The 22-minute delay and the passenger filming you
08:10, you pick up a businessman from an Orchard Road hotel for Tampines. The app booking estimated $22 and 25 minutes. On the CTE the PIE slip road is closed after an accident and traffic backs up for 20 minutes; you divert via Braddell Road and arrive 22 minutes later than the estimate. The meter reads $28.40. He says: 'You long-routed me. I'm not paying. I'm reporting you to LTA and posting your number plate.' He is already filming you with his phone.
1. What do you do and say in the next two minutes?
Read the worked answer
De-escalate; do not perform for the camera.
- Keep your hands visible and low, do not reach for or cover his phone, and do not raise your voice. Anything you do now may be published.
- Explain once, in plain facts: the PIE slip road was closed after an accident, the queue was about 20 minutes, and you diverted via Braddell Road. Point at the receipt: fare, time, distance, all on the printed record.
- Offer to call your operator's customer line from the car so the complaint is logged while he is still there, and give him the receipt whether or not he pays.
- Do not bargain the fare down off the meter to make him go away - the fare is the metered fare, and a private discount creates a second problem.
If he refuses to pay
- Do not block him, grab him, or grab his bag. Note his name, the time and the amount, and refer it to the operator, which can pursue it; fare evasion is also a police matter.
- Stay where you are legally stopped; do not follow him.
2. What evidence should exist by the end of the day, and why?
Read the worked answer
Preserve, don't reconstruct.
- The printed receipt and meter record - fare, flag-down time, distance and waiting time. This is the primary answer to 'you long-routed me'.
- The trip/booking log - GPS trace, request time, estimated fare and time, actual route and arrival time. The trace shows the diversion and that it followed a road, not a loop.
- Evidence of the cause - LTA/expressway traffic advisories for the PIE slip road closure, or a photo of the closure if you passed it, with a timestamp.
- Your own written account, same day - time, what he said, that he filmed, that you offered the receipt and the customer line. Memory degrades fast and a complaint may take a week to reach you.
- Keep it factual: no characterisations of the passenger. A complaint file with dates and records wins; a file with opinions does not.
3. A complaint is now open with your operator and with LTA. What conduct gets you into further trouble?
Read the worked answer
Things that turn one complaint into several problems
- Posting the video or his details online to 'clear your name'. Passenger data and images are personal data; publishing them invites a separate complaint and a data-protection issue.
- Contacting him privately to persuade him to withdraw. All contact goes through the operator's complaints process.
- Altering or re-issuing the fare record, or refunding in cash off-system, so the numbers no longer match the meter.
- Getting a colleague to post a supportive review - that is easily spotted and destroys credibility.
- Losing the receipt stub or the trip log by the time you are asked for them.
What actually helps
- Cooperate fully, attend the interview, bring the records, and answer the specific question asked (was the route reasonable given the closure?) rather than re-arguing the whole trip.
- Treat the passenger courteously if he books again. A clean record afterwards is the strongest mitigation.