Child Seat Regulation for Uber and Grab Drivers aka Private Hire Vehicle

According to LTA website regarding child seats for private hire cars, it is stated that:

"For safety reasons, all vehicles in Singapore must have booster seats or child restraints for passengers under 1.35m in height. However, taxis are exempted from this rule because they can be street-hailed. Hence, it would not be reasonable to expect them to be equipped with booster seats and child restraints at all times, or to reject passengers with infants or children.

In comparison, private hire cars, which must be pre-booked, allows passengers to indicate if they require booster seats or child restraints at the point of booking. This gives private hire car drivers sufficient advance notice to prepare accordingly."

https://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=3&id=bcfb0de5-1ea0-49bc-bcc2-2d5639044174

After I attended the PDVL course, i came to realize how serious of an offense it is to carry a child under 135cm without a child seat.

The penalty of carrying a child under 135 cm without a child seat is : A composition fine of $120 and 3 demerits points.

PDVL Offenses

Now 3 demerit points may seem like a small deal to our regular 24 point driving license.

However, 3 demerit points to our vocational license is a huge deal. Why?
This is because if a private hire driver accumulates 6 to 10 demerit points within 24 months, the driver will be suspended from driving for 2 weeks. 

Vocational Demerit Point Systems

How much does a hardworking private hire driver lose out if he is suspended from driving for 2 weeks? Let us do the maths here.

Car rental for 2 weeks : $72 X 7 X 2 = $1008 (A decent economy car)
Income for 2 weeks : $3000 to $3700 (Top tier incentives that is around 145-180 trips per week)

Total loss for 2 weeks of suspension : $4008 - $4708
** Assuming he makes $250 - $300 gross on average per day for 7 days a week + incentives

And this loss is for?
Fetching a rider with a child without a child seat back from school for a small fare before deducting the commission. Is it worth it? For my case, certainly not.

I have been cancelling the trips on both Uber and Grab even though i drove few kilometers to the pickup point and saw the rider had a child along. This scenario is wasting my time and money (petrol and opportunity cost), and my cancellation rate!

For Uber is not so bad but Grab is not so understanding when it comes to cancellation, Grab has a high requirement of 10% cancellation rate in order to qualify for their incentives.

Each cancellation counts for Grab, there are times you have no choice but to cancel when the rider doesn't show up or took a taxi and left without cancelling their booking. I have even received pings with address that i can never find (Try 211 Greenwood Ave!) and took a cancellation rate hit when i was driving for Grab.

So friends in our discord chatgroup says we can call up Grab to explain that we need to cancel the booking with valid reasons and they will do the cancellation for us so that we drivers will not take a hit on the cancellation rating.

Seriously, it is going to be 5-10 minutes or more by the time a human even talks to you on their helpline. Try doing this during peak hours, park your car safely and call Grab and slowly get pass their robot system until you can talk to a human and explain why you need to do a cancellation. This again is opportunity cost lost!

So in order for me to pick up children safely within the regulations, i bought a child seat and put it to use today. According to Grab's website, you can charge $2 whenever there is a need to deploy your child seat for the rider.

The compact fold-able child seat

I had 5 encounters today with riders that needed a child seat and 2 of them were bad.

1st rider with a girl,I told her that her daughter needs a child seat and there's a surcharge of $2 or else she has to cancel and take a taxi. She proceeds grumbling:
"other drivers can take me and my daughter without child seat, why can't you?"
"nobody ask me to use a child seat before!"
"none of my friends with kids put child seats in their car!"
She then slammed my door and cancelled the booking. (I believe she booked another Grab)
The fare was for $5 and i drove 4 kilometers to reach there.

2nd rider picked up from a nursery. The mother said okay to use my child seat but the 2 year old girl freaked out when i tried to buckle for her. It was a chaos for few minutes before i gave up and ask the rider to cancel. The mother just stood there not doing anything!
The fare was for $7 and i drove 3 kilometers to reach there.

Thoughts?
What are your experience dealing with riders with children?
Will you risk getting a fine and demerit points on your PDVL for taking children without child seat?
Will you "take pity" a rider and a child in the middle of nowhere and fetch them without child seat?

Did i miss out anything? Please let me know in the comments.

If you have questions , please feel free join our community on Discord App, PHV Singapore Discord Group at https://discord.gg/gGFEPZX (<---Click Here) , available for Android and IOS devices totally free and only requires an email to register. Drivers-to-be are welcome too! 

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