I have been a daily user of the ride sharing apps, namely uber and grab, at least twice daily. I must say that almost all the drivers and fellow carpool riders that I have met are all very friendly, courteous and the like.
But as some drivers shared with me, sometimes they met unreasonable passengers who demanded to board or alight at bus stops, which is difficult for them to stop without getting a summon.
Or fellow passengers who booked a carpool ride but getting annoyed at having to make a detour to pick up or drop off someone else as it adds on considerable time. To those people, please be more patient, if not, book a solo ride.
Personally, I manage my time reasonably well so that I usually use grabshare or uberpool since it's cheaper than solo rides. At the same time, I factor in a minimum of 20 minutes extra time in case of lengthy detours. Especially if I use uberpool as they allow 3 shared riders at the same time.
Thus far I have come across 2 such cases of very lengthy detours. In one case, I was travelling from Pasir Ris to Jurong West, I think. My fellow grab rider was travelling from nearby Pasir Ris to Dhoby Ghaut. Looking at the map, though it seems to be on the way, it adds considerable time to my journey, which ended up at 1 hour.
Yesterday, I had another journey from Pasir Ris to Ang Mo Kio. My fellow rider was travelling from nearby Pasir Ris to Robertson Quay, near Clarke Quay. According to the grab app, I would be dropped off first.
In my opinion, I wouldn't count that as on the way, since if travelling to Robertson Quay alone, the most probable route would be ECP to the city. Likewise, if going to the city first then amk, it wouldn't seem to be on the way as well. The lady, my fellow rider, questioned the driver, but it appears the app has the final say. The ride took us on the TPE to amk to drop me off, then CTE to Robertson Quay. This journey definitely added an extra 20 minutes. Fortunately it was late at night so traffic was light.
In addition, the driver made a u-turn which I'm quite sure he has missed an earlier exit from the expressway as I know the way myself. My fellow rider, a lady, then questioned him if the app instructed him to make the u-turn. The driver then softly replied that he has made a wrong turn without apology.
Not sure what happened after I alighted, if the lady followed up with a feedback or gave a lower rating to the driver. But hopefully the app could match riders within reasonable distance and avoid lengthy detours that seem to be in totally different directions.
This early morning, I tried to book an uberpool from amk. It matched me to a driver who was somewhere at national stadium and he needed 15 minutes to reach my place. I cancelled the ride without extra charge, as I'm quite certain he would take longer than that. Again, hopefully uber could improve their matching.
