You vomited. Please pay the Vomit Surcharge.

Cabbies really have a tough time eh?

From: Straits Times, 2 Jan 2012
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/seasia/how-much-to-vomit-in-a-taxi-in-singapore/488461

How Much to Vomit in a Taxi in Singapore?
By Elizabeth Soh

On New Year's Eve, taxi driver Tan Pin Lin started his shift at 5 p.m. with 10 plastic bags, boxes of tissue paper and a prayer that no one would puke in his cab after a night of partying.

As he wrapped up his shift at 5 a.m. yesterday, he counted himself fortunate: Only one passenger had vomited.

He said in Mandarin: "I think I'm very lucky that the vomiting one was my last fare. If not, I would have had to take time out to clean the taxi, lose earnings and then try to find passengers who don't mind the smell."

Taxi drivers regularly have to deal with drunken passengers who refuse to compensate them for the cost of cleaning up after making a mess in the vehicles.

Although some embarrassed passengers do pay up, cabbies say others are too drunk to do so, or simply refuse to pay the 20 Singapore dollars (US$15.4) to get the taxi cleaned.

Besides being set back 20 Singapore dollars every time it happens, the cabbies also stand to lose the 30 to 50 Singapore dollars they would have earned had they been out driving instead of being stuck in a petrol station washing bay.

The cost of picking up a drunken passenger who pukes is thus at least 50 Singapore dollars.

The number of passengers who have had too much to drink doubles during the December to February festive season, a Straits Times poll of 50 cabbies found.

Eric Low, 41, who drives the 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift seven days a week, said he picks up perhaps three vomiting passengers in a normal month, and up to four a week during the Christmas and New Year period.

Cabbies say that as more nightspots open, the number of "hurling" passengers can only go up.

They say that when they have a passenger who has thrown up on board, the standard practice is to ask for a flat payment of 10 to 20 Singapore dollars - on top of the fare - depending on how bad the mess is.

Faisal Nordin, 47, said: "If they throw up mostly in a plastic bag and just some gets on the mat, I ask for 10 Singapore dollars and take an hour off to clean up my taxi at the nearest coffee shop.

"But sometimes, the whole seat is covered with vomit and it's so disgusting that even after two hours of cleaning, the smell is so strong no one will take my cab."

If this happens, especially early in a shift, cabbies stand to lose up to 300 Singapore dollars for the rest of the night.

They are not protected by any regulation that entitles them to compensation from their passengers.

Hong Chin Chye, 60, who has been a cabby for more than 20 years, said: "I ask nicely a few times, but if they say no, I can't do anything. The most I can do is to ask for their particulars and write a letter to them the next day."

The legal route is to file a claim against the passenger at the small claims court. If violence or assault is involved, cabbies can go to the police.

The Straits Times understands that the Land Transport Authority regulates taxis' operating standards but leaves such issues for cab companies to sort out.

ComfortDelGro, Singapore's biggest cab operator with a fleet of about 15,000 taxis, said it does not have a policy on compensation, but it does offer its cabbies free cleanups at its workshops.

However, the cabbies said they would rather head to the nearest petrol kiosk for a cleanup than to drive to a workshop.

ComfortDelGro's spokesman said there were 50 such cases reported last year.

Prime Taxi general manager Eric Ang said the company would write up to three letters to the passenger requesting compensation, but it cannot do much else unless the cabby decides to sue the passenger.

Of the 50 cabbies surveyed, 45 were in favour of a "vomit surcharge."

R. Saravanan, 40, said: 'These passengers put us in a difficult position. If we pick them up, we get a mess. If we don't, they take down our license plate numbers and report us for avoiding them.

"If there's a surcharge, they may be more careful and puke into a bag instead."

Marketing manager Claris Ang, 34, threw up in a cab on New Year's Eve after a night of drinking at Clarke Quay.

She apologized and paid the cabby 20 Singapore dollars to get his taxi cleaned.

She said yesterday: "I felt very bad seeing the taxi uncle's face fall after I threw up. The smell was so bad he nearly vomited himself, so the least I could do was to pay up, since he'd probably have trouble getting passengers after me."

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If you drink, don't drive.

So drunkards take the cab instead. And then they puke and make a mess of the taxi, causing income loss, discomfort and great inconvenience to the drivers.

If the passenger doesn't compensate, there is nothing the cabbie can do, except to 'suck thumb'. Most of the time the drunkards aren't in the right state of mind to apologize or compensate.

Implementing 'vomit surcharge' may be a good idea. But how do you enforce it?

Sue/Report the passenger? Nah, too much hassle. The same reason why taxi drivers often don't pursue the matter when passenger escapes without paying.

Some cabbies might choose to avoid taking up drunken passengers, leaving them to sleep on the streets, and then receive complaints for the unsightly behaviour, or for 'spoiling the image of SG' as some would claim.

People drink, creating troubles for themselves and surrounding people when they get drunk.

Like smoking and gambling, such bad habits are still widespread despite the ability to cause serious health and social problems. Moreover the innocents are often involved too.

I just don't understand.