Should taxis booked as private hire vehicles (PHV) be subjected to taxi rules? The answer is apparently yes, based on what happened to taxi driver “Ching Rsymond”. In Nov last year, Mr Ching received a booking via justgrab. He responded to the booking in his taxi. Upon arriving at the destination, he saw that the passenger had a child (presumably under 1.35m) with her. Although the passenger did put in a note that she was travelling with a child, Mr Ching said he missed the note as he was concentrating on driving to the pick-up destination. Mr Ching told the passenger that he could not take her due to PHV regulations and advised her to cancel the booking before driving off.
The passenger subsequently lodged a complaint to LTA alleging that Mr Ching had refused to hire out his taxi for no good reason. Under LTA regulations, it is an offence for taxis to refuse passengers without a valid reason. As a result, Mr Ching has been fined $300 with 6 demerit points. His appeal to LTA has been unsuccessful. If he refuses to pay the fine, he will have to go to court and might possibly have to serve jail time. In his Facebook posting on the matter, Mr Ching has stated that he finds the case against him unjustified and that he will continue to stand his ground, even if it means jail time.
Mr Ching’s case appears to have fallen in a grey area. Should taxis booked via PHV apps be categorised as PHVs or taxis? Perhaps someone needs to review the regulations to address this grey area.
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