The cartel and the working class

It begins on the premise that everyone is good. Only then can you judge people for what they are worth.

I take the train usually to and from UPM, Serdang. Last year, a consortium of Putrajaya taxi drivers took over the taxi service from the KTM Serdang station under the guise of a co-op. A more brazen cartel I have never seen. Overnight, taking a taxi went from paying RM10 for a 5 minute drive, and in the process finding 2-3 people willing to share the cost, or looking for the one in five gem of a taxi driver who will use the meter, to a RM10 coupon taxi ride – no sharing.

I took a taxi home last night from Kepong at 11.00 pm. An African girl, a young female office-worker and myself squeezed into the Proton Iswara. We approached an interchange, and the conversation between the African and the driver went like this;

“I think you can use this way, left.”
“How many ways do you know?”
“I said I think, I didn’t say I know”
“How many ways do you know?! I’m driving taxis, I know. Just sit and don’t argue! There are so many ways.”

Uncomfortable to say the least.

Her fare came to RM 3.30, and later we went pass the interchange she thought she knew. It was jammed, and the man told me it would have cost all three of us more if he had used that way. He didn’t charge me the RM 5 shown on the meter when we came to my house, and just asked for the usual fare, which was RM 4.

In my almost three years of taking taxis in Serdang, only once did I find a taxi that used the meter, and the driver was a saint. He picked up one more person on the way (there were already two of us), and used the meter all the way; I payed RM3 for a ride which would cost me RM 10 now.

To the socialists crying out for the right of taxi drivers to fleece customers, I say keep your voices. There are more than enough taxi drivers who are honest enough to put in a decent day’s work for a decent day’s pay.

I wonder how they, the honest ones, feel when they know they have to fleece ordinary people in the name of a koperasi.