Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg
A woman in Singapore was left in an uncomfortable situation when her Tada driver texted and called her twice — apparently, in hopes of befriending her.
The woman, who wanted to be known only as Lily, shared that the incident took place in the wee hours of Friday, Apr. 7.
Background
According to Lily, the driver had accepted her ride request from Amara Hotel to her residence at around 2am.
Before alighting from the car, she had "a short friendly conversation" with the driver, who mentioned that he lived nearby.
Lily subsequently realised that she had a received a message from the driver on the Tada app, with a request for friendship.
Photo courtesy of Lily
She did not respond to the text.
Afterwards, the driver called her on her mobile phone twice.
She picked up on the second call as she was unsure if there had been issues with the trip.
But when the driver asked to confirm her name, Lily told him that he had the wrong number "out of fear".
"I am certain that the calls were for no valid reason as I had not left any of my belongings behind in the car, and we had not encountered any issues during the trip," Lily said.
"Further, if there had been any issues, I believe [the driver] would have highlighted it at the first instance or tried to reach me via the text messaging function."
Lily then lodged a report with Tada.
Speaking to Mothership, Lily explained: "I believe if there's a genuine connection and both parties are agreeable, it is definitely a possibility that a private hire driver can make friends with a passenger."
"However, it's also a fine line — every individual has different boundaries, and private hire drivers should also conduct themselves in a professional manner."
She added that the incident was particularly frightening as she is a female who lives alone, and the driver could have easily followed her to where she lives, compromising her safety.
Not allowed
In response to Mothership's queries, a Tada spokesperson confirmed the incident and clarified that such "unprofessional" behaviour is not allowed.
"To protect the privacy of our users, numbers are masked and interactions such as messaging take place in-app where no personal contact information is shared," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added:
"In order to ensure that the service is not abused, we wish to clarify that once a trip ends, our app does not allow drivers or riders to use the in-app messaging function.
In this case, our checks reveal that the driver did not end the trip after the rider left his vehicle and thus was able to make use of the in-app messaging function to reach out to the rider even after the rider had exited the vehicle."
As per company policy, drivers should only contact passengers for trip-related matters.
The spokesperson said:
"We regret that this ride has caused discomfort to the rider. We'd like to reassure the rider that no personal information was shared.
We are further investigating this issue and have reached out to the driver and rider, and will be taking the necessary action in accordance with our company policy."
Top photo via Tada/Facebook and Lily