Malaysian Taxi Drivers

(Open door) Jalan Pantai Baru? Dekat UM, Stadium Hoki.

(Shake head) Tak pegilah.

And after almost 10 taxi drivers that were asked the same question and gave us the same reply, we got fed up. Seriously, we were doing our best to keep cool. Then, when this particular taxi had finally agreed to send us back to IPBA (then to KL Sentral), he scolded us for not lining up at the queue. We explained that we did queued but it seemed that no taxi would take us to where we want to go, that we ended up somewhere near Dome after asking one taxi after another. We were at the South Court of Mid Valley, by the way. And so he told us why.

“MId Valley and Jalan Pantai Baru sangat dekat, tak berbaloi nak amik penumpang. Saya sendiri pon kadang-kadang tak ambik sebab saya tunggu untuk passengers lama, kalau yang nak pegi dekat-dekat ni rugi saja.”

Errrrrrr, and you call yourself a taxi driver? I told him that ‘dekat pon duit juga’. Why on earth you have to be so particular about the distance? That is how you gain money for living. Just take us where we want to go. As simple as that. It does not mean that if we live nearby we are not going to pay you. Yes, it is considered less money as compared to other people who needs to go somewhere further. But we need a ride in the taxi too.

Currently, taxi is my everyday ride. I took a taxi through and fro school. Each morning, I stood at the taxi stand, sticked my hand out at the risk of being hit by other vehicle, opened the door only to know that they won’t take any passengers to Taman Tun. Like, what? You can simply get RM10 from us for each ride, but you choose not to.

As far as I’m concerned, as told by one particular taxi driver, taxi drivers are supposed to take you anywhere, yes, ANYwhere you want to go. They not supposed to reject you or that kind of things. Once you opened the door, that’s it. If it is Jalan Pantai Baru, Jalan Pantai Baru is where you are going. If it is Taman Tun, then Taman Tun is where you are heading. No giving excuses that it is too near or the traffic is congested. Hey, we are going to pay you after all.

Their attitude really, really turned me off. But, current situation disallowed me from not using their service. Seems that this is the only thing I could do. Brag and brag about it.

And to some taxi drivers, ‘You Sucks!’

*UPDATED*

And to add to the suckiness of yesterday’s taxi drivers, as usual I took a taxi back home from school. Normally, we would either take the PJ-Federal Highway/UM route or the Bangsar-Jalan Bukit Pantai route. This normal route has cost us RM6.80 (the least) and RM10.00 (the most, usually when traffic is congested). However, this particular taxi driver thought that we are stupid enough and used the Damansara-KL Sentral-Jalan Bangsar route instead. We paid RM12.00 for today’s ride back to IPBA. Almost twice the cheapest price we have ever paid. Eh hello, you think this is our first trip from Taman Tun to IPBA eh? Simply using the long route instead of the normal route. You suck la Uncle. I don’t mean to be rude, but yeah, you suck.

Puhlease lah.

There were more stories about the suckiness of taxi drivers, one who used his own way of charging us instead of the meter and another one who said he doesn’t know the route to Taman Tun and simply charged us RM20.00 (again without meter) because of the traffic jam. But hey, don’t let me start on that one. Enough swearing for today.

Some people are just mean.

Read more about the suckiness of Malaysian public transport here.

4 Thoughts.

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