Non-payment of taxi fare and a sympathetic taxi company

My brief report of non-payment of taxi fare…

On 14/4/15(Tue) @0837hrs, I picked up a pax (current call booking) from Point A to Point B. We arrived at the destination @0916 hrs. The fare was $25.25.

The pax wanted to pay by Nets but my POS (Point of Sale) terminal machine was not working. It hang. The pax claimed that he had no cash with him. There was also no ATM machine nearby. As he was late for work rushing for time, he informed me that he would transfer the fare of $25.25 to my POSB savings account. I then gave him my account number by writing it on my name card. He took my name card with my POSB savings account written on it promising that he would transfer the fare over to my account asap.

Up till today, it’s already past 3 days I have yet to receive the amount from him. As part of driver welfare, I hope the company could assist me to get back the non-payment of taxi fare from the pax.

Looking forward to your kind assistance. Best regards.

Reply from company…

Dear Cabby,

We refer to the non-payment report you filed with the company.

We will follow up with the case with the passenger for the taxi fare payment.

Meanwhile, management is sympathetic of your unfortunate encounter of this non-payment incident. On compassionate ground and goodwill, management has decided to reimburse you the taxi fare to offset your operation losses.

A letter stating the date and amount reimbursed will be sent to your registered address by month end.

Should you receive the payment from the passenger, please update us.

Yours sincerely,

J T
Drivers Affairs

I started as a taxi hirer with my taxi company since 5th August 2014. This is the first time I encountered such an incident of non-payment by passenger. I didn’t know what to do when the passenger did not keep his promise to pay me the taxi fare. As a last resort, I tried seeking assistance from my company by emailing the management. The response was swift and comforting even though it’s a relatively small amount and it’s also not their fault. I should have insisted on his contact number and full particulars there and then. Since the passenger’s hp number was erased at the end of the trip, I could not contact him to claim back the fare. Only my company still has the details.

To quote Lohcifer, “The above episode clearly shatters all myths that taxi operators do not care about their hirers.” Prior to this incident, I did email to management about my taxi’s slight bald tires even after the monthly preventive maintenance. Straightaway, the workshop manager called me up to return to the workshop immediately to have the tires replaced. No questions asked. Yup, taxi operators do care for the welfare of their drivers. Safety is their primary concern.

Every few days, company will flash a message on our MDT (Main Display Terminal) to remind us to check our in-vehicle camera. If there is no blinking blue light, we will have to send it to the workshop for repair. The camera is to protect us in case of dispute in an accident with another vehicle. That camera really saved me one time when another vehicle hit against my taxi. Link

Once in a while, we also receive email from company reminding us not to pick up or drop off pax at locations with LTA cameras installed especially bus stops at certain locations. Even up to today, I still do not understand why taxi being a public transport is not allowed to pick up or drop off pax at bus stops even after restricted bus lane hours. Sometimes, I pity those pax especially those handicapped pax on wheelchairs waiting at bus stops on raining days for taxi. Talking about those LTA cameras, I had an unpleasant encounter with them when I personally went to LTA to appeal. I’ll blog about it other time.

Back to my non-payment of fare. If I had used 3rd party taxi app, do you think the company will bother to look into it? As such, I never use 3rd party taxi booking apps at all. Those 3rd party taxi apps do not operate and maintain fleets of taxis yet they shamelessly entice taxi drivers with all kinds of gifts if they hit booking targets. Is it fair to existing taxi operators with fleets of taxis to maintain not to mention the huge infrastructure costs incurred in its operations set-up? I’ll blog about 3rd party apps other time.

Suffice to say, those 3rd party taxi apps are taking an easy ride on the back of existing taxi operators when they take so many years painstakingly establishing and building up their taxi business operations. They blatantly advertise their 3rd party taxi apps as if it’s their god given entitlement hijacking existing taxi operators’ own taxi apps in the name of free trade and competition.