World Taxi Cabs News
Trans Cab to raise taxi fares from 3 Jan
20/12/2011 - http://www.channelnewsasia.com/
SINGAPORE: Singapore's second largest taxi operator, Trans Cab, will raise fares from 3 January 2012 due to higher overhead costs that will hit the earnings of its drivers.
The flag-down rate will increase from 20 cents to 70 cents, depending on the taxi type.
So the start trip on a Toyota Crown cab will cost S$3, instead of S$2.80.
For the Toyota Wish cab, the flag-down rate will increase to S$3.20, instead of S$3, while the start fare for Chevrolet cab will be $S3.40, instead of S$3.20.
For Mercedes Benz cab, the start fare will cost 70 cents more at S$3.90, instead of S$3.20.
Every 400 metres after the flag-down distance will cost 22 cents, for distances up to 10 kilometres.
Currently, it's 20 cents for every 385 metres.
After 10 kilometres, it'll be 22 cents for every 350 metres, compared 20 cents for every 330 metres.
Every 45 seconds of waiting will cost 22 cents, instead of the current 20 cents.
Trans Cab, which has a fleet of 4,300 taxis, will also adjust the fees for cab bookings.
It'll be 20 cents cheaper to book the Toyota Wish, Toyota Crown and Chevrolet cabs.
Currently, the fee is S$3.50 during peak hours and S$2.50 during off-peak hours.
However, the booking fee for Mercedes Benz taxi will go up to S$10, from the current S$8.
The advanced booking fee will go up for all types of cabs.
For Toyota Wish, Toyota Crown and Chevrolet, it'll be S$6.50, which is 70 cents more than the current S$5.20.
For Mercedes Benz cab, it'll be S$18, compared with the current S$16.
Peak-hour charges will be lowered to 25 per cent of meter fare, from the current 35 per cent of meter fare.
But the peak-hour charges will cover a longer period.
They'll kick in an hour earlier, from 6am to 9.30am from Monday to Friday, compared with the current 7am to 9.30am.
The evening peak-hour charges will be from 6pm to midnight throughout the week, including public holidays.
Currently, the evening peak-hour surcharge applies to fares from 5pm to 8pm, between Monday and Saturday.
Trans Cab is the third taxi operator to announce fare changes, after ComfortDelGro and SMRT Taxis.
The other smaller operators - Premier Taxi, Prime Taxi and Smart Cab - have yet to announce any fee changes.
But Smart Cab told Channel NewsAsia on Tuesday that it may make an announcement as early as next week.
Robert Doyle wants a fare deal for taxi drivers.
18/12/2011 - http://www.heraldsun.com.au
ROBERT Doyle's vision to fix the city's taxi crisis includes a plan to ID passengers before they hail cabs at super ranks.
The Lord Mayor, who spent years working nights as a taxi driver in his 20s, said the key to solving the city's taxi woes was providing incentives to drivers.
He flagged flat fees for short fares and late-night surcharges as ways to boost cabbies' paychecks.
And to improve safety of both passengers and drivers, he suggested changing privacy laws so taxi marshals could record the number of the taxi with the passenger identification.
"I would argue because you're entering our cab in one of those safe city ranks these are the rules, you have to be prepared to hand over ID," he said.
Cr Doyle said the existing fleet of taxi drivers would work more weekend nights if they were paid a $10 surcharge between 11pm and 5am on Friday to Sunday and would pocket 75 per cent of fares from that period, rather than giving half to taxi owners as usual.
"What you're saying to drivers is, if you drive in this particular period, instead of making $10 an hour you're suddenly making $15 an hour and then if you give them the flagfall or a surcharge, suddenly you're making it very much worth their while to drive at night and to drive in those hours," he said.
"The incentives are what you need to make it a job not of last resort but of choice."
Other measures Cr Doyle flagged include:
MINI-vans to shuttle groups home on weekend nights.
CREATING a new criminal offence for the assault of taxi drivers, which would carry harsher penalties in the courts, similar to assaulting public servants.
GIVING the Taxi Directorate the power to order substandard cabs off the road until they are roadworthy, or making drivers upgrade vehicles every few years.
Prof Allan Fels, who is due to release his Taxi Industry Inquiry report next year, has highlighted short fare refusals as a major problem in Melbourne.
Cr Doyle said introducing a flat fare for short trips would solve the issue.
"Essentially we're saying 'if you want to take a taxi for 100m that's fine but it's going to cost you $10'. That would eliminate all the short-fare refusals," he said.
Cr Doyle said simple measures such as handing out flyers to drivers and offering free coffee at the new mega rank on Queen St had made it a resounding success at the weekend.
More than 300 cabs passed through on Saturday night with more than 700 passengers getting taxis home.
