By now, most of us would know that private hire cars are not allowed to ferry passengers under 135cm in height without a car seat:

Offenders can face a composition fine of S$120 and three demerit points. If charged in court, they can be fined up to S$1,000 or jailed up to three months.

S$40 pick up

On May 16, a post shared to Facebook group COMPLAINT SINGAPORE claimed that a Land Transport Authority (LTA) officer had pretended to be a passenger in order to conduct spot-checks on Grab drivers.

The original post was written by one BenjaminShylyn Chang, the Grab driver who supposedly experienced the "spot-check".

According to Chang, he received a six-seater "pin" (which we presume to mean booking) at 9:30am on an unspecified day, from the Mandarin Orchard hotel to Changi Airport Terminal 4 for a fare of S$40.

No booster seat, advised to cancel

When the driver reached the pick-up point nine minutes later, the passengers were nowhere to be found.

Just when Chang was about to cancel the ride and leave, four adults and an infant appeared.

He wrote that he asked if the passengers had a baby booster seat, to which they replied no.

According to Chang, he then explained LTA's regulation to the passengers, and advised them to cancel the booking.

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Allegedly identified himself as a LTA officer

While the passenger who originally booked the ride complied and canceled the booking, Chang said that he then took out a pass and identified himself as a LTA officer.

At this, the driver admitted that he got agitated and asked, “Is that considered as a false booking? You have just wasted my time, effort, and petrol for the past 15 minutes.”

The supposed officer then replied, "This is part and parcel of being a PHV (private hire vehicle) driver.”  

At the end of the post, Chang acknowledges that he is "not sure if it's an official operation from LTA".

LTA: "There was no such operation"

In responses to queries from Mothership, a spokesperson from the LTA gave us the following statement — which we reproduce in its entirety:

“There was no such operation.”

You can read the original post here:

Top image from jo.sau/Flickr