Bad cabbies

S

simiwakokuey

New Member
Last Friday, I took a cab from my house to somewhere. I told the cabby that I need to pick up my friend at ave 3 when I board the cab before going to our destination. When we reached ave 3 my friend was not down yet and then cabby started to grumble. he told me that he had already taken a taxi booking call and he will be late if he needs to wait.
5mins later, he said he cannot wait and wanted me to alight, I told him I’m not gonna alight and he shouldn’t take a call before sending the current customer to their destination. He told me cab rule – they don’t wait for customers, its LAW. He told me to pay $5 and get another cab, I insisted I’m not gonna pay up so he threaten to call the police. In the end, my friend came down so he kept quiet but kept grumbling throughout the whole journery.

I’m little annoyed with cabbies behavior, I was very courteous initially but he just kept cussing. I’m writing this because I met this kind of cabbies couple of times, they show black face, bad attitude and always tell me they have already taken a taxi booking before hand. I want to know is it wrong of me to ask cabby to wait awhile to pick up my friend (waiting at carpark)?
 


I think he was doing you a favour by waiting, because if he reaches his destination fast, he can go off to get more customers. He will be able to make more money that way because he can earn the additional $2.80 or $3 instead of waiting in a carpark for the meter to jump slowly.

Next time if it happens again, and your friend is late, offer to pay the cabbie a little more for his time. Or if you don't want to pay, try to be more polite and say sorry and thanks for waiting.

Always be polite even if he shows a black face. He is not obliged to wait. He only went to the carpark because you said your friend would be there. But your friend was not there after 5 minutes. So whose fault do you think it is?

A cabbie is a business person and time to him is money. You are not his only passenger.

Imagine if all passengers were like you... and if 10 passengers make him wait 5 minutes each, he would already have wasted 50 minutes. That's a lot of time wasted.
 
passengers have their rights.... cabbies also have their rights.

the part abt "he shouldn’t take a call before sending the current customer to their destination" is simply ridiculous. or, do you think singapore is that big which takes 5 hrs to travel from place to place. of course, he was being unreasonable when he pulled in legal stuffs to unjustify the wait. but if we think abt it, at times it was understandable dealing with people like you, to be honest.

all in all, re-read joiedevivre's portion on your doubt.
 
Let's get this straight, he's NOT obligated to wait for your friend.

Taxi drivers are having a real hard time trying to make ends meet nowadays...and ppl like you aren't exactly helping by complaining here and there.

joie's post has already summed it all up, good one there joie
 
He can accept the booking yes but he should send me to my destination than chasing me off the cab. I'm not being unreasonable, I was polite to him and did tell him before hand that i need to pick up my friend at the carpark. But just 5mins after I boarded the cab, he told me he took a booking and insisted that I must alight at the carpark.
 
sometimes i get my sister to pick me up from my office, especially if we were going to go to the same destination. she would call me to let me know where she is so i can time myself .. if i'm caught up with doing something and know that i will be late, even by a few minutes, i would rather tell her to get down from the cab and let's grab another cab later when i'm done.
 
In such cases of arrangements, I will ensure my friend will be waiting for me at the pick up point before my arrival.

If my friend is late or not there yet when I got there, the person I will screw is my friend.

The cab driver took u and is fine because u mentioned picking up your friend. If you let known to him that you would likely be waiting for your friend, I believe the driver would not even taken you in the first place.

I would not be surprised that you would also be feeling otherwise if the cab driver never pick you up in the first place or juz reject your request and ask you to get down when you board on.

5 minutes is more than enough time to get down from the 25th storey to the carpark including waiting for lift. Much said, you should not be faulting others for the delay over your side.
 
What will you do if you have a best friend who is never on time? I always have to wait up to 45mins at the mrt stations, need 15mins to get down from 2nd storey? She told me she's on her way down when I called her at home.
 
I will tell her to find his/her own transport since they are always late. Tell her off lah, doesn't mean she's your best friend you let her be and be a dummy waiting for her pointlessly.

If you wanna continue tolerating all her nonsense, that's fine. Just don't do it at others' expense (in this case, the taxi driver).
 
