Guide: Starting work – Familiarization with PHV Driving Updated 10 Nov 2024
Guide: Starting Work – Accessories, Payment Methods, Lifestyle
Guide: Starting work – Familiarization with PHV Driving
Driving Manners/Ethics
The Journey
Dealing with difficult customers
Important PHV driver drop off mentality for Good Customer Service Rating
Other important factors to maintain a good APP Customer Service Rating
Familiarizing yourself with the Singapore Map
Route Correction Event
Starting work: Booking choosing
A quick step by step walkthrough for people who wish to become a PHV driver in Singapore; hope it helps you :)
Starting work: Accessories / Payment modes
• Accessories:
• Water bottle (1.5L mineral water bottle put/placed under or by side of seat)
• Plastic bag
• Tissue papers
• Air refreshener/perfume
• Car phone charger cord (can be bought for around $5-$10, from online e commerce sites (Shopee, Lazada, Amazon, eBay, Carousell)
You should also consider getting backup phone(s) for your PHV work in case one stopped working :)
OR
You can also consider using a power bank for your phones instead of a charger cord but it’s not recommended*
• Car phone holder (vent, dashboard, windscreen holder / magnetic OR non magnetic OR rotational holder, around $5-10 from Shopee, Lazada, Amazon, eBay, Carousell)
• Car sitting pad (can be bought for $10-$20, from Shopee, Lazada, Amazon, eBay, Carousell)
• Payment modes:
• Cash / Paylah / Paynow
• Download DBS paylah/digibank app to apply for Paylah / Paynow to be able to receive digital payments from your passengers
• Preparing the cash for change everyday, you need both coins/notes,
• Notes put in wallet, mainly prepare for $50/$100 notes from customer (at least ten $10 notes, ten $2 notes, one $50 note)
• Coins at car side hole, around 15 of each (10 cent, 20 cent) 5 of each (50 cent, 1 dollar coin) should be enough
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Starting work: lifestyle
• The lifestyle of PHV driver depends on your life goals, your age, family responsibilities etc. You are self-employed/freelance and have the freedom to choose/decide on your own working hours.
• If you are old (>60 years old) and semi-retired, then the lifestyle / mentality is more about being relaxed, working for recreation purposes and being flexible with your working hours & days, driving whichever amount of hours that you prefer
• Flexible working hours and days
Just drive casually and take it easy regardless of how much you earn
No need to bother about how many rides to complete per day
‘No rush mentality’ when driving your passengers to their destination / drop-off point
• Basically, you earn whatever you feel like :)
• If you are young & have a family to feed, then you may choose to work more days and longer hours
• You may choose to drive full time (normal/hardcore) or somewhere in between (based on the above guide: earnings’ expectations).
The more hard work, working hours that you put in, the higher the earnings/wages.
• A good method to motivate yourself, as a PHV driver, will be to set a daily target of your earnings / # of rides to achieve.
Everyday, once you hit your ‘set target’, you may choose to end your shift early, to reward yourself with a good rest OR to continue to drive to make more money/income.
• Everyday, before you start work, you may want to spend some time to examine your car and to make sure the exterior and interiors are clean and smelling good before starting off your daily drive :)
• Daily routine for some PHV drivers is like 6am-11am. Lunch and rest. 12 pm-7pm. Some lazy days end early or longer lunch rest.
• Plan your own daily schedule / routine :)
• If you are a single or still studying, you may be driving PHV as a side hustle / part-time, just to make extra bucks for personal expenses or additional income for school expenses / fees or to have a car to drive around.
• The lifestyle that you will live, will be more of a lifestyle of freedom & flexibility where you will get to choose your working hours freely, with no fixed working hours.
Your target daily will be more of, just to cover your rental/car costs & petrol costs only.
Anything after that, it will up to you whether if you want to drive more to earn additional income for your own expenses.
• Daily routine will be to work during the morning peak hours 0600 to 1000am (4 hours) and/or evening peak hours 1630pm to 2030pm (4 hours)
• These peak hours are the best for getting the most value out of your time, w/ high demand surcharge pricing, so for people working as a part time PHV driver or treating it as a side hustle, these are the hours/time that you want to work / drive.
