S'pore taxi driver sacked after dropping off pregnant mum with 2 kids at Toa Payoh instead of Yishun because he wanted to go home

He's fired.

Zhangxin Zheng | August 23, 2022, 12:22 PM

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A man in Singapore shared an appalling experience that his pregnant wife went through involving a taxi driver here recently.

The Facebook post has since made the rounds online, gaining 3,600 shares since it was put up at around 1am on Aug. 22.

The cabby has since been fired by ComfortDelgro for his "unacceptable" behaviour.

What happened?

Zdhnray Mohammad recalled what happened to his pregnant wife and two children that evening.

At 9:54pm on Aug. 21, his wife and children called for a ride via ComfortDelgro's ride hailing app, now known as Zig, to travel from Marsiling to Yishun.

When the driver named Lim Chye Beng arrived at the pick-up location, he told the passengers to wait for him in the car while he smoked. The wait was more than 5 minutes, Zdhnray wrote in his post.

As it was a metered-fare trip, Zdhnray's wife told Lim her preferred route was to travel via Bukit Timah Expressway (BKE) to Seletar Expressway (SLE) to Mandai.

According to Zdhnray, Lim suggested to travel via CTE. However, Zdhnray's wife did not agree to his suggestion.

Halfway through their journey, Zdhnray's wife sensed something was amiss as Lim did not drive onto SLE but went onto PIE.

His wife didn't pay attention to where Lim was driving to earlier as she was taking care of her two toddlers.

She then asked Lim why he was driving towards Toa Payoh when her destination was in Yishun.

Lim allegedly got "defensive" and "lied" that "in front there is Mandai".

His attitude apparently got worse after asking about how much the passenger usually spent to travel from Marsiling to Yishun before allegedly saying: “Like that I drop you off at Toa Payoh. You go take another cab, I don’t want to drive you! I wanna go back home I stay at Toa Payoh. You are wasting my time and petrol”.

According to Zdhnray, his wife started getting panic attacks and called her husband.

He spoke to Lim directly via a phone call and asked Lim to send his family members to Yishun, but Lim refused, Zdhnray claimed.

Zdhnray said Lim eventually allowed his pregnant wife and two children to alight at Toa Payoh at around 10:30pm.

The receipt of the trip showed the fare to be S$27.15 when usually it takes less than S$20 for the passengers to get from Marsiling to Yishun.

Zdhnray said his wife was traumatised by the experience.

Cabby fired

In response to Mothership's query, Tammy Tan, ComfortDelgro's group chief branding and communications officer, said the hiring agreement with Lim has been terminated "with immediate effect".

"Our cabbies are expected to be professional by taking the right or preferred routes and completing every trip that they take. In this instance, the behaviour of the cabby was completely unacceptable," Tan said.

Tan added that the company has reached out to Zdhnray and his wife to render them assistance.