Thinking to be a taxi driver - serious thread

[chootchiew]

I am thinking to drive a taxi as I have no other skills and planning to resign from my ft jobs due to lost in interest. But I am not familiar with sg roads as I have not been driving for 10 over years. Can bro krafty or other bros give some advice on this trade, especially for those road sotongs and gan cheong spiders like me, are these type of people suitable to be driving taxi ? I just need to have income of about 1.5k to 3k max , is it advisable to pay the $400 training fees to STA to get started ? Thanks in advance.

 

[krafty]

bro chootchiew, how old are you? if you are below 40, my genuine advice is no. i am now a software programmer on weekdays and a relief driver over the weekends.
on the other hand, if you are an outgoing person, which i am, i think it's quite fun at times. especially, you get to talk to office ladies.:o nevertheless, always be a relief driver, dun be hero and be a hirer for a start. i have always been a relief throughout and you will learn a lot thru conversations with your passengers, tourists, PRs, pinoys, china mei meis, ktv freelance, korean freelance, all kinds of pple. when come to near chinese new year, you will be able to sense the jealousy of the indians and malays. mainly, you will learn a lot about sinkies...some bad but most sinkies are good pple, just a little stupid and vulnerable. and once you are seasoned enough, you can volunteer your service to ISD to patrol the roads and look out for terrorists. haha...lol...:p
income wise, if you clocked in 10 to 12 hours on weekends, depends on yourself, you will be able to make $200 nett per nite after rental and diesel deduction.

 

[uglyloser]

bro, I think the pros and cons of being a taxi driver are well-known.

Nowadays there are GPS. You can install one in your taxi and you will be able to find your way around sg easily.

 

[JackyCheung]

bro chootchiew, how old are you? if you are below 40, my genuine advice is no. i am now a software programmer on weekdays and a relief driver over the weekends.
on the other hand, if you are an outgoing person, which i am, i think it's quite fun at times. especially, you get to talk to office ladies.:o nevertheless, always be a relief driver, dun be hero and be a hirer for a start. i have always been a relief throughout and you will learn a lot thru conversations with your passengers, tourists, PRs, pinoys, china mei meis, ktv freelance, korean freelance, all kinds of pple. when come to near chinese new year, you will be able to sense the jealousy of the indians and malays. mainly, you will learn a lot about sinkies...some bad but most sinkies are good pple, just a little stupid and vulnerable. and once you are seasoned enough, you can volunteer your service to ISD to patrol the roads and look out for terrorists. haha...lol...:p
income wise, if you clocked in 10 to 12 hours on weekends, depends on yourself, you will be able to make $200 nett per nite after rental and diesel deduction.

u get new job? software programmer, why didn tell me?

 

[looneytan]

Nowadays there are GPS.

 

[krafty]

i am still trading on the side...:o

u get new job? software programmer, why didn tell me?

 

[looneytan]

you get to talk to office ladies.:o ...you will learn a lot thru conversations with your passengers, tourists, PRs, pinoys, china mei meis, ktv freelance, korean freelance, all kinds of pple.

I hate talkative cabdrivers

 

[krafty]

i am selective to who i talk to...

I hate talkative cabdrivers

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

now u see krafty telling you the life story on the types of passengers he encounters.

It won't make you any more money but i guess being a taxi driver you get to learn more on "human psychology" stories of people from all walks of life that type of shit. Maybe you could get lucky and get some passenger to bang you or tip you generously perhaps that's what krafty was saying.

 

[Jah_rastafar_I]

i am selective to who i talk to...

females or ppl you think that will tip you like say older ang moh passengers?

Love your encounters you met with some passengers like the shit skin that didn't pay you and just left your cab and how you aren't angry.

You should have advised him on how to deal with passengers that don't want to pay.

 

[krafty]

ya, lots of stories...lawyers, doctors and bankers...are my main targets, i can learn from their knowledge. nowadays, angmos also no tip, their economy not doing well. worst are nihon and indon, 5cent change, they also want...

females or ppl you think that will tip you like say older ang moh passengers?

Love your encounters you met with some passengers like the shit skin that didn't pay you and just left your cab and how you aren't angry.

You should have advised him on how to deal with passengers that don't want to pay.

