Ryde passenger told to get out after asking driver to speak 'little bit nicer': 'Who's being the rude one?'

The New Paper
Oct 13, 2023

Days after a Grab driver was suspended for racially abusing a passenger and telling him to “get out” of his vehicle, it seems another private-hire driver – this time from Ryde – has thrown a similar tantrum.

TikTok user Oh.bellyflebby shared a video detailing her unfortunate experience with the RydePool driver, which ended with her being chased out of the vehicle mid-journey.

RydePool is the ride-hailing application’s carpooling service, where passengers share rides with others travelling in the same direction.

@oh.bellyflebby

She explained that she had booked a RydePool ride in Tanjong Katong Road at Paya Lebar Quarter (PLQ) 3.

"Due to the number of pick-up and drop-off points in PLQ... it's quite common for drivers to get lost and confused about where to stop. (So) I dropped a message to the driver to clarify that I'm at PLQ 3," she said.

True enough, there was confusion over the pick-up point, with Oh.bellyflebby alleging that the driver “turned in the wrong direction”.

At this point, the driver seemed to have grown frustrated over the back-and-forth texts between him and his passenger, and messaged that she “was treating him like (her) personal driver."

In one message, he remarked that he was “doing [her] a personal favour by giving her a lift" since it was a hitch ride.

"Excuse me, it wasn't like I was asking him for a favour. He willingly accepted a ride that I was paying for," the woman said in her video.

After 20 minutes of waiting, she finally boarded the vehicle – but things continued to spiral from there. 

Oh.bellyflebby claimed that the driver rudely shouted at her to put on a seatbelt. She added that he did the same to the second passenger who boarded the hitch ride shortly after.

"The lady got a shock. She looked at me confused," Oh.bellyflebby said. "I told the driver, 'Hey uncle, you can speak to us a little bit nicer. That would be nice'.

"He then pulled up the gear stick, and looked like he was about to throw me a punch. He turned around and said, 'What do you mean, who's being the rude one?' 

She said the driver then abruptly cancelled the ride, and told her to "please get out” of his car.

"The next driver who picked me up was shocked. He told me it's illegal for drivers to chase their passengers out of the car after they have accepted the ride," she wrote in the captions.

In the comments, several netizens criticised the driver's attitude.

"What's with all these rude drivers nowadays, seriously?" one user wrote.

There were some, though, who said there are two sides to every story, and that Oh.bellyflebby could have also upset the driver in the first place.

One also pointed out that the pick-up confusion was likely her fault:  "Based on your screenshot, you put the pick-up point as PLQ mall and not PLQ 3, which is an entirely separate building.”