ROBERT DOYLE'S PLAN
1. Financial incentives for drivers: Flat fees for short trips. $10 surcharge with 75 per cent of fares to go to drivers on weekend nights.
2. Safer cars: Passengers IDs to be registered against taxis they hire from city ranks. Make assaulting taxi drivers a new criminal offence, similar to that to assaulting a public servant, with stricter penalties. More taxi ranks. Give taxi directorate power to take taxis off the road if they don't meet required standards.
3. New drivers: Use increased incentives to attract good drivers, mature people who will work as cabbies for longer.
4. Use mini-vans to shuttle groups of people out of city to different destinations on weekend nights.
Passengers would get discounted fares, but the driver is paid more and could get free license.
How Driving a Taxi Changes London Cabbies’ Brains.
9/12/2011 - http://www.wired.com
Every black-cab driver in central London has to have “The Knowledge” — a memorized map of the capital, including some 25,000 streets and thousands of landmarks, right down to the order of theaters on Shaftesbury Avenue.
It’s a brutal learning process that can take three to four years to complete, with a final test — the Knowledge of London Examination System — that often takes 12 attempts to pass. Even then, ultimately only half of the trainee cabbies ace the exam.
According to a report published in the journal Current Biology, successfully learning this mental atlas of London’s spaghetti streets causes structural changes in the brain, affects memory and creates a greater volume of nerve cells in the brain’s hippocampus.
In a lengthy study, Eleanor Maguire and Katherine Woollett from the neuroimaging center at University College London followed a group of 79 trainee taxi drivers and 31 controls (who weren’t in training to become cab drivers). Over time they took snapshots of their brain structure using MRI and studied their performance on memory tasks.
At the start of the study, the participants showed no discernible differences in brain structure or memory. The posterior hippocampus and the anterior hippocampus — which had been found, in previous studies, to be larger in London taxi drivers — was currently the same across all participants.
In the intervening years, only 39 of the trainee group passed the test and went on to qualify as registered taxi drivers. This gave the researchers an opportunity to further divide the volunteers into three groups: those that passed, those that trained but did not pass, and the controls who never trained.
Now, with the exam over, the researchers found an increase in grey matter — the nerve cells in the brain where processing takes place — in the back part of the hippocampus of the trainees who passed the test. Those that failed, or never learned, had no changes to their brain structure.
In the memory tasks, both the successful and failed cabbies were better than the control group at recalling London landmarks. However, at other tasks not related to the capital, such as recalling complex visual information, the controls and the trainees who failed to qualify were better than the registered taxi drivers who had “the Knowledge”.
“By following the trainee taxi drivers over time as they acquired — or failed to acquire — ‘the Knowledge’, we have seen directly and within individuals how the structure of the hippocampus can change with external stimulation,” said Maguire in a press release. “The human brain remains ‘plastic‘ even in adult life, allowing it to adapt when we learn new tasks.”
What’s less clear is whether those who ultimately succeeded at the exam had some inherent advantage over those who failed. “Could it be that those who qualified are genetically predisposed towards having a more adaptable, ‘plastic’ hippocampus?” Maguire said in the release. “This leaves the perennial question of ‘nature versus nurture’ still open.”
Swinton Warns Drivers to Think Before Having a Drink This Christmas.
18/12/2011 - http://finance.yahoo.com
MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire -12/18/11)- Swinton, the UK's leading car insurance broker is warning drivers to avoid the temptation of having a festive drink this Christmas.
According to drinkdrivingfacts.com, on average up to 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured on the roads as a result of drink driving. Swinton wants to make drivers aware of the risks and implications of drink driving. If caught drink driving, the penalties are severe and it is possible to lose your licence for a minimum of a year, pay a fine of up to GBP 5,000 or even face a prison sentence of up to six months.
There were 83,975 drink driving convictions in England and Wales last year. Swinton wants to remind drivers that it is important to remember that if caught drink driving it will affect motor insurance premiums for a prolonged period of time.
15% of those convicted of drink driving will lose their jobs, according to Thames Valley Police, that's why in the UK's current economic climate, it's so important for drivers to think before they put themselves behind the wheel this Christmas.
Steve Chelton, Claims Manager at Swinton stated that, "Drink driving is a huge problem in the UK, especially during the festive period and we want to warn people of the implications it could have upon not just drivers but also their friends and families. If a licence is removed for a drink driving related offence, not only could you lose your job but it also becomes difficult for people to carry out their day-to-day routine in a similar manner as before. If you believe you may be over the limit, do not take the risk, call a taxi or find another means of transport. It is paramount that drivers do not take for granted the importance of safe driving, particularly at this time of year."