Woman vomits in PHV, driver feels ‘betrayed’ to be told Tada will reimburse only half of $90 cleaning fee
A private-hire vehicle (PHV) driver felt “betrayed” after a passenger vomited in his car and he had trouble claiming the full $90 cleaning fee from Tada.
Stomper Ben, who drives a Toyota Sienta, had picked up the Tada passenger at Clarke Quay on Feb 27.
“The female rider was drunk and she asked for a plastic bag,” recounted Ben. “Upon reaching her destination in Punggol, she woke up and immediately, I sensed something was not right. When I went to check, she had vomited at the side of the car.”
According to Tada’s community guidelines, a driver should not request or collect a cleaning fee from the passenger. Hence, after the Stomper took his Toyota for professional cleaning the next day, he submitted the receipt to Tada for reimbursement.
On March 20, Ben received an email from the ride-hailing platform, informing him that the passenger remained “unresponsive despite the best efforts of Tada to recover the amount for the cleaning fee”.
The email added: “However, in view of your support towards our platform, we would, on a goodwill basis, reimburse 50 per cent of the cleaning fee to you.”
This did not sit well with Ben.
He told Stomp on March 24: “To me, I feel as a driver for Tada, I am being betrayed as we could previously claim $70, and now they have updated it to $150.”
Yet Ben was not even offered $70, which he said was “realistically not enough”, but only $45. He asked if a passenger does not respond, whether it means the driver will not be reimbursed fully for the cleaning fee.
“I feel that this issue should be addressed so most of my fellow drivers will know what they can expect if such things were to happen again,” said the Stomper.
In response to a Stomp query, a Tada spokesperson said on March 31: “We understand that situations like this can be frustrating for drivers. In such cases, we encourage the rider and driver to resolve the matter directly where possible, while we step in to support them both when necessary.”
Tada added that Ben’s passenger has since been charged the full applicable amount and the Stomper was informed accordingly.
The spokesperson also confirmed that since March 18, the updated cleaning fee policy now allows drivers to claim up to $150 based on the cleaning receipt.
Ben confirmed with Stomp that he has been fully reimbursed for the cleaning fee.
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