A competent taxi service
Photo: STAR
I am pleased to hear that the government will supply 6,740 new taxi cabs but I seem to remember the same thing happened some years ago and the only result was that the drivers behind the wheels of the new cars were, on the whole, more arrogant and undisciplined than those behind the wheels of the old ones! How old a taxi is, surely, is less important than a taxi service being managed effectively so that they serve at least one section of the travelling public, though admittedly a small one. When I lived in Lalmatia, some years ago, with no car, I remember trying to get home from Gulshan and the taxi drivers lined up to vie with one another to humiliate and mock this single foreign woman, shouting higher and higher prices. Today, several people I know without cars have given up trying to visit other parts of Dhaka because of bad experiences of trying to get home by taxi. Your report said that 'capable companies' would be selected. The only sort of 'capable company' I want is one that I can telephone and find someone sensible (preferably a woman) in an office with radio contact with her taxis so that I can book one, ahead of time - even for the next day - and know that a taxi will turn up for the job and will charge a reasonable price. This will, of course, be higher than I want to pay but will be a great deal cheaper than running my own car. In fact, I am sure that many people would get rid of their cars if there were a truly reliable radio taxi service. The drivers of such a firm would know, of course, that, if they refused to respond to a call from their office - or tried to charge more than their meter said - they would lose their job but that, if they obeyed the rules, they would earn a decent income. I accept that, because of traffic jams, most taxi rides would have to be booked some time ahead and that mobile numbers from clients who booked the service and then were not there when the taxi arrived, would be blacklisted. However, such a service would mean that those capable of forward planning (and of building up an honourable relationship with a taxi service) would be confident that they could get to - and be collected from - important meetings, airports etc. It is surely a cause for shame that, in a country with plenty of capital and a huge number of courses in Business Studies and Management, no one has yet discovered how to run a competent taxi service at a reasonable profit - as is the case in most other capitals of the world. It surely merits a doctoral thesis in some university, exploring the questions, “What's the blockage?” and “Is it really the government's job to do something about it - and if so, what?”
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