The Island that was

It is a sad day for Singapore.

The celebrated "Singapore works" moniker is in danger of extinction. The erstwhile 'it just works' island is now an unreliable place to be, transport wise. How did we ever descend into this?

Commuters are so spooked that they pray and cross their fingers they will get to the office on time every morning. And students taking exams are now caught up in this worrisome phenomenon - of trains breaking down for hours. Come to think of it - Singapore students of one type or another are taking exams and tests throughout most of the year, except perhaps in June and December. I am beyond that, but I have children who may face this previously unthinkable prospect. If you are late, it is because you are late. Don't blame the bus or the train. You should have set off earlier to allow for heavy traffic. That's what we get told anyway.

Now, we can definitely say it was the train that was late. What can you do when you are stuck in a subterranean tunnel somewhere on the island for an extended period of time? There is really nowhere to go, nothing to do except wait for help. And given the mess that is likely taking place above ground, you can hunker down and wait, and wait and ....until the oxygen runs out or someone smashes the door with a fire extinguisher.

But we have become complacent, even arrogant in our perceived resiliency. We have gotten drunk on the praise that the international community has lavished on us for years that we have begun to believe in our own invincibility. Well, schools are going to have to craft out a new set of rules that govern these exceptions that are likely to occur to students taking exams. Our exam standards and processes will now get to a higher level. Yeah, you bet.

As the Committee of Inquiry (COI) on transport proceeds, we are hearing of lapses that reddens the face, and not least those earning millions whose job was to put in place people and processes precisely to prevent, and manage disasters. But no, the here and now matters more. The stockholders' interest is primary. If you can't cut cost and grow profit, you're just not good enough a CEO. You need to get one person to do two persons' job. That's promoting productivity. Isn't that what the government is advocating, nay, droning on and on these days?

The customer who? Oh those rats in the tunnels and holes. Well, consider themselves lucky that we charge them so little to zip from one hole in the ground to another, those vermins. For us, that Porshe is just fine.

City Hall, we have a problem here.

Lose that customer

According to a MasterCard Worldwide survey on customers' relationship with the banks, Singapore is the only country in Asia-Pacific where people (61% of them) switch banks because of bad service and not lousy rates and high fees.

Well, this survey finding is spot on where I am concerned. About 10 years ago, I got ditched from being rewarded by a bank whose credit card I had been using regularly for well over 10 years. Credit cards accumulate points which can then be exchanged for rewards. I had a very hectic schedule then and didn't notice that my accumulated points were expiring, until one day after. I called the bank to waive that one day. The guy said he needed to check and duly reverted. I was refused. So this was a higher up decision, not just the front line staff making a hasty 'go-by-the-rulebooks' decision. This meant that the points that I had accumulated, which was quite substantial, was simply just wiped off my account. In a sense, that's cash. I thought that if someone higher up did not value my business, and could be so mercenary with its customer's cash, I'd take it elsewhere. I stopped using that credit card and in all that 10 years since, I have only ever used it a grand total of once. Even today, under the pecking order of cards that I have, it is my least preferred card. There is such as thing known as the lifetime value of a customer. While I don't spend in the 6 digit figure range every month or every year, for that matter, I settle my bills on time and don't give them any problems - re delinquency.

Just the other day, I canceled another credit card one year after I signed up because it slapped me with a card membership fee of S$192. I thought that I had 2 years free use on that card because the telemarketeer said so and the expiry date printed on the card confirmed that. Call me naive if you want, but I do dislike people, and especially businesses, who do not keep their word or who do not have a customer orientation in their business dealings.

Since then, I have only ever used a vanilla credit card (gold, platinum, whatever...they mean nothing nowadays) which rewards with cash rebates. I get the cash which is accumulated through use of the card. So the next time I visit a store that has the facility to inform me of my rebate earnings, I offset my bill at point of purchase - simple, clean and clear. No more having to keep track of expiry dates, no more having to deal with people who cannot waive a one day expiry, or a one year premature membership fee...and the list may go on for others based on my experience with the banks.

Banks are not unaware of this, yet I am still canceling cards. There must be something wrong with the processes in some banks. Ah well, I don't need that many cards, really...

Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Kevin Rosseel

Like a kid

Don't know what's wrong these days. I feel like I am being herded around like a sheep, or scolded like a child. For heaven's sake, half my life is already over, and I still get people coming up to me to knock my knuckles for doing 'naughty' things. Take the Saturday before last, for instance. I had dinner at Punggol Marina. Very good food and good company - what company can compare to your wife and kids? Anyway, it was belated mother's day, and father's day was coming up, so one good meal for two occasions was a 'steal'. The Marina provides private bus transport in and out of the place. I don't drive, so while waiting for the bus outside the lobby, I took a photograph of the family. Lo and behold, the driver of the private bus, which had just arrived, came up to me and told me off. He said that photography was forbidden on the Marina grounds, and continued berating me for not 'obeying' the rules and that if I didn't believe him, he'd march me over to the sign that said so. I had kept silent all the while I was being 'reprimanded', but I can only take so much. I gave him a piece of my mind. Fortunately, no blows were exchanged - it was that bad and it spoilt the evening for us.

Then last Friday, I visited the PC Show in Suntec City. I had reached the floor via escalator that overlooks the third level exhibits. I made sure I stepped aside so as not to block people who might be coming up the escalator as I looked down at the exhibits. Along came a security guard who told me to move off as I was blocking people coming up the escalator. Annoyed, I asked him if anyone was coming up the escalator (there were non, not even a mouse) and therefore who I was being accused of blocking? The crowds on Friday wasn't as bad as that on Saturday - I was there both days. I was annoyed because I thought I had been considerate enough to check that I wasn't an obstruction but someone else imagined that I was an obstruction. That was rubbing me the wrong way and I couldn't let it pass. I gave the guard a piece of my mind. I challenged him to show me the non-existent crowd. I don't like to question authority, especially when someone has been tasked to keep the path free. But for heaven's sake don't tell people that they are an obstruction when they clearly are not. I can understand the rationale behind this man's instructions, just that I cannot tolerate being told to do something when that specific rationale doesn't exist, at least at that moment. A case of reading off a prepared script? Come on, the public deserves better.

All of which goes to show that our service people still have a long way to go, service-wise. Tact is certainly not in their vocabulary, bulldoze is probably more familiar to them. And they wouldn't think twice about offending people who are obviously out contributing to the economy (and, indirectly, their existence as drivers or security guards). If I come across as arrogant, then pardon me. But I do not deserve to be treated like a 10-year old kid.

Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Bianca Meyer geb. Bollmeier

Taxi as a service

ComfortDelgro gushed that its taxi drivers were already reaping 10% more in take-home earnings with the imposition of the new regime of fare hikes. That may be so at a time of festivities and parties - Christmas, New Year Eve and the New Year. Unusual times, unusual moneys.

But News are coming out that some taxi drivers are resorting to offering discounts because their business has fallen. The number of commuters that they used to ferry have simply disappeared so much so that some cabbies have even offered not to collect the 35% surcharge of taxi fares to entice people to take their cabs - not even the flat S$2 surcharge previously imposed. This shows that the extent of the fare increase is not quite right - its too high by all estimates. Some enterprising taxi drivers are resorting to more personal services to get the customer - something that harks of what I have been advocating some time ago, that the taxi services must revert to a more service-based approach where customers reward good service with tips. Mere imposition of a fixed rate will not be viable for either you don't charge enough, resulting in non-availability of taxis, or you charge too much, resulting in disappearing commuters.

Singapore's private cars are so expensive that the taxi is an alternative. There is no question that taxi services will continue to be in demand. But when one charges a fare that makes the difference between owning a car and taking a taxi insignificant, it will be easier for a person to choose to buy a car. Already we have Geely cars, made in China cars, that sell at a price that requires a repayment of as low as S$240 per month. I remember my wife used to spend S$400 on taxis a month 6 or 7 years ago to and from work. Given the at least 30% increase in taxi fares now, I can easily make a case to buy a car, the price of petrol not withstanding. If hybrid or CNG cars become more common, the decision is even easier.

So where does this leave the taxi drivers? Well, more business for the coffeeshops, according to some, for they refuse to cruise around in their empty taxis trying to look for commuters and burning away money at the same time. Obviously a cuppa is more palatable.

Taxi associations are deliberating this and I hope they will decide with their street instinct and experience instead of the ComfortDelgro analysts trying their hand at social engineering and apparently getting an F for their effort.

A tipping we should go

Since I am on the subject, and fare increases have been announced by the biggest operator in town - Comfort Delgro cabs - I like to offer a suggestion. As taxi operators are going to do the metre adjustments in their cabs, why not at the same time remove all surcharges. Many have already made this suggestion and I think it is time we consider alternatives to surcharges.

