Hundreds of taxi drivers in Singapore saw their new, and allegedly year 2000-proof, fare meters go blank for up to two hours on New Year's Day, according to published reports.
Three hundred of the Singapore-based Tibs company's fleet of 1,500 taxis were hit by the computer failure, which forced the affected drivers to rush to an emergency repair facility, according to a report in the Sunday edition of The Straits Times Interactive, the online version of the city-state's leading English-language daily newspaper.
"It is ironic that this happened to taxis with the latest meters, which can print receipts and are also year 2000-compliant," said Tay Poh Choo, manager of public affairs at Tibs, in the report.
Tibs in December, 1997, started installing the new meters in select taxis, and it was only the cars equipped with the new meters that experienced the problem, the report said.