CityCab SHC7776M – Outrageously Dishonest Taxi Driver

Details of Complaint: • Taxi Plate no.: SHC 7776M • Taxi Driver: TAN ENG YONG • Journey: Tampines Century Mall to Punggol Edgedale Plains • Date of incident: 2nd Dec 2013 • Time: At about 2.15 p.m. • Venue: Tampines Century Square Mall Re: Totally Dishonest Taxi Driver Hi, I met a very dishonest taxi driver today and I penned down my unfortunate encounter below in the hope that should someone be as unfortunate to meet the same dishonest driver, he/she will lodge a complaint as well and let the relevant party deal with this dishonest driver so as to prevent similar unfortunate incidents from happening to other passengers, especially foreigners. Please note that though I am 100% Singaporean Chinese, I do look Eurasian to most people here (you will understand my point later below). I was just outside Tampines Century Mall hailing for a cab at about 2.15 p.m. on 2nd Dec 2013 with my fiancee, who is Eurasian, and my fiancee’s father who is a Caucasian (he has blonde hair). The above taxi came to a halt in front of us with the signal showing Hougang (c.f. changing shift at Hougang). I therefore guess it is logical to assume that this taxi driver, Mr. Tan, knows his way around Hougang since he is changing shift at Hougang. Regardless of whether he knows the routes in the Hougang area, judge for yourself whether the route that he took does not suggest anything of an intention to lengthen the journey so as to earn extra bucks. Anyway, we entered the cab and my fiancée said to go to Punggol. Immediately after, my fiancée spoke in French to her father throughout the journey. The driver then started the journey by making his first big detour out of Tampines: instead of going on TPE at the Tampines Ikea and Courts area to get to Punggol, the driver made a big detour by first entering Tampines Ave 4, then to Ave 7 and then enter TPE at Loyang area (TPE at Loyang is further away from Punggol than TPE at the Tampines Ikea and Courts area). By then, the journey was already taking way longer than usual to exit Tampines and enter TPE but I gave the driver the benefit of the doubt then by not thinking that he made a detour intentionally. At this point of time, we just entered TPE at Loyang. Then, I thought the driver would drive down TPE all the way straight until he will take Exit 9 for Punggol Road. Instead of taking this route, the driver made his second big detour and this time round it was totally ridiculous because when going on TPE, he exited to enter into KPE! That was when I got furious, and asked in Chinese where is he driving us to. Realising he might have gotten the wrong victims as there was a local onboard, he then replied hesitantly “this route would take us to Punggol right?”. This is one route that he cannot defend himself because exiting TPE onto KPE to get into Punggol is ABSOLUTELY DOWNRIGHT ILLOGICAL. I used to attend school at Temasek Poly for 3 years and have taken taxi from Century Square or Tampines Mall area to Punggol after hanging out at the malls after school but never ever have any taxi driver exit TPE to enter KPE so as to get to Punggol. Clearly, there was an intention to cheat because no driver would do that, not to mention an experienced taxi driver like Mr. Tan. The final bill came up to $14.64 but I paid $11 eventually as I usually pay this amount for the same distance. However, I feel seriously unjust to be treated this way and I believe that the professional ethics of this driver has to be seriously looked into. Please contact me at [email protected] for any follow-up on this case.”