Brunei's Local News - Brudirect.com

Bandar Seri Begawan - Operators of illegal taxis in Brunei are generally the unemployed and underemployed in Brunei who have access to or own vehicles. They have found a niche for themselves by filling the gaps in the poorly-serviced public transport sector in the country and are here to stay as long as those gaps remain.

They generally pick up locals from bus-stops, charging would-be bus passengers just a $1 or a little more for the ride to their destination. The regular bus fare in Brunei is $1 per trip. Those who obviously look foreign and who look like they can afford to pay more would be charged accordingly.

For example, a regular taxi would generally reject anything less than $50 for a trip from the Muara ferry terminal to Bandar Seri Begawan or Gadong. However, pirateers would be willing to accept $30 or even $20 after some bargaining.

Whatever, one may say against them, these pirate operators seem to fill the gaps in the local transport service. Sometimes, passengers can

wait for buses for up to half an hour or more at stops.

As for regular taxis, they are sometimes not available or simply not there when you need them and they may be too expensive for some —charging from $5 to $50 for a trip depending on where one is going in Brunei Darussalam and round trip may cost double that.

So it appears that the pirate taxi operator has plunged in together with a calling card to provide future services as and when the need arises. Bus operators and regular taxi drivers may complain but until the gaps in the service they provide is filled, the pirate taxi operator seems here to stay.

Of course there is apprehension among some commuters of hopping into a private vehicle on the grounds of insecurity as was the case of Vaughan Nelson, 59, walking towards Pekan Muara from Muara Port. He was stopped by a person who offered him a trip to Bandar Seri Begawan for US$20 ($30).

Regular taxis would normally charge tourists between $30 and $50 for the ride. Nelson, however, rejected the ride saying he had be back on board his ship soon.

Nelson revealed that Brunei was the fourth country he had visited on his travel package with the ship, Costa Allegro, and he was very impressed with the beauty, greenery and general cleanliness of Brunei. He also expressed delight with the local people who he said were very friendly and courteous to him. He expressed his desire to bring along his children to Brunei in the future.

Another person who rejected a ride offered by a pirate taxi operator was Nelda Santos, 25, a Filipino woman working in the private sector. She was standing at a bus station along the Old Airport Road, and she had been offered a ride to Gadong for only $2 by a local male driving an old stationwagon.Nelda said she refused the ride since she was still new in Brunei, and, she was alone. She rejected the offer as she was afraid that the driver might behave indecently towards her along the way. She believes that she made the right decision.

However, Hishamuddin Abdul Rashid, a Bangladeshi contractor, who was offered a ride while waiting for a bus at a Jalan Muara bus stop with two of his friends, jumped at the offer. The driver charged them only $3 to take three of them to the capital.

Hishamuddin said that he accepted the ride as it was a cheap — the same amount they would have paid for the bus. Besides, they did not have to wait.

Pirate taxis are known to pick up regular bus passengers at bus stops. A foreigner working in Brunei has now become regular user of pirate taxis. He says he found them useful after he paid only $2 for him and his son for a ride to town after Friday prayers at the Jame 'Asr Hassanil Bolkiah one Friday afternoon.

In the same way that space does not like a vacuum, any vacuum in a market economy is generally filled by service providers, legal or illegal, licensed or unlicensed.

Yes, there are definite dangers such as lack of insurance coverage if there is an accident or the risk to vulnerable passengers whenever they get into unlicensed vehicles. Yet it appears there are enough people willing to take such risks to ensure the continued presence of pirates in the Brunei transport scene. That is, until holes in the service are filled by a proper public transport network. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times