Sโ€™pore Taxi Driver Shares His Experience With a Fare Evader Along With Some Wise Words


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Itโ€™s tough being a taxi driver on the road. On one hand, you have to sit on your ass for long hours with only the occasional toilet break, and as readers of Crayon Shin-Chan would attest to thatโ€™s like a one-way ticket to free Hemorrhoids.

And then, on the other hand, you gotta deal with all the miscellaneous stuff yourself. Rental expenses? Your own taiji. CPF? Bo taiji.

Image: Giphy

Indeed, being a taxi driver is a pretty arduous job. Not as bad as being a firefighter or Peter Parker, obviously, but I reckon itโ€™s pretty close.


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But once in a while, being a taxi driver can be the worst job in the world. Having to deal with completely unreasonable passengers is one of them.

And encountering fare evaders is another.

Just ask 36-year-old Stomper Sanchez, who waited thirty whole minutes for his passenger to turn up with the payment. And the end result?

A total blank.

What happened?

According to Stomp, Sanchez, who has been a ComfortDelGro cabby for nearing five years, said he had undertaken a $26 booking from Block 180C Riverdale Crescent to Block 419 Clementi Avenue 1 on Monday (7 Jan). Thereafter, he picked up the passenger at 10:48 a.m., and reached his destination at 11:23 a.m.

โ€œWhen we arrived, the passenger asked if he could go upstairs to his house to get money for the ride,โ€ Sanchez told Stomp. โ€œHe said he was 19 years old and had lost his wallet.โ€

โ€œAs I pitied him, I told him that it was okay if he didnโ€™t have the money now and to call me when he did. But he said no and insisted that he had the money, and gave stories like how it was upstairs.

โ€œI had a feeling that he would not come back, so I told him to just say so if he didnโ€™t have money. I didnโ€™t want to waste time waiting in vain so I asked him to just tell me the truth.


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โ€œHowever, he told me not to worry and said he would come back. So, I waited for him.โ€

But Sanchezโ€™s intuition proved correct. After waiting for 30 minutes, during which he smoked two whole cigarettes, the passenger had yet to show up.

โ€œI smoked two cigarettes while waiting for him for nearly 30 minutes. When it was almost 12pm, he still did not come down.

โ€œThat was when I realised that he was not returning.โ€

His first time

Apparently, this was the first time Sanchez encountered a fare evade, and he hoped to help other cabbies out by sharing his story.


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โ€œItโ€™s not about the money as I can earn it back. Furthermore, ComfortDelGro offered to pay me the $26,โ€ said Sanchez, who works from 4am to 6pm seven days a week.

โ€œBut the thing is, I am scared for other drivers who are working hard for their families. I donโ€™t want this to happen to them, which is why I want to share it.

โ€œMy wife is pregnant with twins and I have no CPF, so many things have to be paid in cash.

โ€œIโ€™m working so hard for my family and this is what I get.

โ€œVery hard ah, life, driving taxi.โ€


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Netizens speak up

After Sanchezโ€™s story was uploaded onto Stomp, Netizens turned up in droves to air their opinions.

Some, as you might have expected, outright blasted the passenger.

Image: Stomp
Image: Stomp

While others advised Sanchez to โ€˜do the right thingโ€™.

Image: Stomp

However, what you might not have expected is that there were some Netizens withโ€ฆ less than sympathetic perspectives.

Image: Stomp

Interestingly, thereโ€™s more where they came from.

Image: Stomp

Which leads to perhaps 2019โ€™s first real dilemma:


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Are you on the cabbyโ€™s side, or do you think that both are to be blamed here?

Tell us your comments below, and we might just send you some cookies!

Virtual ones eheh.

Image: Giphy