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Friday, April 18, 2008

Are You Getting What You Pay For From Taxicabs?

Yesterday, I brought my daughter to the Medical City Hospital for her regular check up with her Orthopedic Surgeon. There wasn't any direct transportation from my place to there so we hailed a cab. It was 36 degrees outside and I expected the cab to be cool when we got in. But no. It was about 30 degrees inside. Of course I politely asked for him to put ther airconditioning's temperature lower and make his blower a little stronger. He refused and said that his airconditioning unit would break down should he do so. Because of that, I asked him to let us go down just shortly after.

What's happening to the taxis and other transportation here in Manila these days? I mean you're charged higher because of the premium placed on service for a comfortable ride and they refuse to deliver that to their customers. that particular cab was not the first one. There had been others who do not care whether their clients are already bathing in their own sweat. The fx and buses are the same. There are fx whose airconditioning can hardly be felt and whose seats barely have cushions anymore. Some buses pack in riders so tightly when their airconditioning isn't strong enough to make a few passengers comfortable. The bottomline is that the commuters who pay are the ones who suffer.

The Land Transportation office , the LTFRB together with the Police Force and the MMDA should be able to fix this. Perhaps an ordinance or an administrative order should be made to take care of the poor paying passengers of Metromanila. Give us what is due. We pay for a comfortable ride, and we should be able to get it.

I've just been to hong kong, macau and zhuhai and I can say that one of the reasons their tourism is booming is because of their public transportation. I wish we could have that here too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jane, just visiting and commenting, oh yes, those taxi's..we experienced them when we went home last January, twice. Worst of all is they're rude. If they don't want your place, they'll keep on complaining all throughout your ride home. Sarap sana sagutin kaya lang you worry naman kasi baka ibangga ka.

Unknown said...

Hi Lei. Uy, you found your way to my blog! But you know those rude taxi drivers are not all just here ha. They have it in New York and Hong Kong and Singapore too.