Then don't pick her up lor. Ask her to go herself or ask her to come and pick u up lor if you are punctual.

So tough meh? What will you do if you are a cabby who suay suay kenna a passenger who's friend has such poor management of time?

Because of your friend having poor management of time, the cabby gonna kenna from his next customer who could be someone that always dial for his cab because he is a punctual cab driver and he might lose a recurring customer via this?

And you are still faulting him? For his grumbling probably... but it's caused by who?

Btw, next time just fly your friend's aeroplane if she keeps this up. Let her have a taste of it. Thats what we did to a friend and after that incident, he's always on time.
 
simiwako,

Because you have a friend with bad time management, you are complaining about the cab driver?

You are so Singaporean... your money so big?

Be reasonable, if you friend cannot be on time, don't pick up your friend. If you want to pick up, you have to tell the cab driver up front to wait.. Let the driver decide to take you or not... If he has a booking, very likely he cannot be too late and he cannot afford to wait..
 
I did tell the cabby the moment I boarded the cab thats what I usually do, I will also tell them I only have $50note in advance to ask if its ok. I have double confirm with my friend and she said she's confirming on her way down.
 
So? U still made the cabby wait right? You told the cabby picking up your friend right? Not waiting for your friend right?

And as of now you still think is okie that your friend made you'll wait right? And you think you are right because you are paying the cabby right?

That is why we are telling you your money is not that big.

That is also why we told you who is the cause of all this.

That is triple why we told you why the cab driver could be agitated about.

And this is also what makes you a bad customer. Because you could not see the entire picture even it's placed in front of you and keep insisting because you said, you pay, you are right.
 
But did you tell the cabby that he has to "wait"?

you already know your friend's pattern - perpetual late.. so even she said on her way down, you should know better.

The cab driver did pick you up and your friend.. and grumble along the way.. instead of being slightly apologetic for making him wait and therefore screwing up the next customer.. the next customer would then have a genuine complain against him (if he is very late) - you chose to complain about this "bad cabbie".

Do a little self-reflection won't hurt you..
 
So I have to tell him we have to wait then picking up. Then what about open the doors and chase me off the cab? tell me to open my big eyes and see the cab regulations sticked on the windows. Of course, I felt apologetic intially but he's attitude is bad.
 
Your 1st post, you wrote:

"When we reached ave 3 my friend was not down yet and then cabby started to grumble. he told me that he had already taken a taxi booking call and he will be late if he needs to wait."

Then you wrote later:
"But just 5mins after I boarded the cab, he told me he took a booking and insisted that I must alight at the carpark."

You gave me the impression that you were twisting the fact, to make it seem like you were right, and the cabby was totally at fault.

Because of your frd, he was late for the next booking. Do you know if the cabby get a complaint from that customer, he will get points deducted or gotten a warning from the company?

Be fair to the cabby. He is also earning a living. It's already not easy to be a cabby...every minute could be a possible business for him. They are not like you and me, earning a stable amount every month.

And be smart too. Get your frd to pick you up and not the other way.
 
In essence, the agreement initially was to pick someone up, not to wait. Which means, your side had broken the agreement.

Just because he is the service provider and you are the purchaser, it does not warrant you any rights over the provider's decision to end the trip because you had violated the initial agreement.

Because you are paying, does not make others at your disposal. Your previous acts of cab boarding has no issues to be relevant of this case. And your second post has twisted contents tainting the cabby in bad light.

You mentioned he asked you to alight after waiting for 5 minutes at the carpark in your initial post. But your second post mentioned he straight away ask you to alight at the carpark when you told him you need to pick someone up.

That speaks much of it.
 
Ok guys cool it. I would say fault was on both sides. TS has a sickening friend who has no sense of timing at all and that is her part of fault. Cabbies nowadays also have a sour attitude and no matter how nice and refined you behave to them, they treat you awful. Its just the nature of some cabbies as individuals. Lets just learn to correct the mistakes on our part and reduce the chances of future mishaps.
 
