Original and meaningful car stickers

TMM,Monday 27 February 2012 

The windscreen and bumper stickers found on many cars are confined to a few popular ones. As such, these readymade stickers lacked novelty. 

I wish to share some of the stickers that I have created and pasted on the taxis driven by me. 

My first sticker was on the window glass of the front doors of my premier taxi stating, “This taxi is free for nice people”. 

Many passers-by stopped, especially tourists, and with a smile on their face, took photographs of my taxi. 

Yes, I have given free rides for some passengers. One was Japanese who could hardly utter a word of English and yet had the courage to travel alone on a wheelchair! 

I did not realise that my heavy passenger was a woman until I lifted her into my taxi. Using all my strength, it was more like wrestling. 

The second was a group of schoolgirls out to collect cash for a donation drive. They just could not believe when I refused to collect the fare. 

On hindsight, I should have done so and immediately dropped the money into one of their sealed cans they were each clutching. 

I remembered a very elegant lady who upon reaching home asked me in a lovely accent whether my taxi was indeed free for nice people. 

I replied sweetly, “If you are prepared to be nice to me, it would be free”. She promptly paid although I would have preferred otherwise. 

At the top of the partition that separates the driver and the passengers in the premier taxi that I drove, I placed a notice “I don’t like being asked or told to use the meter. I always use the meter and don’t select passengers or trips”. 

To debunk the notion that cab drivers are fond of taking longer routes to clock higher fares, I added, “Please tell me your favourite route or deduct RM1 if you think I have driven an extra kilometre”. 

Many people noticed the sticker on the rear windscreen of my taxi “Nice people enrich my life more than money can”. It was photographed and published at the back page of a national daily. 

Unlike other premier taxi drivers who preferred to wait indefinitely at the hotels for their trips, I did not have the patience and preferred to pick passengers by the roadside or taxi stands. 

Taxi queues outside popular shopping centres used to be long. Quite often, those at the head of the queue were afraid to board my premier taxi, fearful of the high fares, while those behind do not wish to jump queue. 

At the rear door just below the windscreen, I assured onlookers with “If you don’t have enough money, you can pay me later or just donate the money to charity on my behalf”. 

Later, I drove a budget taxi with a sticker at the boot lid “Each time we give way willingly, our hearts grow a little bigger”. 

On the dashboard, I declared, “I speak, read, write and dream in English” which made many tourists at ease but to the consternation of some locals with a narrow sense of patriotism. 

Nevertheless, the world will be a better place if more people take it as their personal social responsibility by doing what we can. Most of us do not have a treasure to share. The least we could do is to contribute our talent or time. 

I have taken a break after driving taxis from 2000-2010 and am keeping my options open by renewing the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence annually. 

Among the other slogans and quotations that I have created, I will probably choose the one below for my next taxi. 

“Anyone can be successful in life by being happy and making others happy, with courtesy leading the way”. 

YS Chan 

Kuala Lumpur