Is commission really king? Is taxi driver commission an unwritten law we must abide by? Is commission the sacred right of a driver? Will their bread bowl deplete to ashes if commission is not earned?

When we opened for business, or any business for that matter – Customer was King. This has been a time worn adage. We opened to bring a quality product to Penang and to offer to tourists, both domestic and international, knowledge and appreciation of the spice trade in Penang and the array of fabulous uses. Indeed everything we do at the gardens since has been for the benefit of our guest – clean pathways and toilets, new product ranges, customer care training, a user friendly website and the list is endless.

But 5 years on, and it seems we have a new competitor for our attention, pirates who have hijacked customers rights and privileges. Rugrats whose illegitimate takings have been perversed and broadcasted to us as rights. We now have a satellite customer who robs us rather than blesses us with business.

Taxi drivers in Penang have been known for their mafia-like ways – suave and charming with their customers but preying hawks on tourism businesses in Penang. Money rules the day and as long as the business pays attractive commission, the drivers support is guaranteed. Nevermind we are the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, no commission no go. This counterculture we call taxi drivers are undermining all tourism promtion efforts for places based on merit and quality for the greater evil of hard cash. Honestly, what sector is free from the corrupt greed of money? Certainly not tourism, any longer.

And God bless you if you don’t even hitch a charming driver but a surly, ignorant beast of prey…for these truly are of the worst kind.

Daily our staff are accosted by fleeting, poorly thought through remarks made by taxi drivers as my girls put up with a tirade of complaints and threats spewing forth. Threats of boycotting the business and closing us down! And it’s not even about not paying commission on the door (yes I have no shame in admitting this – as I consider myself a victim to the system) but about the incessant demands of commission from customers purchases at the Gift Shop. We at Tropical Spice Garden pride ourselves in possessing the most primitive system of paying commission – the driver needs to identify himself at the door or sorry mate. So yes, this translates to him having to make the trek up the hill. If he completes the ‘race’, we pay – fair and square.

But not to our swarm of poison locusts who demand for their commission to be presented to them – labeled and stored away in their commission safe if they are unable to claim it on the day itself.

And so the line of arguement clearly becomes that their commission is their God given right. It’s their bread and butter. It’s part and parcel of working as a taxi driver/ limo driver. And what does one expect when other outlets in Penang can pay up to 40 – 50% on their sales. What protection is the customer receiving?

With foreign tourism having slowed in the last 5 years or more, drivers around the island seem to getting more desperate for their ringgit commission. They have no concept that their corrupted view of tourism has contributed to our tarnished industry. They could not fathom that their money grabbing ways and lack of integrity as a service provider – the frontliners of the tourism sector – is keeping the genuine tourism dollars away from the island, to speak boldly.

We all want to earn money – as I am so undelicately reminded as the drivers hammer this down me each week – yes sir, I too want to earn money. But through what means and lengths are we prepared to go? If products and rates become exbortitantly high in order that you can earn one more meal through commission there won’t be any customers left at all. The traveler the world over has wisened up.

I have always regarded commission as a bonus – earned. And the question begs that if drivers believe so strongly that their commission is rightly theirs, then be open and commonplace about it. Why the quick hand tactics and the out of customers eyes?

Perhaps I am too harsh because of the many mortifying, unpleasant experiences at our entrance. I do think commission has its place but surely it is the prerogative of the giver and not the receiver?

So it is daily perplexing as we face the torrent of incessant taxi driver grievances. So and so pay more than you, so and so offer this much commission at their places, etc. And as my mind switches off  (I am learning the art of silent defence) my mind rolls to the unreachable – where folk work for the genuine love and good.