Student Set Up Carpooling Telegram Group for Females Only After Bad Experiences with Male Drivers

By
Melissa Lee
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Ever tried carpooling?

While it’s definitely a cheaper alternative to taking a taxi, there are doubts on exactly how safe it is. 

Well, it was seen on Reddit recently that a group of students have set up a special carpooling telegram group and it’s for females and females only. 

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Image: GIPHY

This Telegram group chat came about after some of the girls had some unpleasant experiences with male co-riders where they were harassed in a way. 

It’s called “SG Hitch Female Drivers Riders”.

Bad Experiences

According to The Straits Times, Ms Ong Shuling is one of the passengers who had bad experiences with male drivers, and is the creator of this telegram group chat. 

She said that some of her drivers had tried to promote money lending schemes, some had tried to hit on her and someone even sent her unsolicited pictures of his genitalia. 

One of the worst cases she experienced was when one man, in his 40s, who she was carpooling with, threw a stack of $100 notes at her and asked her to accompany him to dinner at his apartment.

Umm, what?? 

Image: GIPHY

Shuling notes that carpooling services are a good idea but points out how it is unfortunate that many people are using it for all the wrong purposes.

Which is kind of like an “unspoken rule”; just try getting a ride in various carpooling apps with a male image and name, and you’ll understand.

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The reason why Shuling then decided to create this telegram chat, meant just for female driver and riders, is so that bad experiences like the ones she experienced will not happen again. 

She’s Not The Only One

One reason why this telegram chat is a good idea is because Shuling is not the only one who has met with unpleasant drivers. 

Last week, a 25-year-old male driver was arrested for allegedly molesting a Nanyang Technological University Student while fetching her to her destination. The student used the Telegram group Ride Kakis which had over 4,000 users inside, it is currently suspended till further notice. 

Worst of all, the driver isn’t even a student in NTU.

Image: Telegram (Ride Kakis)

That’s Not All Shuling is Doing

Besides starting a female-only telegram chat, Shuling also set up a SG Hitch Blacklist group and this chat is to report drivers or any other unpleasant experience from carpool services. 

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While a few people are afraid of men still trying to infiltrate the female-only chat, Shuling also makes it a point to block errant users from the group. 

Image: GIPHY

If you want to join the telegram chat, here is a link to it. But if you are a guy, even if you have never done anything disrespectful to your riders, it’s probably best you stay in your lane and join a different carpooling telegram group cause this is a girl’s only event.

If you have experienced anything unpleasant or any form of harassment while carpooling, you can report it here. Or just to there and go through the posts; some of the are, for the lack of a better word, pretty interesting.

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Melissa Lee
Email: [email protected]