 

[chootchiew]

bro chootchiew, how old are you? if you are below 40, my genuine advice is no. i am now a software programmer on weekdays and a relief driver over the weekends.
on the other hand, if you are an outgoing person, which i am, i think it's quite fun at times. especially, you get to talk to office ladies.:o nevertheless, always be a relief driver, dun be hero and be a hirer for a start. i have always been a relief throughout and you will learn a lot thru conversations with your passengers, tourists, PRs, pinoys, china mei meis, ktv freelance, korean freelance, all kinds of pple. when come to near chinese new year, you will be able to sense the jealousy of the indians and malays. mainly, you will learn a lot about sinkies...some bad but most sinkies are good pple, just a little stupid and vulnerable. and once you are seasoned enough, you can volunteer your service to ISD to patrol the roads and look out for terrorists. haha...lol...:p
income wise, if you clocked in 10 to 12 hours on weekends, depends on yourself, you will be able to make $200 nett per nite after rental and diesel deduction.

I am in 40s. My main hurdle is road knowledge. Eg from point A I might know how to get to point B, but I wont know how to get to point C from point A or B. Many will say use GPS, but GPS is just a guide. most of them time it will lead us to a longer routes or worst to Holland. Many also say after first few months, you will get used to it. The problem is I am a total road blur sotong, even though I am a safe driver. During the times I was driving my own car , I even entered the custom by mistakes and got invited to the rooms LOL. This hurdle might sound easy to conquer, but in reality we are competing with lao Jiao driver, lao Jiao driver like you already quoting not easy to earn, so to newbie it will definitely be worst, to the extend of toh tiap :(
Other than this road knowledge problem, all others are perks to me as compared to my current office job.

 

[hokkien]

My thoughts go for the course first, decide latter. Nothing to lose bro

 

[chootchiew]

HAHAHA this is a real good example of GPS and is not a joke sometimes.

 

[chootchiew]

My thoughts go for the course first, decide latter. Nothing to lose bro

Based on statistics, only 30% of TDVL holders are active taxi drivers. I do not wish to be part of the 70% lor

 

[ChoRyuJin]

Based on statistics, only 30% of TDVL holders are active taxi drivers. I do not wish to be part of the 70% lor

If you have the tenacity to be the 30%, without a doubt, it would spurred you on.

 

[krafty]

my time, besides remembering roads and buildings, also test which is the best and shorter route from point A to point B.
one tip i think will be useful is to relate buildings to where you are going, for instance, go orchard mrt, the buildings around are wisma, taka, lucky plaza, ck tang and so on. there is always a start...when i first started, i was insulted verbally and thrown with money. nowadays, sinkies are slightly more civilised. :o

I am in 40s. My main hurdle is road knowledge. Eg from point A I might know how to get to point B, but I wont know how to get to point C from point A or B. Many will say use GPS, but GPS is just a guide. most of them time it will lead us to a longer routes or worst to Holland. Many also say after first few months, you will get used to it. The problem is I am a total road blur sotong, even though I am a safe driver. During the times I was driving my own car , I even entered the custom by mistakes and got invited to the rooms LOL. This hurdle might sound easy to conquer, but in reality we are competing with lao Jiao driver, lao Jiao driver like you already quoting not easy to earn, so to newbie it will definitely be worst, to the extend of toh tiap :(
Other than this road knowledge problem, all others are perks to me as compared to my current office job.

 

[chootchiew]

1 of my relative gave up full time taxi driving to work in RWS as tea server $8/hr, that makes me wonder what happened. He is not willing to share the true story.

 

[JackyCheung]

i am still trading on the side...:o

welcome you to exchange investment view in my lousy sti thread.

thanks and see you there

 

[chootchiew]

my time, besides remembering roads and buildings, also test which is the best and shorter route from point A to point B.
one tip i think will be useful is to relate buildings to where you are going, for instance, go orchard mrt, the buildings around are wisma, taka, lucky plaza, ck tang and so on. there is always a start...when i first started, i was insulted verbally and thrown with money. nowadays, sinkies are slightly more civilised. :o

The test were craps. I got my TDVL in y2k in first attempt. My virgin driving day was a total letdown and demoralized due to road knowledge issue, I had to give up almost 90% of potential clients. After that I did not renew my TDVL and expired long ago. Now I am thinking to sit for retest and not sure how far the GPS can help me. Can a taxi driver rely totally on GPS ?