How To Beat “Change Shift” Taxi Drivers At Their Own Game; No Cherry Picking Of Destinations Allowed

How can times have you flagged down a vacant taxi only for the cab driver to wind down his window, ask you where you are headed and tell you he was changing shift and not going in your direction? If you have experienced this, you should know that taxi drivers are by law disallowed from picked and choosing their destinations and are required to send everyone to their desired locations.

According to regulations, when taxi drivers are changing shifts, they are required to display a change shift sign and the location they are headed to so that potential passengers know their intentions upfront. If they did not display their intentions to change shift but simply stopped and told you verbally they were unable to do the pick up due to change in shift, this was illegal and the taxi drivers could be penalised heavily by LTA.

After experiencing this situation countless times on a rainy day, a taxi passenger named Luo Yi finally had enough and came up with an aggressive strategy to deal with these cherry picking taxi drivers. It would put you the passenger on a collision course with the driver but desperate times call for desperate measures right?

After the 3rd taxis in a row did this I was plenty pissed. So the next taxis who stopped and rolled down his window, I just ignored him and opened the back door to let my wife and her father in. The whole time the uncle was yelling “Go where”, “Hello, Hello”, “Go where”.

Then I got in the front seat and told him where we were going. He said, “Cannot, shift change”. I told him that it was illegal for him to refuse to carry and that I was going to report him if he didn’t take me to my destination.

He said, “Shift change, I only going towards Woodlands”. I told him that I didn’t believe him, and that I was going to report him if he didn’t take me to my destination. I had already taken out my phone and snapped a pic of his ID to let him know I was serious.

He said (getting angry), “Report, report, I changing shift, cannot report lah”! I told him that I can and will report and that if he really was changing shift then he wouldn’t get into trouble… otherwise…

He grudgingly took us to our destination. Obviously he did not admit any fault and continued to grumble on the way there. He even complained about how hard it is for taxis to make money in SG. I told him that if he wasn’t so choosy about his pickups then he would make more trips and more money.

The bottom line is that if you get into the taxis instead of talking to the uncle through his window then he can’t drive off. Moreover once you are in his taxis it is much more difficult for him to get you out. Finally don’t get angry when he gets angry. Be firm and tell him you will report him if he doesn’t do his job. If he starts getting overly angry with you simply take out your handphone and advise him that you are recording this exchange as evidence.

Be aware of your rights as a consumer and be firm with taxi drivers who cherry pick their drivers. This change shift rule applies especially to taxis waiting for passengers at the taxi stand. By waiting in the taxi queue, the driver is not allowed to use the change shift excuse and is obligated to passengers to where want to go. Simple rule: If you are changing shift, you are not allowed to do pick ups at the taxi stand.

Customers should not have to feel they are begging taxi drivers to do their jobs, right? Fortunately, an ex-LTA part-timer recounts his role nabbing such errant taxi drivers.

Just wanna put it out there that LTA is actually doing something to combat this. But they can’t be everywhere at once.

We once caught a maxicab driver who decided to charge extra because a tourist group had 6 members. This is considered touting.

The usual I’m “changing shift” so I can’t bring you there. If you are changing shift, you shouldn’t be at a taxi stand where you are obliged to fetch customers to whatever location.

Taxi drivers don’t really dare to run because we have their plate numbers.

One taxi driver tried to drive off. But the full time LTA staff flashed the LTA card and he knew he was caught.

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