Fed up with the perennial long waiting times for taxis, their unavailability during evening peak hours or cabbies who refuse to pick up anyone even when their cabs are empty?

You can soon complain about these to taxi service auditors as the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be hiring a private company to conduct anonymous checks on cabbies.

The data will be submitted every month and used - together with the LTA's quarterly audit of taxi service standards - to identify and address problem areas, according to a report in The Straits Times today.

The mystery checks will target about 500 taxis every three months to determine the level of service provided by cabbies and rate the respective firms accordingly.

According to an LTA spokesman, the audits will be based on actual trips the auditors take. The drivers will be assessed on service attributes like appearance, conduct, driving skills and route familiarity.

The "taxi sleuths" will also :

- Talk to 300 regular taxi users each month to gauge public opinion on taxi services

- Monitor taxi occupancy rate at 10 locations on the outskirts of the Central Business District every six months.

- Conduct monthly surveys of waiting times at 50 taxi stands around the island

LTA's surveys of evening peak hour waiting times over the past six months identified problem areas, which include Raffles City, Centrepoint and Ngee Ann City. The worst of the lot was the Ngee Ann City taxi stand, where it took an average of 56 minutes to get a cab between 10pm and 11pm in February.

The findings tally with those from a poll of 800 people carried out by The Straits Times last month . Most of them said phone bookings were often the only way of getting a taxi in the city during the 5pm to 11pm peak period.

The problem becomes more acute between 8pm and 11pm - more than 20 minutes to get through to an operator on a taxi booking line, and as long as 30 minutes after that for the taxi to show up.

Commuters are peeved by three main problems - long waiting times, unavailability of taxis in the city during evening peak hours and cabbies who refuse street flag-downs.

This article first appeared in AsiaOne on 25 July 2007