Now open the door to chase you somemore.

I think the next post from you would be the cab driver dragging you by your collar and tossing you out of the cab.

Nothing to feel heated about Lya. TS keep prata-ing and seeking for acknowledgement only.
 
No mah.... As the story goes I would not be surprise the cab driver suddenly morph into a serial murderer or what. It's progressive tainting you see. Adding more flavours to the stand.

Initially I feel cabby grumble okie lah not that nice. Easily solve. TS is like a victim because the friend not steady and make people wait till like that.

But as it goes, I start to see TS following up action in bad light too from all the little actions presented. Just want to make the cab driver in the wrong like that and ignoring the act of her BEST friend.
 
lya,

"Cabbies nowadays also have a sour attitude and no matter how nice and refined you behave to them, they treat you awful."

I think this is a sweeping statement... yes there are bad cabbies.. but not "Cabbies nowadays also have a sour attitude".

If you have a specific complain fine.. but not fair to say they have sour attitude in general.
 
wow... some much dispute on this. Frankly, I'm pretty sure this has happened to many people before lah. not so uncommon.

1) the cab driver was rude.
2) it is also not entitlement to expect the driver to wait.

So, yes, bad cabbie, because he is not the least flexible and rude. Especially if customer alerted ahead and was polite and friendly throughout. Its leaves the customer with a sour after taste. But, should we complain and get his rice bowl broken for that? Everyone has a bad day.
 
Of course there are bad and rude cabbie.. definitely, there are so many cabs out there.. must have their fair share of bad cabbies..

If I need the driver to wait, I would have told him so when I first boarded... then he can choose not to take me.. fair and square..
 
Was the cab's door an automatic door? I guess he jus opened it cos he wanted you to alight.

I think the cab driver was probably not sure how long more he had to wait. It may be five minutes, it may be 10 minutes, it may be 15 minutes...

Just out of curiosity, anyway, how many minutes did the cab driver wait before your friend finally came down?

As an experienced cabbie, he probably knew how long it would take to get to from one place to another. Maybe he calculated that it will take x minutes to get you to your destination, so that would give him time to go and pick up the customer for the booking.

Bookings bring in extra money... As long as he times the journey correctly and the passengers dun give trouble, it won't be a problem. If he waits till you are safely at your destination before he takes up a booking, he would've lost the chance to make more money. Who's going to compensate him then?

It's not like you both offered to tip him right? From your posts, it seems you prob got out of the cab with a black face too.

With regards to the bad attitude of some cabbies, it is true some of them are bad tempered. But those are quite rare. Majority are polite and nice. Furthermore, in this case, I don't think the cabbie was at fault.

Maybe you dun mind waiting for your fren, but he is working, and he minds. Please go and tell your tardy friend that in future she must be truthful about how late she is going to be.

If she is already going to be late, the least she can do is to respect you by being honest, instead of lying and saying things like "coming down now" when she is not.
 
SM,

You read the first sentence but left out the second...

"Cabbies nowadays also have a sour attitude and no matter how nice and refined you behave to them, they treat you awful. =>Its just the nature of some cabbies as individuals."

I meant some, I myself have come across very nice cabbies as well as rotten ones. It should be attributed to the different individuals they are, not as cabbies. It's a stereotype that people of a certain profession are of certain character. Could depend and vary from person to person..
 
today i had a good day. i took 3 cabs and all 3 cabbies are very nice to me.

1st one(morning 9am) : told him i need to nap and he nicely woke me up when i reached my destination. my fare came to $xx.20 and he waived the $0.20.

2nd one(3pm) : nice, friendly

3rd one(6pm) : joked with me.

see, not all cabbies are bad.
 
joiedevire,

as a fellow driver, have to disagree with the min precision planning. He should realize its quite impossible to stick to such timings one lah. All we take is a few hoggers on the highway, we would be late by at least 5 mins. no? You don't even need any accidents or road construction to impact the timing.

Sm, agree with your point.
 
Milo,

I don't think it is precision planning on the part of cab driver. But is a cab driver expected to wait to wait for passengers.. and what is the limit? 5 mins, 10 mins? He probably has to contend with all the uncertainties on the road.. and definitely the waiting part is not what he has in mind and adds to the frustration.

Like if I am in a hurry and someone ask me to pick him / her up. I would be very frustrated if the person is not there waiting for me and I have to wait for that person - taking more than 5 mins to come down. It happened to me before.. and I was waiting by the side of a busy road.. it was on the way for me.. I was in hurry and if she was on time waiting for me is ok.. she said she coming down and I left my house.. took me 10 minutes to reach there and shucks.. I was waiting for her by the side of the road causing some obstruction and congestion... a minute is even too long to wait in such a situation..

I would say in all fairness, a minute or 2 is the max. Nothing beyond that. If he needs to wait beyond that, he has to be forewarned or you are going to pay him a premium for waiting.
 
lya,

Yes. I read the second sentence.. But probably I give more emphasis to the first sentence.. you should have used "some cabbies" Anyway is not a big thing as you also rightly point out that we should minimize mistake on our part..

But I don't agree the blame is on both sides. Or even so, The passenger is more to blame than the cab driver and she still got the cheek to complain.
 
sm, to clarify, I am speaking about joidevire's response about calculating x mins. Shouldn't experience tell us its not really possible to be this precised?

"As an experienced cabbie, he probably knew how long it would take to get to from one place to another. Maybe he calculated that it will take x minutes to get you to your destination, so that would give him time to go and pick up the customer for the booking."
 
Milo,

cabbies do make estimation especially when deciding to take a call booking... so give and take 5 to 10 mins of extra time on the road - based on road conditions - is reasonable.. but they don't expect to have to wait for someone at the car park for 5 mins.

So although precise timing mentioned is not realistic.. the gist of it is there... basically the waiting time is not in the cabbies calculation at all..and hence he is frustrated because it was not planned for.. If there are accidents on the road that impact his next trip, he would not feel as frustrated as it is beyond human control.. but waiting for someone.. a irresponsible passenger is not in his reckoning.. or perhaps cabbie in SG has to be more understanding and prepare to wait for passengers? I don't think this is good thing at all for the taxi operations and us passengers. Imagine our call for taxi cannot be so punctual because the cabbie has to wait for some passengers before us..
 
hi sm,

I'm talking about having the flexibility in timing generally in driving. This kind of precise planning should be expected to be delayed. So, its quite lame to say oh... I have a booking and therefore cannot afford any delays.

However, I have never see the request for the driver to wait as an entitlement. It is not. But, the reason of a booking made ahead is just as lame. Would a cab driver drop u off half way to make it on time for another booking? The answer is clear right?
 
Yes, expected to be delayed but not because of waiting for passengers.. because it is not expected to be..

I don't think it is a lame excuse. The drive is not dropping off half way to make it on time for another booking but upon reaching the first destination and he realized he has to wait .. I am not too sure how long he has to wait and it is not fair to ask him to wait indefinitely when he has another booking.

It his not precise planning but something "that can be humanly controlled but screwed-up because of bad time management". He offered to take $5 to ask the passenger to take another cab - reasonable enough as passenger wanted him to wait for his friend - something he has not planned.

It is a fact that cabbie take booking all the time. And while going to take booking and he is on the way to pick up some passengers, why not. If the passenger has special request like waiting.. that should be made upfront.. and not on reaching the destination.. and cannot tell how long to wait.. If you are the driver, how would you feel?
 
hi sm,

realize that we are talking about different thing here? Why you keep mentioning about waiting for passenger? I told you I agree with that. But no so with the reasoning that his planning is of X mins. This is really the point that I'm pointing out and disagreeing. One cannot expect to stick to schedules like bible on the road. Experience would tell us that. No?

If the reasoning to stick to X min is so valid, then he should really drop passengers in order to meet his unrealistic schedule.

He could just decline the request to win citing he cannot wait indefinitely and its not in their policies to wait for customers. Citing that he is rushing for the next passenger is really not respecting the current passenger. How would you like to be serviced by someone that tell u he has no time for u and rushing for the next coming customer?
 
milo,

Yes. we are talking about the same thing.

