On the second day of my week-long stint as an Uber and GrabCar driver, I committed a traffic offence – holding up a bus on a full-day bus lane.
A passenger had booked an Uber ride from Bugis Junction at 5.40pm but he called as I was reaching the mall to say that he was waiting in Victoria Street “at the traffic light (junction) below the ERP gantry”.
His pick-up spot was not just at a corner of a busy four-lane junction, where a speeding Ferrari killed a taxi driver and Japanese passenger in 2012, but also the start of a red bus lane – where cars are forbidden from 7.30am to 8pm on weekdays.
He and two other passengers took their time to climb in, oblivious to the fact that there was a bus waiting behind.
“You should not have asked to be picked up here. The fine is $130,” I said. “It is a dotted red line,” he retorted. The dots mean cars can filter into and out of the bus lane.
We remained silent throughout the rest of the 10-minute ride to Ritz Carlton Hotel.
Later that evening, my Uber rating fell from the five stars I scored on my first day of driving to 4.5 stars. The passenger must have given me a poor mark for arguing with him.
By the time my week-long stint was up, I had come across at least 10 more inconsiderate passengers, who wield over drivers the disproportionate power of dishing out poor ratings.
TWO HOURS FOR A ‘LICENCE’
I rented a 7½-year-old, grey 1.6-litre Toyota Corolla for $50 a day. I also paid $65 to start a limo car rental company, a requirement set by Uber and GrabCar to meet Land Transport Authority (LTA) rules.
I was accepted by both firms as a driver within two hours of visiting their offices. The sign-up took about an hour and the training, 30 minutes. In contrast, it took me more than two weeks of training and taking and passing an LTA test to obtain a cab licence in 2013.
At Uber, I did not even have to fill in any form.
At GrabCar, I struggled to complete a four-page form asking for details such as my traffic offences stretching back seven years, and even the serial number of the Android smartphone I was using to install the company’s app.
Uber has a 600-word code of conduct spelling out broad principles which apply to both drivers and passengers, including asking both to treat each other with respect and obey the law.
GrabCar’s was painfully detailed and I had to agree to pay damages if I breached the code.
Some of the rules were straightforward, such as “do not set your own fares”, “do not solicit passengers to make personal or extra booking arrangements” and “do not recommend other taxi booking apps to your passengers”.
But one stumped me – “you are prohibited from having or keeping weapons of any kind… in your vehicle or on your person for any reason”. I had to put away my trusty Swiss Army knife.
Uber and GrabCar run 30-minute training sessions for new drivers as many as six times each weekday at their Midview City offices in Sin Ming Lane.
“Do not discuss politics with the passengers,” said the GrabCar trainer, adding: “And do not contact passengers after the trip. We have complaints of drivers disturbing (the) pretty passengers.”
Only GrabCar inspected the condition of my car. “Do not put too many personal things in the boot,” said a staff member after a cursory check of the car’s interior and the boot. It took less than a minute.
And I was all set to go.
INAUGURAL FARE
My first passenger was a man who used Uber to book my car at 7.38am, for a trip from his Serangoon Gardens corner terrace house to his Anson Road office at Springleaf Tower.
He was polite and patient when I made wrong turns getting out of the sprawling estate and to his office.
“Good luck for the rest of the day,” he said as he got off .
His fare for the 15.7km, 29-minute journey was $18.63 excluding the $5 in Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges. My actual earning was $14.90 after Uber deducted a 20 per cent commission of $3.73.
If I were driving a regular taxi, the trip would have cost about $22 in fares, excluding ERP charges. And I would have earned $21.70 – which was $6.80 (46 per cent) more. The taxi company’s cut would have been 30 cents for the call booking.
As the week progressed, I found that GrabCar and Uber fares during peak hours – if there is no surge – are cheaper than for cabs. This is good news for passengers but that means less for drivers.
The rest of my first morning took me to River Valley, Hong Kong Street, the International Business Park in Jurong East, the Science Park in Buona Vista and Changi Road. By 10.30am, the Uber app showed that demand had dried up so I took a break.
I was back on the road at 4.30pm, plying the city area. I picked up passengers at PWC Building in Cross Street, Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel in Havelock Road, Eu Tong Sen Street, Kampong Eunos, LaSalle College of the Arts and High Street, and ferried them to Great World City, Chinatown, the Substation in Armenian Street, Clarke Quay and Suntec City.
By 9pm, I had made 12 trips involving 14 passengers.
Nine were booked by foreigners, including several from India, an Australian, a Spaniard and a Panamanian student studying at the Nanyang Technological University.
I followed the same routine for the rest of the week, using both Uber and GrabCar’s apps to look for passengers during the morning and evening peak hours.
The Uber app was easier to use. It is linked to Google Maps and all payments were by credit card, which meant that I did not have to do the maths or keep small change.
But unlike GrabCar, Uber does not let drivers know where the passengers are heading when jobs are assigned to them.
An arts student that I picked up at LaSalle during the peak hours said her destination was Clarke Quay – a 2.5km ride that should have taken less than 10 minutes – but she wanted to drop off her art work at her Jervois Road condominium and pick up her mother along the way. The detour meant an 8km trip, taking just over half an hour.
Drivers should be told exactly where their passengers are heading before they commit to giving a ride.
UBER versus GRABCAR versus CABS
By the end of the week, I had made 64 trips for 88 passengers and a poodle called Hugo.
There were distinct differences between those who used Uber and GrabCar. The former was favoured by foreigners, while my GrabCar passengers were almost exclusively locals.
Foreigners booked 25 of the 44 trips – about 60 per cent – I made using Uber. But of the 20 trips I made on GrabCar, only one was made by a non-local – a Chinese Canadian and his female Singaporean friend from a Sims Avenue condominium to Raffles Hotel.
The passengers gave various reasons for picking Uber and GrabCar over regular taxis.
Lower fares were a big draw.
“There are no booking fees or peak hour surcharge,” said a Singaporean accountant who booked an Uber trip from her Cross Street office to her River Valley condominium after work. She paid $7.92 for the 2.8km trip, which would have cost her at least $12 with a cab.
A security supervisor, who said he earns $2,400 a month, paid $8 for a 8km GrabCar ride from Golden Mile Tower to 112 Katong shopping centre. “It is affordable,” he said.
A woman at IMM shopping mall going to Yew Tee, who booked me through GrabCar, asked whether I had any promotion code she could use. “You can try Googling,” I replied, mildly amused.
A man in his 30s whom I picked up from a Havelock Road flat to his office at Marina Bay Financial Centre said: “I have stopped booking regular taxis.”
