Driver Dares Passenger To Complain SHD2154K Bencoolen

SM informs the following on 12/03/2012:

Last night; 11 March 2012 Sunday at around 9.15pm, outside IBIS Hotel Bencoolen lobby, I was there to fetch my Hong Kong friend to my place at Sengkang with 2 kids (10 and 11) and elderly lady (and myself.). A total of 3 adults and 2 kids.

The hotel's concierge service staff was at the lobby organizing the taxi and queue.

At that juncture, there were no crowd (only us) and only that taxi (SHD 2154 K) parking at the pouch. The hotel staff signal the taxi and he drove out of the pouch to the pick up point and seeing us having 5 persons, he told us that he could not took us. I understand the regulation and said it is fine.

The concierge staff suggested us to book a 7-seater taxi for SGD 50 per trip and I told him that was expensive. He then suggested that we booked 2 taxi and it was a great ideas and I asked him to go ahead to arrange. He signal the first taxi ((SHD 2154 K) to come by and told him that we have intended to go by two taxis instead of one. To my horrific surprise, he told the concierge staff that he doesn't want to take us and signal to the Caucasian lady (by now, she is behind us) to come forward to him. As both him and Caucasian lady were discussing on the route to go, I walked toward the taxi and lean forward to the passenger window and asked him “Are you choosing your passenger now?".

He replied me "What do I means" and I told him who was on the line first (me or the Caucasian lady) and asked him again is he choosing who he wanted to take?

By now, the Caucasian lady hearing our conversation has walked back to the queue. I told the taxi driver I am going to feedback to his company.

I was shocked to hear what he was going to say to me next...

He told me adamantly to go ahead to complaint and said thank you to me for complaining him.

He was challenging me to complaint on him!!!

And there after he drove off.

The arrogance and ugliness behavior of this taxi driver leave a bad impression of my visiting friend from Hong Kong and even as Singaporeans, I am freak out by this kind of customer service and attitude.

I am not a trouble maker and I certainly has no time to write complaining letter but because of his unbecoming attitude of being a service provider as taxi driver and insistence to ask me to complaint, I am determined to expose him to the authority.

This is the result of too many of us giving the benefit to these drivers and practicing a 'let it go' mindset when we encounter such ruffians. When a driver behaves rudely and sees that there is no repercussion, he will simply be emboldened to be even more rude the next time. It is just a matter of time before the driver becomes a thug or hooligan in car and by then it is too late to correct the attitude. This is the problem that we are facing right now and it was my intention to help change this forgiving mindset of taxi commuters. We must tackle bad behaviour when it rears its ugly head and not after it has become rooted as a habit.