SMRT taxi driver made customer's day with kind act

Dec 18, 2007

THE following e-mail highlights my recent journey with an SMRT taxi, of which the experience exceeded my expectations despite the initial dissatisfaction.

My partner and I boarded the taxi with registration number SHB5507S near Neptune Court, on Sunday, Dec 16, around 2.15pm.

The intended alighting point was Simei Street 1, which I mentioned to the driver upon boarding. Being weekend travellers from Kuala Lumpur, we were not familiar with the routes, but were happy that the driver asked us if it was okay to use the CTE, of which we duly acknowledged while stating that we preferred the fastest route. As the journey progressed, the meter fare and travel time exceeded our initial estimates. We then realised that the driver had taken us towards the Sin Meng area. At this point, the fare was already about $12+, as compared to $8 when we travelled earlier in the afternoon (Simei-Neptune Court).

Upon clarification that we intended to go to Simei and not Sin Meng, the driver was unable to provide us with a travel time estimate, but assured us that he would get us there in the fastest time. At this point our itinerary was in disarray as we had spent over 20 minutes in the taxi, and were due to board a bus out of Singapore at 4.30pm from Novena Square.

Upon finally arriving at our destination in Simei, the meter fare was around $23. The driver apologised for the inconvenience, and offered to accept a fare similar to what we had paid for the past journey. We offered $10, but he refused and took only $8.

We were comforted by this act of genuine kindness, and acknowledge that even though it was an inconvenience, it could have very well been an honest error.

We would like to thank the driver for making the journey a memorable experience, and for getting us to our destination safely. Many a time, we hear stories of unfriendly and dishonest taxi drivers, but not on this encounter. I believe this SMRT experience under the circumstances is a worthy benchmark to emulate.

It is definitely a 'uniquely Singapore experience', and we look forward to riding with SMRT again on our next visit.

Praveen Rajan Nadarajan
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia