab using a different mobile number. I think the system can only allocate 1 cab per mobile number. But everyone have a mobile phone nowadays, so its not really an issue.
- For certain premises which have 2 or more taxi stands, you might end up in the wrong taxi stand, e.g. Esplanade. I booked a cab once using the postal code, and the cab driver was waiting for me at another taxi stand on the other side of Esplanade.

But yes, its a saver during rainy days because you can NEVER get through the phone lines. And if you do, the line SUDDENLY get cut off.

Girl_Next_Door wrote:To cancel, you just key text "Cancel" and send to "71222".

Oh, another trick I do... Sometimes when I am in a short taxi quene that don't seem to be moving, I will book a cab too. I will see which one comes first (taxi in the quene or the cab I booked). If I get a cab before the cab I booked arrive, I will also just send a SMS to cancel it. No penalty.

Why do people do that? When I book a taxi, even if there are taxis waiting in front of me, I will still wait for the one I called. It's only fair to the driver ......

For me, I just don't like to wait. The same reason why I book a cab instead of waiting in the quene for 30 minutes. Whichever option pop up the soonest, I will go for it.

There is selection everywhere. Even if you are in a quene, waiting for a cab, there are times (pretty often, in fact!), whereby a cab driver will ask you, which location are you heading. And if you are not heading in his direction, he will just drive off. Very often, without an apology or a proper response. Simply, NO.

I thought that was extremely rude and I was not used to this treatment initially. If you are not keen to pick up a passenger, don't stop. If you want to pick and choose a customer, then the customer should have a choice of picking the cab driver as well (and in my case, the cab driver which can bring me from Pt A to Pt B, the fastest).

Girl_Next_Door wrote:I was not used to this treatment initially. If you are not keen to pick up a passenger, don't stop. If you want to pick and choose a customer, then the customer should have a choice of picking the cab driver as well (and in my case, the cab driver which can bring me from Pt A to Pt B, the fastest).

It was exactly the same with me. First I thought it was not really fair to call and to cancel when I got one from the stand or from the street. Now I think it is perfectly fair - I am just playing by their rules.

Then get a car

Girl_Next_Door wrote:Even if you are in a quene, waiting for a cab, there are times (pretty often, in fact!), whereby a cab driver will ask you, which location are you heading. And if you are not heading in his direction, he will just drive off. Very often, without an apology or a proper response. Simply, NO.

This is not allowed unless he has "his shift change" sign up. Take the licence plate number and report him to his company. They will enforce a penalty and if enough people do it, the habit will stop.

dazzlebabe wrote:Then get a car

Think getting a car is an entirely different approach. It's equivalent to asking me to walk or get a bus, instead of getting a cab.

Nothing wrong, but it's not the same. I don't think I need to go down to details about the issues revolving owning a car in Singapore. The obvious are parking, obnoxiously high car prices, ERP, terrible traffic, terrible road drivers, just to name a few!