Faces on the Subway: Serving customers’ transport needs, one London Cab at a time
Mr Abdul Rahim Jumaat, 50, works as a taxi coordinator supervisor at Vivocity. He takes the last train from Harbourfront to Bishan on the Circle Line. Photo: Jason Quah/TODAY
Every day, hundreds of thousands of passengers take the MRT, traversing across the island for work, school and leisure. The spate of disruptions and incidents, which the operators and authorities are looking to resolve, and the inconvenience caused to commuters, have brought into focus how the rail network has become a big part of our lives. So, too, are the countless faces we meet on the subway, some growing familiar over time and each with a story to tell.
In our Faces on the Subway weekly series, we speak to commuters who start their day while it is still dark, or call it a night when others are already fast asleep — people on the first or last train.
SINGAPORE — Almost every Saturday for the past year, a Singaporean family of six from Bartley would, without fail, make a beeline for the taxi counter where Mr Abdul Rahim Jumaat works at VivoCity. Paying S$50 for their ride, they would take one of the many six-seater SMRT taxis home after the day out.
Even with cheaper options provided by ride-hailing operators such as Grab and Uber, they keep choosing to use this means of transport because of the personal service.
“We help them with their (shopping) bags and luggage,” Mr Rahim told TODAY, saying that these regular customers also find that it is more convenient, the drivers know their route, and everyone is familiar with each other. “We’ll say, ‘Oh, the Bartley family is here!’ when we see them from a distance. They will head straight to our counter, not to the taxi queue opposite.”
Mr Rahim, 50, works with Manila Construction Pte Ltd and has been a taxi coordinator supervisor for 10 years. He looks after the operations at four other such taxi counters at the zoo in Mandai, the Singapore Cruise Centre at HarbourFront, the Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, and on Sentosa Island. There are six-seater London Cabs or seven-seater taxis under SMRT available for passengers who pay a flat fare of S$50 per trip regardless of the distance travelled.
Many of those who use the service are tourists, and Mr Rahim has picked up some simple sentences in at least eight languages. He recited them with aplomb, going through some commonly used sales pitch in Mandarin, Thai, and even Russian.
However, it is usually his willingness to go the extra mile for customers that wins them over. At the VivoCity counter, he once went up to a family of four from Australia to ask if they would like to use the taxi service. They declined and later studied a map of the MRT network to figure out how to return to their hotel.
“I approached them again, and I spoke with the wife to tell her which lines to take,” Mr Rahim said. Seeing that he was so helpful, both husband and wife changed their mind and decided to take a large taxi back to Rendezvous Hotel in the Bencoolen area.
One of his “toughest” customers though, was a young boy from Saudi Arabia. He did not want to board the large taxi because he could not watch Spider-Man cartoons on the ride. The vehicle was fitted with a media screen for passengers to watch shows. When offered other cartoons such as Tom and Jerry, the boy, who was with his expatriate father, refused and threw a tantrum.
This prompted Mr Rahim to look for VCDs of the Spider-Man cartoons. “I did not realise how difficult it was to find them,” he said.
Finally, he managed to buy two copies and gave them to the boy the next time the family used the taxi service. “His mood changed…he was very happy.”
THREAT TO BUSINESS
While he enjoys meeting different people on the job, Mr Rahim admitted that there have been occasions when he and other employees have had to take pains to explain the system to customers who accuse them of running an “illegal” business or trying to fleece them.
“We try not to create a scene, because we are, after all, doing frontline customer service work.”
Brickbats aside, there is also the threat to their livelihood.
There has seen a drop of between 30 and 40 per cent in trips taken by customers since about five to six years ago, Mr Rahim said.
The additions of the Circle Line and Downtown Line to the MRT network and ride-hailing services entering the Singapore market have largely caused the decline.
Speaking less animatedly this time, Mr Rahim said that this is likely to continue as more MRT lines open and more commuters use ride-hailing services. “Let’s just say (business) will never be the same again,” he said before giving a resigned smile.
For the time being, there is still demand for large taxis and that keeps him going. “It is difficult to say what the future will be. You never know what comes next, right?”
ON THE LAST TRAIN, WORK CONTINUES
A typical workday for Mr Rahim begins at around 2pm, though the bachelor qualified that his day “begins the moment I wake up (at around 10am), because I will check the roster and ensure that I have enough manpower for the day”.
He stations himself at the VivoCity counter, because it is the busiest among the five. There, armed with a walkie-talkie, he manages the taxi flow at the five counters, making sure that no passenger has to wait more than 15 minutes to get a ride.
He is there until the counters close at 11pm, and then spends some time closing accounts and doing other administrative work.
Then, taking his small sling bag and a well-worn paper bag, he heads to HarbourFront MRT station to board the last train on Circle Line back to Bishan.
When TODAY saw him on his 30-minute ride home, Mr Rahim had his laptop out, finishing up the rest of his paperwork. He was looking at his mobile phone to scroll through data from record books at the other four taxi counters.
“I like the last train, you know? It’s so empty and quiet, so I can concentrate on my work,” he said. “I can also put my bag on the seat next to me, and no one will say a thing,” he added with a chuckle.
Being so engrossed in his work has led to unexpected outcomes. Once, he misheard an announcement of the station’s name and got off at Caldecott station, only to realise that he had alighted “prematurely”.
Since there would not be another train, he had to get out of the station but still managed to catch a last bus home.
“If not, I would have had to take a taxi,” he said.
