Grab driver cancels ride after cursed at by woman, says 'most degrading moment of my life'

What would you do if you're a ride-hailing driver picking up a passenger who starts berating you the moment they get in the car?

This was exactly what this Grab driver had to experience.

Sharing the anecdote in a Facebook post on Tuesday (Feb 14), the driver, who only wanted to be known Fu, said that he had turned back and cancelled a trip after a female passenger "started to shoot her mouth off" the moment she entered the car.

In the post, which was uploaded to a Facebook Group for private-hire drivers, Fu recounted the event, which he said started out "just like any other trip".

Fu also included a screenshot showing the pick-up location at the main entrance of Anglo-Chinese Junior College (ACJC) and ending at Queen's View in Queenstown.

This driver said that he was on his way when the customer informed him via the app's chat function that they had arrived at the pick-up location.

When Fu arrived, he said he "looked around" the area for the passenger before informing that he, too, had reached the location.

However, the passenger wasn't at the main entrance, he added.

He then wrote that a security guard there told him to wait by the main road and so he proceeded to make a U-turn.

When he was about to head out to the main road, he heard a loud knock on the left passenger-side window of his car. 

The passenger, whom Fu described as in her 40s, opened the door and "started to shoot her mouth off". 

"[She was] treating me like a kid who made a lot of mistakes. It was the most degrading moment of my life."

The driver then said he "sucked it up" and turned back to the original pick-up location, before cancelling the trip altogether. He then told the woman to "get out of my car".

"Everyone should have seen her face," Fu recalled, adding that the woman "was in complete shock".

Disembarking from the car, she "cursed and [swore]" at the driver and even threatened to complain about Fu to Grab.

This was the first time he had ever cancelled a trip after the passenger had boarded his car, he said.

Speaking to AsiaOne, the 33-year-old said that he had been driving part-time for 15 years.

He explained that the driver had accused her of driving away and not waiting for her.

Still "pissed" over this incident, Fu told AsiaOne that the car he was using was his own car instead of a rental one, and was using Grab as a part-time job to earn some extra petrol money.

Fu likened the situation to someone "coming into your house, s***ing in your place and slapping you in your face".

"But [at] the end of the day I'm not a savage, so I just ask them to get out of my car nicely," he said.

AsiaOne has reached out to Grab for more information.

Passenger booted out for adjusting car seat

This isn't the first time a ride-hailing driver has told a passenger to disembark from their vehicle following a dispute.

Last month, a video of a row between a customer and a Gojek driver, after the passenger had adjusted the car seat and air-conditioning without permission, went viral on TikTok.

In the three-minute video, the driver can be seen chiding the passenger for adjusting the car seat and air-conditioning without first asking the driver.

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After the driver called the passenger "siao" (Hokkien for "crazy") for asking if the ride had started, the passenger said: "No, you have to send me to my destination. I am not getting out of the car."

The passenger and the driver continued to engage in a heated verbal exchange where both threatened to inform the police, before the driver parked the vehicle at an open-air HDB car park and furiously told the passenger to disembark.

Responding to a Stomp query, a Gojek spokesman said then: "We do not tolerate negative outbursts or impolite behaviour of any kind towards passengers or driver-partners.

"We are currently investigating this matter and have reached out to both the parties involved to verify the details of the incident."

ALSO READ: 'He was the one who got lost': Woman accuses Grab driver of missing turn and trying to 'fleece' her

wongdaoen@asiaone.com

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