Taxi driver touched after cleaner tips him $10, says she knows times are hard

Amid all the grand gestures like lighting up buildings and islandwide singalongs, sometimes it's the smallest things that show front-line workers just how much people care.

For taxi driver Kenneth Chan, it was a $10 tip from an unlikely passenger, he shared in a moving Facebook post on May 5.

The trip that evening had started out normally enough, Chan said. He had picked up a woman at Vivocity and ferried her to her home at Toa Payoh, enjoying a pleasant chat along the way.

But when it was time for payment, the passenger, who had told him that she was a cleaner, handed him $25 for a $15.87 fare.

"I told her there is no need to give me so much as money is hard to make… but she insisted [on] giving me as she knows times are very hard and that taxi drivers are really having a very hard time," the Premier Taxi driver wrote.

Despite Chan's protests, the woman would not take no for an answer, telling him that "it is better to give than to receive."

"She may not be well off as she stays in a one-room HDB flat… but she has a very rich heart," he wrote.

"Those who are kind will never lose out. And if a person is grateful, one can actually be another source of light to touch other lives. Keep the faith."

The simple act of kindness tugged at netizens' heartstrings and prompted an outpouring of praise for the woman's generosity.

One wrote: "We need to protect people like this. There are many simple folks who are generous like this."

Another commenter said the woman was a "rare gem".

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Times are tough for many, especially with Singapore facing a recession, but taxi drivers in particular have been hit hard by the impact of Covid-19.

Cabbies and private-hire car drivers have seen their takings "fall significantly" since more have been staying home and visitorship to Singapore has dropped, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said in Parliament on March 26.

Despite financial aid initiatives such as the Self-Employed Person Income Relief Scheme, which grants eligible drivers $1,000 per month for nine months, as well as Special Relief Fund payments of $300 per vehicle per month, many are still turning to alternative sources of income.

Some have been redeployed as transport ambassadors at MRT stations, where they ensure that commuters adhere to safe distancing guidelines.

Others are supplementing their income by making food and grocery deliveries after they were given the green light to do so by the Ministry of Transport in March.

kimberlylim@asiaone.com

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