What Heng-Cheong Leong of Myapplemenu doesn't understand.

Heng-Cheong Leong has attacked my posting below, "An Unkept Singaporean Promise" on his myapplemenu site. His attack is ill-informed and based on the presumption that I did not see an article with the figures in it that I saw. How, I wonder, does Heng-Cheong know what another person saw or did not see? I find his implicit telepathy a wonder indeed. Perhaps he should join the intelligence services (but perhaps other qualifications would be needed too, which he evidently lacks.)

Anyway, he quibbles that his own research turned up a press release saying that Comfort Delgro would drop the fuel surcharge if diesel fell to its level in December 2007 – that of 1.19 singapore dollars to the litre. He maintains that this is different to what I was saying. It is not, in essence. I will explain.

I recall an article saying that the surcharge would be dropped if crude oil reached 109 dollars or less. Now these are not, as Heng-Cheong believes, rather rudely, that different. You see diesel is made from crude oil and the price of one affects the other. Crude oil was priced at 97 US dollars at its spike in December 2007 – please see link below for confirmation. (Note this is pretty close to the 109 figure I saw, as the threshold for price reduction. It would result in a very similar price for diesel.)

http://www.oag.com/oag/website/com/en/Home/Travel+Magazine/Executive+Travel/Travelers+Briefing/A+crude+awakening+Oil+prices+hit+new+high+071107

Now, after this on December 17th 2007, the market price for Diesel was 1.19 singapore dollars per litre.

So, the question is, what SHOULD the diesel price be now? (This is a question that Heng-Cheong doesn't ask: he just accepts the quoted price). Well, it is a simple computation to make: it is going to be roughly the ratio of the present price of oil (72 USD this morning) divided by the price in December 2007, when it spiked, 97 USD) multiplied by 1.19 singapore dollars per litre. Doing this, we get an EXPECTED price of diesel of 88 cents per litre. However, the price presently still hovers around double that at 1.60 dollars. Thus, we are being DOUBLY ripped off. The price of diesel should be half what it is at the pumps – and the surcharge should have dropped since the underlying fundamental price of diesel should be below the 1.19 Sing Dollar per litre cut off mark.

So, it can be seen that my argument stands. Diesel should be cheap again – and the surcharge should have been dropped. Heng-Cheong Leong has been offensive for nothing. He really should take his own advice – and google some more – and think a little, too. Then all would become clearer.

I hope this has painted a fuller picture of the fuel situation here, in Singapore, for everyone.

Thanks.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

An unkept Singaporean promise.

I read in the Straits Times a while back, when oil prices were high and Comfort Delgro had just introduced a fuel surcharge on taxis, that "We will drop the surcharge if the price of fuel falls below $109."

Well, well, well: isn't it marvellous the way such promises are conveniently forgotten when it comes time for them to be kept? Today, the price of oil has fallen to $73 a barrel - but the fuel surcharge on Singaporean taxis remains. So, too, do the absurdly high taxi fares, remain untouched.

Does anyone remember the justification for the taxi fare rises? It was that fuel was so expensive that drivers were losing out - so there had to be a rise in charges to allow drivers to make a better living against the backdrop of such high fuel prices. Well, fuel is now as cheap as it was fourteen months ago - and seems to be dropping. So, why haven't taxi fares begun to drop, too?

I have been in Singapore since 1999 and the general impression left on me, by large corporate concerns, is one of greed. Their basic nature, here, appears to be greed, greed, greed. Prices are very quick to rise - but very slow to fall (if EVER) despite the original stated cause of the rise having gone away. The true cause is the greed of those who run the concerns.

Now, a promise was publicly made that the surcharge would vanish if fuel charges fell. They have fallen. It is time to keep the promise. It is also time to drop taxi rates back to something like what they were before the price rises. Singaporean taxi users have, I feel, suffered enough, since the price rises. The world is in recession: is it really necessary to punish the commuter in this way?

Many people who use taxis do so because they have no other choice: they are disabled, frail or encumbered with many children. In other words, taxi users are often the most vulnerable or burdened members of society. By making - and keeping - taxi fares high, those segments of the population that we should most be seeking to protect, are put in greatest difficulty.

Remove the surcharge. Lower the taxi fares - and start doing business HONESTLY, is my appeal to the taxi firms in Singapore. Your excuse for the fare rises has gone away, now...so lower them again. No more unkept promises.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

Another great Singaporean Taxi Driver.

Today, we had another great Singaporean taxi driver experience. It was just the kind of experience that you hope visitors don't run into.

We booked a cab around lunchtime. After about five minutes the phone rang to announce that the cab, SHB 2214 (and one letter I didn't notice...I think a B, on the end, but can't be sure), had arrived. We got our things together and went down after a couple of minutes.

When we got into the cab, my wife noticed that the meter had obviously been running for awhile, since it had clocked beyond the starting point.

"Why has the meter been running, before we got in?", she asked, quietly of the driver who hadn't turned to look at us.

"I can start it when I call you.", he snapped, a little too forcefully.

"No you can't. That's against the rules." I countered, firmly.

"Why you take SO long, huh?", he said, his voice rising even further.

"We sometimes have to wait a long time for a cab.", Syahidah pointed out.

"Never mind sometimes," he began, attacking each word, "I was here early."

"I am not comfortable...", Syahidah began.

"Yes. Let's find another driver who is not such a jerk.", I continued.

We all got out.

I went back home to call another cab. I tried another company, at first -but they had no cabs. So, I had to resort to trying Comfort Delgro again.

The cab booking came through very quickly - as soon as I had put the request in. "SHB 2214..." said the booking service. I recognized his cab number at once. It was very clear what he was doing: he was blocking my desire to get another cab by picking up the booking himself, as soon as it appeared. (I later found out from my wife that he didn't drive away, he just parked up, very near our home, waiting for me to call the cab service.)

This was getting unpleasant. When I called for another cab, he was blocking all other drivers from taking the job, by picking it up himself, despite our argument with him.

I had to call the operator and specifically put in a disrequest for that driver. She cancelled him and gave me another cab. I explained that he had started the meter, in advance, apparently when he called us to say he had arrived. She told me that he wasn't supposed to do that.

In all, it was not a good experience. His actions made us feel harrassed - particularly when he began to interfere with our desire to get another driver. He was rude, aggressive, dishonest - and slightly mad. Sadly, he is not even unique among Singaporean drivers.

I am left to wonder what happens when a complaint is made against a driver. Is anything done, at all? Is there a disciplinary procedure? Observing the number of dishonest or unpleasant drivers on the roads, I rather feel that nothing is being done. As long as the drivers pay the taxi company their daily fee for the cab, I rather think the taxi firm doesn't really care how they behave. At least, there is no evidence of an improvement in taxi driver behaviour over the years.

When I call a cab, I expect an efficient, knowledgeable, polite and helpful driver to turn up. I don't expect a deranged and hostile man to turn up instead.

Would it not be better for the taxi firms to cancel the licenses of all such drivers, once they are identified through customer complaints?

Interestingly, I have never had such unpleasant experiences with taxi drivers in any other country I have visited. By comparison to most nations, Singaporean drivers are just not professional at all. They don't know where they are going - but they sure know how to cheat the customer. It is time for such practices to be outlawed.

As for us: we are gradually being persuaded of the wisdom of having our own car. Then we won't have to bother with irascible, unpleasant, dishonest taxi drivers ever again. At least, that is an answer we can control - and one that doesn't require the taxi firms to think of the customer before their corporate profits (which Singaporean companies just never do.)

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)