Depending on the distance or road conditions, it is common for riders to wait for their private hire driver to arrive for pick-up. However, a Grab user recently shared his bad experience with a driver’s service.
He caught his driver red-handed while the driver was still dining at a coffee shop, leaving the user waiting for several minutes.
The user even drove his car to the driver’s location.
On Saturday (3 June), Abdul Karim Sadali, a Singaporean content creator also known as DJ KC, shared his negative review of Grab Premium on Facebook.
The 43-year-old son mentioned that on that day, he decided to help his mother book a Grab Premium as he was too tired to drive her back home.
“Booking accepted by the grab premium driver and so we waited. After 6-7mins the vehicle is still at the same place not moving. What could have happened?”
Hence, he started to make his own speculation: Maybe driver go toilet for bad stomach, mabe his vehicle’s wheel punctured, traffic jam, or probably the driver got a ghost issue in his vehicle.
However, out of curiosity, Mr. Karim decided to drive his mother to the location of the driver to find out what happened.
Karim said driver still “enjoying his dinner” at a coffee shop
“As I always assumed (because this wasn’t my first experienced) the driver just wasting time enjoying his dinner and waiting for me to cancel his booking so that I will get the fine instead and he could profit from it. ”
He said the driver was eating at a coffee shop beside the road where he parked his vehicle.
Mr. Karim later confronted the driver, showing him his active Grab booking. But the driver appeared to be stunned and all he could say was, “Sir, I don’t know.” He quickly canceled his Grab booking and left.
But Mr Karim added that it was until 20 minutes later the driver cancelled his booking. He believed that there are many times consumers have to cancel booking because of the waiting time “grab driver no show”.
“The grab booking system is flawed when it comes to us the consumers and again this wasn’t my first similar experience.”
Other netizens shared similar experiences
When commenting on Mr. Karim’s Facebook post, other netizens also shared similar experiences and expressed their complaints about drivers not showing up. Many of them have been left with no choice but to cancel their bookings.
One netizen shared his experience where the driver deliberately headed towards Changi Airport and stopped somewhere there instead of going toward him.
The netizen added that the driver did not respond to calls or messages, but he waited patiently until the driver couldn’t tolerate the situation anymore and canceled the booking.
In a discussion, one netizen raised a concern, questioning the fairness of the situation. She pointed out that if a passenger cancels a booking, they are charged a fine. However, if a driver accepts a booking and then cancels it, it is considered acceptable.
In response, another netizen explained that if the drivers canceling too many bookings, could lead to a loss of incentives and even suspension.
The second netizen gave scenarios where customers abruptly cancel bookings just as the driver is rushing to their location. In such cases, the driver incurs the cost of petrol without any compensation.
Some netizens suggested that the driver might have accidentally forgotten to switch off the app
Some comments in the discussion suggested that the driver’s phone may have been left in the car, and the driver might also have accidentally forgotten to switch off the app, resulting in confusion and delays for both the driver and the passenger.
Grab temporarily suspended the driver
According to a Grab spokesperson, as reported by Mothership, they have investigated the incident and temporarily suspended the driver involved.
“We are sorry to learn about this incident. Following a review of this incident and past records, we have reasons to believe that the driver-partner deliberately did not head to the pick-up point and hence we have suspended the driver.”
Regarding the options available to Grab drivers, the spokesperson mentioned that they can choose to go offline when they need to take a break.
It was also noted that rides are automatically accepted by default for Grab drivers who are online.
To ensure riders’ interests are protected and prevent such misconduct from driver-partners, the spokesperson explained that several measures are in place.
Firstly, the cancellation policy ensures that passengers are not charged when the app detects that the driver-partner is not heading towards the pick-up point or fails to arrive within three minutes of the estimated time of arrival.
Grab “actively review any suspected stalling behavior among driver-partners”
Secondly, they actively review any suspected stalling behaviour among driver-partners and take appropriate actions against them.
“As such, the vast majority of our driver-partners do not engage in such practices,” the spokesperson assured.
The spokesperson emphasized that the vast majority of their driver-partners do not engage in such practices, providing reassurance to the users.
“We encourage driver-partners and passengers to be understanding and check in with each other via a call or GrabChat before cancelling.”
