'Can choose customers?' Man laments after taxi drivers at Gardens by the Bay refused to pick him up

There was a line of taxis waiting for passengers at an empty taxi stand in Gardens by the Bay.

But one man took to social media after claiming that he had been refused a ride there—not just once, but at least five times.

In a Facebook post on the Complaint Singapore page on Saturday (June 1), Rabi Leo said that the "five to six" taxi drivers there all declined to ferry him to Sengkang.

He claimed: "One uncle said, 'You should ask the front one'. Then I told him. 'In front all don't want to pick up'. He replied, 'Then you ask behind'."

"I know times are tough, but this is not like other counties. Can you just choose and pick customers?"

Lamenting that it's not the first time taxi drivers had refused to pick him up, Leo urged the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to look into the matter.

"One kind uncle previously said that all of them are waiting to go to the airport," he said. "So they are waiting to find [a customer] who is going near that location."

Leo's post has since garnered more than 140 reactions.

In the comments, several netizens advised Leo to report the incident to the relevant authorities.

"Necessary action should be taken by LTA," one of them said, while another commented that it is "sad" that there are taxi drivers who are "doing this".

Other netizens shared their past experiences of getting rejected by private-hire vehicle drivers and cabbies.

"The taxi driver at the taxi stand was blatantly waiting for call bookings," one of them said.

Another netizen simply said: "Some of them choose customers, yet want to complain when business is bad."

AsiaOne has contacted Leo for more information.

Can taxi drivers 'pick and choose' passengers? 

In a media reply in August 2019, LTA said that it is an offence for taxi drivers to refuse to pick up and ferry passengers without valid reasons.

"It carries a composition sum of $300, six demerit points, as well as a possible two-week suspension of the vocational licence," they said, adding that this rule is spelt out to every taxi driver at the point of receiving their taxi licences.

LTA advised passengers who encounter incidents of taxi drivers cherry-picking passengers to call 1800 2255 582 to make a report.

Passengers should provide information such as the vehicle's registration plate number, date, time and a brief account of the incident to facilitate investigations, they added.

ALSO READ: 'Not easy to get a taxi': Flagging a cab is getting harder, but still a 'vital niche'

chingshijie@asiaone.com