'Am I wrong to say that?' PHV driver insists on picking up passenger at condo entrance instead of lobby

When asked by a passenger to enter his condominium premises to pick him up, one private-hire vehicle (PHV) driver refused and stood her ground.

Driver Wendy Chan posted screenshots showing her conversation with the passenger in question along with the caption: "Am I wrong to say that? Please ask Grab. Every drop of petrol counts."

One of the images posted by Chan on Facebook page Professional PHV Drivers Singapore showed the pickup location as a condominium at Sixth Avenue.

However, the passenger whom Chan was to pick up requested that she come to a specific lobby inside the premises instead of meeting her at the main entrance.

In response, Chan insisted that she will only pick him up near the guardhouse at the condominium's main entrance.

She soon ended up cancelling the ride, citing "I don't want to complete this job" as her reason for doing so.

Chan's post garnered many responses from netizens, with some calling her lazy and some others praising and defending her actions.

One netizen wrote: "Lazy driver. [If you] don't want to do Grab, find a real job or [start a] business."

Another comment read: "This is one reason why fares are low nowadays. When people encounter drivers like you, do you think they will choose to take a PHV again in the future?"

A fellow PHV driver wrote: "Mostly when you drive down to basement, the location of your arrival will be wrong. If the person is late, the late charges will not be counted. It happened to me, at the time it was even worse, no signal on my mobile phone at all."

Some drivers also gave Chan advice for future rides, sharing their own practices.

"Most condos are okay, just need to drive more and be familiar," wrote one driver.

He added that he only avoids certain condominiums which are difficult to navigate or have multiple entrances and pickup points.

Avoiding condo pickups

Chan said in a later comment under her post that she will avoid condominium pickups unless there is a surge in pricing.

She also commented: "Thanks [for] all the comments, good or bad, [I] learned a lesson: Always follow the GPS [and pick up passengers only] where I can press arrive."

According to Grab's code of conduct, drivers should honour a booking they have accepted and not unreasonably cancel jobs or transfer a job to someone else.

They should also wait for their passengers for a reasonable amount of time before leaving or marking them as "no-show".

AsiaOne has reached out to Wendy Chan for more information.

ALSO READ: 'Are you playing around?' Woman ends up late for work after PHV driver takes detours to avoid picking her up

bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com