Update: Librarian Damien Wang looked it up at the NLB Reference Point resource, and there is a mention of the boycott in April 1985
Seems like people are cutting down drastically on cabs these days. I think taxi companies are n denial if they keep calling this a knee jerk reaction.
An old taxi driver told my dad business has been bad. The driver said raising fares only drove away his customers. What the taxi drivers really want, he said, is lower rentals. But of course, we cannot do that. Or else the taxi companies will not have the millions in profits. We must maintain the situation where taxi companies make the rentals no matter how little or how much taxi drivers make.
Below is an interesting post by a Sammyboy forummer:
"I talked with a taxi uncle who has been driving a cab since 1982. Yeo Ning Hong was the Minister for Transport & communications then.
In 1984 the flag down fare increased from $1.20 to $2.00. He recalled that after $4.60 the meter started running very fast. A trip from Ang Mo Kio Ave 4 to Jurong Pier Rd cost $29.00. A trip from Changi airport to chinatown cost $21.00. The meters started running too fast after $4.60, that passengers asked the drivers to reset the meter before it reached $4.60. A trip from Toa Payoh to Jurong West St 42, the driver has to reset the meter 6 times. A trip from Chinatown to Tampines, the meter has to be reset 5 times.
Nobody took taxi, the taxi queue at Changi airport stretched down to Marine Parade then. Traffic Police tried to disperse them but more drivers kept joining the queue. Yesterday, it already stretched till PIE Changi South exit, there was also a long queue at Orchard Towers, and the riot squad was called to disperse the taxi drivers.
After 3 months cabbies started returning taxis and there was a chaos at Sin Ming. The roads were jammed, the workshops there complained but the traffic police helpless.
Then after, NTUC Comfort revised its rates downwards, the flag down fare was $1.60 and the meter run was normal.
There is a possibility that would happen again."
