Drivers and Expectations - Rant or Report

I am wondering how this pick up at Changi will go next week.  Luckily, I will be going with the driver,  have a Singapore phone number, and hope that my friends have recorded that number.

I gave this driver to my friend this weekend, and it turned into quite an event by Sunday night.  She was due to land at Changi at 4:00 pm Sunday.  Her terminal was not one of the 1, 2 3, or 4 - it was only called 'budget'. But that was only the small problem of the issue.  At 5 pm I got a call from her at the airport asking where the driver was. I was not part of this trip, so said I would call him and find out.  He replied; unfortunately, in very poor English, telling me something about the causeway and 'big jam'.  I called my friend back and reported this. She too had the same message but could understand less than I so needed to confirm what she thought. Over the course of the next few hours, there were many phone calls between her, me, and the appointed driver.  She had only been able to text message me, so ended up buying a Singapore phone and was able to talk.  However, with all the calls, her minutes were quickly diminishing, we went back to texting unless either of us had an important message. Finally, by 7:45 I suggested that she find another cab, even though the driver kept saying 'tell her to wait, I come, I come'.  I said I will call him once more (because for some reason I seem to understand him better than she) and get a report of his ETA and current location.  Now, during this call, with my firm voice expressing my disappointment with the whole situation, he admitted he was in JB.  Good grief, he needed to be in Singapore!  Turns out also, that he took some other job and then dispatched his friend to pick up my friend! Looking after my own interested first, I assured him he would not have the job next weekend for my friends because of this, and I received a great deal of sorry, sorry, I don't do that to you.  But at that time, we had a problem.  Another 30 minutes pass, and still no driver at the airport, with my 'driver' in JB telling my friend at the airport, soon, soon, he come, to Terminal 1.  NO NOT Terminal 1, Budget Terminal!  By 8:30 I admitted defeat, and told her to hail a cab and forget the goon.  She agreed.  Fifteen minutes after that, I called her to see if she managed to get a cab, and guess what? She was in the driver's friend's vehicle, heading to JB.  I am not even sure how he recognized her, or she him. His English is worse than my other driver's.  As I stayed on the line, I heard her asking him 'where are you taking me'.  His reply was 'airport, can can'.  That is all she could get from him. I told her to ask if his name was Ibrahim. She did, he responded affirmative.  Ahh, the friend that helped on my own journey a month or so ago.  He eventually got her to JB crossing, with my original driver waiting with his chariot to transfer the fare, and through a driving monsoon, arrived at my home at 10:30.  With the rains diminishing, off she went for her own home about 2 hours north west of here.  We had a brief chat about the experience, with an amazing good humour on her part.  I said I had watched the news during this fiasco, and discovered that there were record border crossings today due to the Singapore air show.  So, after her browbeating her driver (which he probably didn't understand anyway) she did feel a bit bad, since it really was out of his control regarding timing.
So, you can imagine what kind of feeling I have right now, wondering how it is going to work out with my own friends arriving at night to a foreign land, expecting Western service. I know the women's professional golf finals are in Singapore that weekend, so certainly hope that Malaysians do not decide to watch it. That could be a nasty problem at the border for us.

I also checked again with people around here for taxi service while I am at work. My friends will not want to sit in my house all day waiting for me, and my driver is not exactly reliable.  I wanted alternatives.  Everyone gave me the information I knew already.  Sure, just go to the taxi terminal (in downtown Kota Tinggi). You can do this, but in the heat it is not exactly a fun stroll. About 8 km, and then travelling back past my house would make it grim.  Plus, trying to ask for a destination could be a challenge with many of them.  The other option was happily given me. At the end of the road where I live (less than a km from the house) there is a bus stop - going in both directions. Either wait for a bus  - very fast (they come every hour or so with no real schedule) or flag a cab, which also would take about the same time.  You cannot call a cabbie, they don't speak any English. And the locals do not call them either. You just go to the terminal.  I am not sure why you would find your way to a terminal and then take a cab. If you can get to the terminal, why would you need a cab?  No one could answer that. So, it looks like my driver and I better get along, if my friends want to be mobile.

This is how things work in this part of the world. And Singapore is no better. You cannot call a cab there. You have to queue up at a taxi stand and wait for your turn, when a cabbie arrives. You have a better chance if you are staying at a hotel - there are usually cabs waiting for patrons of the hotel. But only if you are a patron.  AND, you have to know where the heck the hotels are and you have to know where the taxi queues are too! Better not be in a hurry.  But who is, over this way?