A late-night cab ride turned awry for a pregnant woman with two young kids in tow, after their driver gave them the boot midway through the journey, leaving the family stranded.
The ComfortDelGro taxi driver has since been let go from his job following the incident.
In a viral Facebook post by a user named Zdhnray Mohammad on Monday (Aug 22), he described how he’d called for a cab for his wife and two kids at 9.54pm on Sunday for their journey from Marsiling back home to Yishun.
Zdhnray described his wife as being “heavily pregnant” while their two children are of toddler age.
When the driver arrived, Zdhnray alleged that he first made the three passengers wait for more than five minutes while he took a smoke break outside his car. But things soon took a turn for the worse.
“Since it’s not a fixed fare, my wife instructed the driver [to go by] her preferred route (BKE – SLE – Mandai). However, he suggested [going] via CTE, but my wife declined as it was clearly out of the way,” Zdhnray shared.
His wife was then busy tending to the sleepy children and only realised too late that the cabby had driven past the entrance towards SLE.
“Feeling something was off, my wife checked the map and told the driver, ‘Uncle, I say Yishun. Why you want to go towards Toa Payoh?’ wrote Zdhnray.
But he claimed the driver became defensive when his wife pointed out the missed turn.
Shared Zdhnray in the post: “The driver was defensive and lied saying ‘No, in front there is Mandai’, when it was clearly heading towards Lornie Rd/Braddell.”
When asked by the driver how much it usually cost her to travel from Marsiling to Yishun, she told him that it was “less than $20”.
Driver Accused of Being Inhumane
But to her horror, the cab driver became “angsty”, and he replied, “Like that I drop you off at Toa Payoh. You go take another cab, I don’t want to drive you! I wanna go back home I stay at Toa Payoh [sic]. You are wasting my time and petrol”.
Shocked by the driver’s response, his wife began to have a “panic attack” and experienced shortness of breath, said Zdhnray, who received a call from his wife at that point.
He added: “When on speaker, I ordered the driver to send my wife and kids back to Yishun but the driver just refused to do so.
“Without any sympathy, the driver just alighted my wife and kids at Toa Payoh and refused to send [them] back to Yishun despite him being in the wrong and knowing that my pregnant wife is with two sleepy toddlers.”
Zdhnray also claimed that the reaction from ComfortDelGro’s hotline staff when his wife called them up in tears did little to alleviate her distress.
Before his wife could finish describing the situation, the customer service representative had allegedly asked, “Since the driver offered you $20, why are you still crying?”
“Only after my wife explained the whole thing, then the officer started to acknowledge my wife’s traumatic experience,” wrote Zdhnray, calling the situation “utterly disgusting”.
“Not only the driver was rude, he was inhumane to drop at a place that was far from the actual destination despite knowing that my pregnant wife was with two toddlers who were crying from this whole situation [sic].
“What kind of human does that?! In addition, poor service from ComfortDelGro,” shared Zdhnray.
A screengrab of the receipt which he posted online showed that the harrowing journey ended at 10.45pm and cost $27.15.
Zdhnray added that his wife is still suffering from panic attacks and has trouble sleeping.
When contacted, ComfortDelGro’s group corporate communications officer Tammy Tan told AsiaOne in an email reply that the cabby’s actions were “unacceptable”, and his employment has since been terminated.
Said Tan: “Our cabbies are expected to be professional by taking the right or preferred routes and completing every trip that they take.
“In this instance, the behaviour of the cabby was completely unacceptable. As such, we have terminated his hiring agreement with immediate effect. We are also in contact with the passenger and her husband to convey our regret at what had transpired and to render them assistance.”
This article was first published on AsiaOne and republished on theAsianparent with permission.