• You should pick within these peak hours timing, the number of hours that you wanna drive, freely
• Plan your own daily schedule / routine :)
*Regardless of how much you wanna earn, always remember to consider your health and avoid ‘burnouts’. If you feel that you need a break sometimes, take a rest and let your body recover first before continuing to work :)
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Starting work: Familiarization with PHV Driving
• Level 1 Familiarization - New PHV drivers, 1st 25 rides / Week 1, try to aim for 5 trips per day, familiarize yourself with the roads/app first
Advanced bookings – can consider using the advanced booking function to pick/choose the 5 trips with pickup/drop off locations that you are familiar with first
Driving Manners/Ethics
The Journey
Dealing with difficult passengers
Important PHV driver drop off mentality for Good Customer Service App Rating
Other important factors to maintain a good personal APP customer service rating
Familiarizing yourself with the Singapore Map (Expressways, Main roads)
Familiarization with the lanes & lane markings at most of the roads in Singapore (merging lane marks, right turn only lane marks, left turn only lane marks, straight/right turn lane marks, bus lanes, expressway names lane markings etc)
Route Correction Event
• Level 2 familiarization - Week 2 / Next 50 rides, try to aim for 10 trips per day
OTOT (Own time own target) for week 3 and 4, by the end of 1st month, you should have around 150 trips done under your belt.
For week 4, you can prepare yourself for new joiner incentives at other apps, by setting higher targets or based on the app that you planned to join and see if you can achieve the target and also prepare to apply for the app in week 4.
• Level 3 familiarization – Focus on maintaining your personal app rating (after you switched APP); by now, you should have confidence for most pickup/drop off points. Try not to take too long to find the pickup point, because if the customer wait too long, it will affect your personal APP ratings in the end, while cancelling the ride/booking will increase your cancellation rate, which may in turn affect your ride-hailing app monetary incentives
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Driving Manners/Ethics
• Driving requires high discipline and attention. One accident or misjudgement may cost you your license and emotional stress. Therefore, it is important to adopt positive driving manners / ethics on the road to prevent the potential loss of your driving & PHV licence. :)
• Reacting to other drivers’ driving ethics:
• Horning, High Beam
• When you are starting out as a PHV driver and familiarizing yourself with roads that you have not been to before, you are likely to drive slower, to be more careful to avoid accidents/damage to your car. And when you are driving slower, you might be horned/high beamed by other cars, keep a calm heart and ignore the horning and let the other cars overtake you. Just keep to your lane.
• On the expressways, you might be driving at the speed limit (80km/h-90km/h) on lane 1 but there are always other drivers that are driving at 100km/h or more that might horn or high beam you. You may choose to keep to your lane, ignore their horning/high-beam and let them overtake OR switch lane and give way to them.
• However, sometimes, other cars may also horn/high beam you, to warn you of potential accidents or problems with your car (like forgot to close your boot etc) and this is a good thing. So don’t treat all horning/high beam negatively.
• Other drivers that play the braking game/brake checker OR lane blocker (cars that purposely drive side by side and don’t let you change lane)
• When you notice another car that is a potential brake checker, that might emergency brake (e-brake) in front of you, it’s best to slow down and prepare to stop.
One way to prevent such incidents, is to always give way to other vehicles and avoid potential conflicts when working as a PHV driver.
• When you meet a lane blocker, car that is driving side by side and don’t let you change lane:
• You can choose to slow down and change lane
• And if the car still persists to block you, you can try cancelling your switch lane signal light, slow down and pretend to keep to your lane first
• But if you really need to change lane and the other car doesn’t let you, keep a calm mind, continue driving forward and the GPS app will correct the route for you. The passengers will understand your difficulties.
• Reacting to other drivers’ driving ethics:
• Bus
• Bus coming out of bus stop, buses usually inch out slowly of bus stop and it’s easy to be side swipe the bus or collide with the bus if you do not slow down and give way to the bus
• Bus cutting across lanes, give way to the bus (big vehicle) as accidents may cost you your life
• Bus going into bus stop, slow down, give way to the bus (big vehicle) as accidents may cost you your life
• Motorcycles
• During peak hours, you may observe that many motorcycles ride between expressway lane 1 & 2 and you need to be careful when switching lanes or even when keeping to your own lanes, of these motorcycles. Drive carefully and not collide with/knock into them.
• May be riding between lanes; just keep to your own lane and lookout for them
• May be riding in the middle of the lane; personally, I always treat these motorcycles on the road like a car and keep a similar safe following distance.