Now, the passenger has an agreement with the cabbie on the destination.. and also in between to pick up someone at xyz place. This is the agreement and he has factor in the time for going to xyz and to the final destination before he will take his next booking.

Now after having arrived at 1st desitnation point, he was asked to wait. This is not in the agreement. This is the point I am saying. You seem to think that the driver must factor in this "unknown" of waiting. I disagree. And if you agree that the driver that "asking the cabbie to wait" is not the right of the passenger, the driver has a right to terminate the agreement there and then.

Whatever "x" mins on the road is a moot point. If he was catch in an accident along the way.. then his luck.. he can't blame anyone.. BUt in this instance, the "waiting" is purely man-made and it can be resolved if passenger agrees to pay $5 and get the next cab..

If I take a cab.. and I ask the cab driver to wait.. either it is a short 1 or 2 minute.. If I need longer I would offer to pay a premium. If the driver cannot afford to wait (say I ask to wait for 15 mins) then I would offer to pay him and end of story and get another cab.

You know in this incident. The cab driver cannot decline in the first instance when TS boarded the cab because she did not tell him upfront that she needs him to wait.. If she has told him, he will most probably not pick her up.. then perhaps another complain of cabbie choosing customer.
 
sm, no, its not the same thing for me.

If a cab driver has this idea of X min as a requirement, then its clearly a wrong requirement to begin with. 2 wrongs don't make 1 right.

Wrong for passenger to expect driver to wait and to insisting on not aligning. And also wrong for cab driver to be rude & impatient and be in a mad rush till he has no buffer to cater for foreseenable issues.

e.g. if the driver intends to change shift, he would alert ahead that he only accepts those in the similar route. This is the kind of requirements we state in the agreement, not X mins. How to quantify that? So many variables.
 
You don't see my point.. No point in arguing. The incident started because TS created the incident by insisting to wait for her friend.. definitely the cab driver is not happy.

Anyway, our difference in point of view is not important.
 
We saw the other thread where TS challenged customer to tone down and got herself sacked. It does reflect alot right? Both parties are at fault.

What's the point with all the grumbling? This is the thing I really hate about cab drivers. It natural to have disagreements from conflict of interests. But be more professional a bit lah. Those drivers that literally vent their frustrations on the customer should not be tolerated. Even if the customer was a bad one. One can decline and be firm without being rude. All the grumbling is uncalled for.
 
It is vice and versa.

Customer has a right.. but not to extent of abusing it.

Yes grumbling is uncalled for.. can complain to taxi company.

However, my personal take is to be more gracious. It is contagious.. A good customer will rub off on to the service provider.. No point wasting energies getting angry over something minor.. that can escalate into big argument.

When we have an encounter with bad service provider - yes, we should provide feedback.. at the same time we should demonstrate positive attitude by being gracious and not get into arguments.

We leave it to the service provider to improve our service. As consumers we do our parts..

I take interest in this incident because it is small problem encountered by passenger and it translated into "bad cabbies" - which is not entirely fair. We should do a little self-reflection.. Yes, cabbie is bad and rude and we can lodge a complain. But are we faultless in the first place. People complain but never look at themselves in the first place.
 
Thomas - Do you have that patient and energy to wait? Her "coming" may take 45min though she claim she is "coming"..... wahahahhahaha........ *wink wink*...
 

ahahhahahahhaa....sm I get your pun...like how she always makes others wait for her hor?

iris: hahahahhahahaaa...good one!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
WTS: Off-Shoulder Wedding Dress with Lace Detailing
Replies
0
Views
194
Mary Evangeline
M
C
Cheong Yip Kwong, William - The Wedding Solemniser From Hell
Replies
0
Views
2K
Chewmida
C
T
Confession of a married woman
Replies
0
Views
4K
Troublegal20246
T
C
advice from all please, urgent
Replies
4
Views
3K
novembernoodles
N
L
Feeling Lost in Marriage Life
Replies
1
Views
2K
DLo
D

Back
Top