Passenger asks Grab driver to deliver groceries then refuses to cancel ride when driver declines
Farah Daley
Posted on 06 September 2018 | 12,733 views | 11 comments
Cancelling rides has long been a bone of contention between private-hire drivers and passengers.
For the drivers, cancelling rides can affect their monetary incentives and the availability of jobs.
On the other hand, passengers have to fork out $5 per cancellation when they cancel 3 or more times, across a rolling 7 day period.
One driver was frustrated when he accepted a booking from a passenger who did not need to travel somewhere but instead, wanted to get the driver to make a grocery run.
Screenshots of the exchange were posted on Singapore Private Hire Car Drivers & Riders Community's Facebook page.
It is unclear when this happened but the texts were exchanged on the Grab application.
After the ride was accepted, the passenger messaged the driver:
"Hello, there won't be a passenger. We just need some groceries delivered."
Despite the driver requesting the passenger to cancel the ride, the passenger went on to list what he wanted:
In a similar incident, Stomp previously reported on a passenger who had asked a Grab driver to help him buy cigarettes before picking him up.
In August last year, the Land Transport Authority said that taxi drivers and private-hire drivers are not allowed to be couriers or deliverymen for goods if there is no passenger on board.
LTA told The Straits Times: "Under our regulations, taxis and private-hire cars are meant to carry passengers for hire and reward, and cannot be used solely for the conveyance of goods."
Last month, local transportation start-up Ryde's announcement of its new service RydeSend was met with a warning from the LTA which said the service would "contravene the regulations prohibiting Public Service Vehicles such as taxis and private hire cars from solely conveying goods".
- A couple of drinks
- frozen lamb
- some chocolate