• Cyclist
• Follow patiently behind first, and overtake them when possible
• Give way to cyclists and maintain a safe distance from them on all sides possible always
• Taunting (by other cars)
• Ignore and continue driving your way safely, to your pickup/drop off points
• Road rage defensive behavior (by car/pedestrian/parking warden/condo security)
• Pedestrian hitting your car
• Near accidents and conflicts with pedestrians may happen near zebra crossing, traffic lights, in carparks, in crowded, high human traffic areas (Little India, Mustafa etc.), resulting in road rage where the passengers may hit and damage your car
• #1 You can ignore and drive away
• #2 You can stay in your car and record a video of the incident
• #3 You can lower your window and try to converse with the pedestrian that may have damaged your car calmly
• Other cars braking in front of your car, coming out and confronting you
• Best to stay in your car and record a video of the incident and wait for the other party to go away. before continuing on your driving journey
• Other drivers pointing middle fingers / lowering their car window and spewing vulgarities at you
• Ignore, stay composed/calm and continue on your driving journey
• Condo security & parking warden
• It is possible to get into a conflict with condo security or parking warden as a PHV driver
• One example is when your passenger does not state her condo block properly or if it is not stated in the app and the condo security doesn’t allow you to enter etc.
• There are also many times where you may encounter a parking warden when you park and rest in your car, to receive your next booking
• Always stay calm and composed. Try not to become / get enraged and speak nicely, politely and courteously :)
• Personal driving ethics:
• Avoid speeding at traffic light junctions (red light camera now senses speeding (car speed) and catches that)
• Avoid speeding on the expressways (try to keep to speed limit of 80km/h-90km/h to avoid fines)
• Try to slow down when reaching the school zone; speed limit (40km/h)
• Always giving way to trucks, heavy vehicles to prevent/avoid accidents because such huge vehicles may kill you in an accident
• Be careful of birds, cats, dogs, monitor lizards, wild boars running across streets while driving
• Avoid weaving in and out of lanes – overtaking abruptly
• Avoid quick lane change over multiple lanes (2-3), always lane change 1 by 1 slowly, to reduce risks of getting into accidents
• Always slow down at/near zebra crossing and lookout for pedestrians
• A fine can take away half/one full day earnings of yours so try not to flout the traffic rules as much as possible
• PHV driving ethics:
• Avoid staring at your mobile phone for GPS directions for too long while driving; because it will distract you for a few seconds and these few seconds may cause you to get into a near accident or an accident.
Learn to manage the time you spend staring at your mobile phone GPS, to a level which you are comfortable with, so that you will be less likely to get into a car accident
• Avoid bus lane (yellow/red) when possible, especially the red ones; cause it might cause you to incur fines that will take away half/one full day of your earnings
• Always remember that speed limit at Sentosa is 50km/h and always drive within this speed limit to avoid being fined, as it will take away half/one full day of your earnings
• Night driving, Heavy rain driving, drive slowly, keep a lookout at traffic lights crossing, pedestrian crossing
Avoid bookings to places/locations/destinations/pickup points that you are unfamiliar with, because it’s hard to find your way at locations that you are unfamiliar with, and it’s easy to miss a turn or make a wrong turn which may lead to your passenger being upset/angry, and in turn causing your personal app ratings to drop
• Avoid tailgating / always try to keep a safe following distance from other cars / buses / heavy vehicles / motorcycles / cyclists etc.
• Always noticing lane markings when driving – merging lane marks, right turn only lane marks, left turn only lane marks, straight/right turn lane marks, bus lanes, expressway names lane markings etc.
Make sure you drive on the correct lane, with the right lane markings to avoid missing a turn / accidents etc.
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The Journey
• Preparing to receive the booking:
• You need a good phone for this, especially one that provides good 4G/5G wifi connection when the car is moving
Because receiving the booking can be a battle of internet connection speed and your reflexes, with other PHV drivers.
• Finding a resting place to rest and receive bookings (Guide: Finding the waiting point/resting points)
• Choosing the roads to move along to receive bookings
• When you choose a booking, there are a few factors to look at:
Price
Destination
Pickup location
OR not looking at the booking at all, just click asap
Receiving the booking and getting to the pickup location:
Finding the pickup points
Using GPS app + your road experience
• Calling your passenger to locate them when you can’t find them)
• Picking up your passenger:
• Ask for the name of the passenger
• Ask for the destination that the passenger is going to
• Follow the recommended route via GPS to your destination
However, when you are more experienced, you may want to learn to choose and select the best route on your GPS app based on your preferences (like if you prefer to take a certain route / highway most of the times instead of the GPS recommended route)
*It’s recommended to do this when your car is still at a stop after asking your passenger for the destination that he/she is going to
*This may also be done before picking up your passengers.