In place of these surcharges, we should bring back a very service oriented practice - tipping. We should make tipping a regular practice because this rewards the honest, hardworking, friendly and efficient cab driver and 'punishes' the slothful and dishonest ones. For example, if some taxi driver could pick me up in the dead of night and bring me home comfortably and quickly, I will give the driver a big tip. If the driver helps me with the heavy luggage I have, I will show my appreciation over and above what the cab metre suggests that I pay. This is my expression of approval and the premium that I have placed on the taxi driver's service - no need for this surcharge and that surcharge. Anything forced is bound to be resented and any incentive to express generosity goes out the window with it.

I have tipped taxi drivers before, even within the current surcharge-driven regime, but I would consider doing it more often if the understanding between the taxi driver and myself is one of mutual trust and respect with a service-oriented mindset. By all means, continue to run the metre, but let the passenger decide if a reward over and above what is obligatory is deserved. I would say that good taxi drivers may end up taking home more. Best of all, the taxi operator is out of the picture entirely. A good workmen deserves his reward, the bad one deserves only the barest minimum. With the current regime, the good and and bad receive the same rewards. Where is the incentive to excel in this service business?

The government abolished tipping many many years ago because it was felt that the variation in the quantum given wasn't fair. That may have been the right thing to do then, but bringing back this practice should be given serious consideration. When you think about it, the varying quantum in tips is exactly the factor that should drive service providers to give of their best. This is the best and most sustainable practice in the long run without having to invent more and more surcharges that serve only to distort the market, change travel patterns, and disrupt the family hours. Policy makers seem to have no idea how these surcharges are affecting the national birth rates.

Clobber 'em

I didn't know, until it was reported in Today, that SBSTransit Bus drivers gets "slapped, punched and even kicked". What is society coming to nowadays? Sure there may be occasion when you'd feel like figuratively 'clobbering' one or two of them, but to actually physically abuse them? That's going too far and is inexcusable.

Having said that, I must admit that I once got so angry with a bus that came so late that I shouted at the driver for being late. And it seems like a problem that SBSTransit can never solve in spite of the countless public feedback in addition to it being aired in Parliament. Often two of the same SMRT bus service would have passed before a single SBSTransit bus service would come by. This was what happened yesterday along Clementi Road. I had stepped up to the bus stop to wait for an SBSTransit bus service no. 151. That was about 6pm. The next 151 that came by (not the useless Express 151e ones) was 6.25pm - a full 25 minutes for a bus during rush hour. And that is assuming that a 151 just left when I reached the bus stop. In any case, I gave up and took the SMRT train - that's money into SMRT's pocket and money out of SBSTransit's. That is why, whenever SBSTransit wants to increase bus fares citing higher operating cost, I sniff at it. What they neglect to tell us is that they are losing ridership to SMRT because of their lousy service level.

But it appears that SBSTransit will NEVER improve the timeliness of its service unless one or more parties comes by, without government restriction, to compete with it head-on. It is not obvious that fares will increase. Competition tends to improve service while bringing the price down. And I don't believe for a moment that buses are late because of the traffic situation. Look, the bus is either late consistently, because jams happen consistently at the same time unless it is due to traffic accidents or unusual days, such as holidays, or they must be more or less on time, whether punctually or late. While bus lanes help, the primary problem with inconsistent service is because SBSTransit drivers are not trained enough to be punctual in setting off on time. Those who do so are the exceptions.

This is not surprising. Generally more people show up late than are either early or punctual. This applies whether we are talking about meetings, gatherings or wedding dinners. Why shouldn't it NOT happen with bus drivers? It would be a miracle if every SBSTransit bus driver can set off punctually, but then, that is where we need to resolve the problem. My sense is that, having lived and worked among them for well over 40 years, Singaporeans tend to have a very poor sense of timing. Before SBSTransit refutes me, I challenge it to conduct a 'mystery' audit at its bus interchanges on the frequency of bus drivers leaving late. They might learn a thing or two about improving its service level.

On the other hand, I have very little to complain about punctuality and availability of buses that are run by SMRT and, previously, by Trans Island Bus Service - TIBS. It would appear that SMRT bus drivers are exceptional. I wouldn't mind paying more for service that is more predictable.

Is it any coincidence that the Today report never mentioned SMRT bus drivers being wacked? Food for thought indeed.


Image source: http://images.stockxpert.com/