Taxis offer you to pay via MasterCard

I think that this is great. Singaporean taxis offer that you pay via MasterCard. A reasonable alliance. A Win-Win situation for all. For the customer, for the taxi driver and for MasterCard. A good marketing effort, and not in your face.

Imagine we would have something like this in Malaysia. Chances are the taxi drivers would complain about the time they need to process the card and to do general administration related to it.

But then, the whole attitude of Singaporean taxi driver’s contrasts that of Malaysian taxi drivers. Sure, they are penalised heavily if one customer complaints about them. Once a complainant calls, he or she is asked if he or she would want to just pursue a monetary penalty or go for the more severe penalty of banning the taxi driver from his or her job for a period of time or forever - at least that was so back in early 2000.

But I don't think it was changed. As much as I am opposed to such sever penalties - the guys want to make a living, and well, they want to be treated like adults as well - it is amazing how friendly most of them are.

In fact, it’s been a long time since I heard of an unfriendly taxi driver in Singapore. When was the last time, someone had a friendly taxi driver in Malaysia?