A Facebook user Jenifer Tan shared that she had an unpleasant and dangerous ride when she hired a Grabcar recently. The user identified the vehicle driver as “China Grabcar driver” and said that she did not know how to speak English and also did not know how to use the GPS system in her car.
jenifer said that she reached her destination, 4-km away, only an hour later, and that the driver drove in the wrong direction on a one-way street.
Just in case you cannot see what Jenifer Tan posted, this is what she said:
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Beware of this China Grabcar driver!
Disclaimer: I have no issue against foreigners, and I did encounter a few foreign drivers who know the road better than me. I’m sharing this not because of her nationality, not because she’s a female driver but purely base on her driving ethics and attitude.
This is the first time I gave a grabcar driver such a low rating. As a regular grabcar user (yes, I m Grab supporter and I travel with grabcar/hitch/taxi at least 3 times a day) I’m always happy with my grabcar ride and I love the fixed price scheme so much.
I was heading to Clarkquay for a short dinner gathering before heading home as I was feeling unwell. Got her booking and she called to confirm the location.
1. This China auntie couldn’t speak English at all, and she don’t understand even the most basic english. So I think as long as we can communicate, its not a big issue for me to speak mandarin to her. ( she need full mandarin sentences fyi)
2. I hopped on her car on 8:10pm. The distance btw Balestier and Clark quay is about 4km. So I think I would be reaching there in 10mins time, since there’s no traffic at that hour.
3. She was on the phone when I hopped on, I realised she didn’t set her GPS, so I reminded her that I will be going to Clark quay. She said ok.. after a 5min drive, she said : “小姐你说的地方是牛车水吗？” I told her ” 不是，Clark quay是克拉码头，牛车水是Chinatown”..
4. About 10mins later, I lift up my head and realised I was at the same place again, which is outside United square..I asked her what happened how come we came back to the same place. She said she went to wrong direction so came back to here again. Then, she drove to a wrong direction again.
I asked her nicely whether she’s not familiar with Singapore road, she said yes. Then I asked her, Aren’t you using your GPS ? She said she dun understand it. *face palm*
In a polite manner, I asked her how come you still choose to drive a grabcar if that’s the case? She didn’t answer me..
5. This time round, her GPS lead her to a back alley, she nearly hit other cars while making the turn. It was an one way alley and there were many stationery cars . She’s trying to go against the road, I told her no, this is an one way traffic and it’s very dangerous to do so. She sounded frustrated and told me, “小姐 这条路是死路，我弯进来后没路走了” (it wasn’t me to asked her turn into this alley in the first place). I told her, so many cars are parking at here, there must be an exit for u to turn out. Perhaps you should do a three point turns and get out from here… I didn’t realised she dunno wha’s the meaning of “three point turn” in english. So this female hero, reversed the car all the way to approach the main road, and thought by using the back of the car she could somehow manage to find the right way (from the alley to the main road, it looks like a T junction, but even the main road is one way too). Many cars were horning at her when she’s doing so, as she’s blocking everyone and we were in an awkward position whereby her car’s front headlight was facing another car’s front headlight while driving on the same road.
I asked her to stop the car immediately. She asked me why? I told her, you are using the back of your car to approach the main road, this is so dangerous, we will get hit by another car once we reach the junction. shouldn’t you turn your car another side? She then realised what I mean by “three point turn” and asked me “你是叫我把车头调回走是吧？”( isn’t it a common sense?) How to drive to main road and turn right while the car is tou peng?
Finally, we got out from the place at 8:38pm. I thought I would be reaching my destination soon after all these issues. NO! I WAS SO WRONG.
6. From here onwards, her GPS guided her to all the landed property area instead of main road (I believe she made wrong turn again).. and thru out the journey, our car was being horned most of the time.
She didn’t drive in the safe manner, changed lane without signal, didn’t keep within her lane ( suddenly drive on the line and cut into ppl lane a few times). We almost got hit by other cars for 4 times, n each time she will aggressively sway the car away and leaving me so scared in the car .. her break and lane changing skill was super fierce, with the sit belt on my body can still move from front to back, left to right.
All these while, she didn’t give signal or rather she only show signal after she cut the lane.
7. In such a nervous situation, her phone rang again.. So she picked up the call and talked on the phone and continue her problematic kind of driving. She always reply me in a very rude or aggressive manner, especially when I reminded her where to turn or what to take note ( Cos this female hero stopped the car during the green light when she was unsure to turn right or not, whereby I areadi asked her to turn right beforehand and the GPS also said so )
Again, the car at the back horned at us.
That was a roundabout style of turning, other than turning right, there’s no other way to go. I couldn’t understand how could she stop the car before approaching the right turn, especially when the light was green. Worse, still can tell me she dunno whether should turn or not. *faint*
8. I have finally reached Clark Quay at 9pm. I told her to stop me at the roadside behind the taxi Q, I could walk over to Novotel direction myself. She said no, as my destination is at the right, she insisted to turn the car into the drop off point ( Outside 7-11). Lastly, this female hero did turn the car to the direction, but not to the drop off point but into the pedestrian path..
I have loss my words the moment I saw it. Neither do I feel like laughing or yelling at her, I was just so speechless and felt lucky that there wasn’t anyone walking there when her car turned into the path.
I spent almost one hour for a 4km trip. The entire journey, she wasn’t being apologetic, she didn’t even say sorry/paisey/不好意思 to me but very rude in all her replies. She didn’t even think she’s at the fault when all the cars horned at her, and keep repeating the same mistakes and drove as if she’s the only road user… I nearly got into 4 potential accidents and a few drivers giving her hand sign and fierce stares while driving pass her car. This shows how unsafe and reckless when she was driving…Seriously, she know how to drive or not? Omg !!!!! If I ain’t a Chinese and can’t communicate with her in mandarin what would be happened to me?