• Finding/Reaching the drop-off point:
• Moving to the drop off point using GPS, then recalling where the drop off point is when nearing (from your experience or memory), and verifying the location of the drop-off point with the passenger when almost reaching, for confirmation
• Dropping off your passengers (receiving payment (cash/paynow/paylah), opening boot for passenger, not moving off before passengers alight, checking items left behind etc.)
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Dealing with difficult customers
• The first two things on your mind when you start out as a PHV driver, should be how to deal with:
• Customers that don’t put on safety belts, some options, including but not limited to, are:
• Tell the passengers to put on safety belt when they enter the car and are ready-seated
• Don’t tell the passengers anything and don’t bother, let them choose themselves
• Put / hang a sign in the car that tells the passengers to put on seat belt (pic on the right)
• If the customer refuses to put on seat belt, you may choose to:
• Ignore
• Tell them to put on seat belt again nicely but if they still refuse, you may cancel the booking with the reason that they refuse to put on seat belt
• Customers that bring children below the height of 1.35m and your car doesn’t have a booster/child restraint seat, some options, including but not limited to, are:
• Cancel the booking with the reason that the passengers brought/have a child below the height of 1.35m
• Don’t bother and continue with the booking/journey (risk getting fined and demerit points), so make your own decision :)
• Prepare a booster/child restrain seat
• Other common occurrences of difficult customers that you will experience, throughout your PHV driving life, and you need to be constantly ready to deal with them.
• Customers that push blame of waiting fee / time to you:
• For example:
Job received. Go to pickup point. Waited at pickup location. No one show up. From far, I saw a lady running towards my location. Maybe that's my passenger.
She board into the car and shouted “why you hide your car? Now I kenna $3 waiting fee”
• Option #1 - Ignore and continue the trip; if the passenger continues to complain, tell the passenger to speak to customer service and finish your trip calmly.
• Option #2 - Cancel trip and tell passenger to exit the car
If the passenger complains, tell the passenger that you will waive the waiting fee if you wanna avoid potential conflict
• Always avoid a heated conversation with the passenger over the waiting fee
• Customers with pets:
• If passengers bring pets without informing you first, through the app, you may choose to cancel the booking/trip OR continue the trip with the pet inside your car.
• If you are a PHV driver that allows pets on your car, you might want to prepare car pet covers / lint rollers etc.
• Picking up foreigners that don’t know English/Chinese that you might not be able to communicate with:
• The main issue occurs when you can’t locate where they are; then when you try to call them to find out about their location, they are not able to converse well in English/Chinese and you are not able to understand what they say. In the end you are locate them and pick them up.
In such situation, the best way is to cancel to avoid frustration OR you can also circle around nearby and try to find the passengers but it may take very long
• Customers of 2 stop orders that make you wait between stops, the best attitude to undertake, is to be patient & composed and wait, and write to customer service later if you are not happy. Never get into a heated conversation with the customer
• Customers that shout/quarrel in the car, at you or among themselves (customers that waited long for you)
• Consider that you may be filmed and become viral online, therefore, ignoring them may be in your best interests
Just don’t shout at them or join their quarrel / argument / heated conversation
• If your passengers are quarreling in the car, you may also converse with them and be a meditator, if you desire to do so :)
• No show or customers that make you wait very long, either cancel, or tell yourself that there is the extra waiting fee that you will earn and that will make yourself feel better
• Customers that vomit in the car (prepare plastic bag and tissue for clean up, air refreshener to spray on affected areas)
• Passengers that forget their money or app breakdown, need to go atm and draw money etc:
• Be patient with them
• Remember to maintain a good PHV driver mentality and provide good customer service :)
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Important PHV driver drop off mentality for Good Customer Service Rating
• Verifying with your passenger and following the instructions of your passenger to go to the drop off location that your passenger wants
Picking the best drop-off location for your passenger, for example:
• Choosing a safe location for alighting
• Providing ample space for alighting
• For example, if you go to Changi airport terminal drop-off point, you want to go to the right door number and alight your passengers in a safe manner, with ample space for them to take their luggage out of your boot etc.
• Opening boot for passenger and helping them (if they are old / handicapped / frail / sick passengers etc.)
• Opening doors for passengers, if necessary (if they are old / handicapped / frail / sick passengers etc.)
• Saying nice things to your passengers before they drop off (‘Thank you & have a nice day’ etc.)
• Not moving off before passengers alight (for safety reasons)
*regardless if your personal APP customer service ratings drop, always try to maintain a positive mentality :) (refer to Guide: Positive Mentality of a Private Hire Driver)
Other factors to maintain a good APP customer service rating:
• Ensure that the car interior and exteriors are clean & smells good everyday before you start work :)
Otherwise, customers / passengers may take pictures OR record videos to email / write to customer support and affect your personal customer service ratings negatively
• Ensure that your car has no stability, noise, air-conditioner issue :)
An optimal air-con temperature is necessary to provide optimal comfort for the passengers
• Ensure that your in-APP chat reply / conversation with the passengers, is polite & courteous
Otherwise, if customers / passengers take screenshots and send to support, it will affect your personal customer service ratings negatively.
• Avoid taking too long to reach pickup point
If you take more than 15 minutes to reach pickup point, and make the passenger wait too long, it is very likely to cause your personal APP customer service ratings to drop
• When you drive, don’t drive too fast, don’t make abrupt directional changes
So as to ensure that the car journey feels stable, not too fast, not too slow & comfortable for the passengers
• Always remind yourself to keep the chat conversation in the car nice, polite & courteous or one can choose to be silent as well :)
This will help to maintain a good APP customer service rating
• Sometimes, you may miss a turn and the passenger may be in a rush and thus, requests for a drop off point that is some distance away from the originally intended drop off point – happens sometimes and this may result in a drop of your personal APP customer ratings
Therefore, avoid missing turns etc. and try to drop off the passengers at their intended drop off point*
*regardless if your personal APP customer service ratings drop, always try to maintain a positive mentality :) (refer to Guide: Positive Mentality of a Private Hire Driver)
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Familiarizing yourself with the Singapore Map (East)
Expressways:
• TPE
• CTE
• KPE
• PIE
• ECP
Main Roads:
• Serangoon Rd
• Bartley Rd E
• Sims Ave
• Guillemard Rd
• Changi Rd
• E Coast Rd
Familiarizing yourself with the Singapore Map (South)
Expressways:
• PIE
• Lornie Highway
• AYE
• CTE
• KPE
• West Coast Hwy
• Keppel Viaduct
• MCE
• ECP
Main Roads:
• Bukit Timah Rd
• Clementi Rd
• Holland Rd
• Dover Rd
• Farrer Rd
• Stevens Rd
• Scotts Rd
• Grange Rd
• Alexandra Rd – Havelock Rd
• Jalan Bukit Merah
• Victoria St
• Serangoon Rd
• Bendemeer Rd
• MacPherson Rd
• Bartley Rd
• Sims Ave, Geylang Rd, Guillemard Rd
• Eunos Link
• Still Rd
Familiarizing yourself with the Singapore Map (West)
Expressways:
• PIE
• AYE
Main Roads:
• Bukit Batok Rd
• Jalan Boon Lay
• West Coast Rd
• Toh Tuck Rd – Clementi Ave 6 Flyover (PIE-AYE)
Familiarizing yourself with the Singapore Map (North)
Expressways:
• KJE
• BKE
• SLE
• TPE
• CTE
Main Roads:
• Selatar West link
• Yio Chu Kang Rd
• Mandai Ave
• Mandai Rd
• Admiralty Rd W
• Gambas Ave
• Brickland Rd
• Kranji Way
• Lim Chu Kang Rd
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Route Correction Event
• Route correction event happens when you make a wrong turn, miss a turn, when going to the pick-up OR drop off point
There are a few thoughts that may happen in your mind:
• You may feel flustered as you missed a turn / make a wrong turn
You may feel rushed to get to the destination (pick-up/drop-off point)
You may feel uncertain about the new route to your destination
*The GPS app will auto-correct and give you a new route to your destination
*The most important thing is to maintain a calm & composed mentality/mind, and continue to drive safely to your desired destination (pickup/drop-off), following the corrected route on the GPS app :)
• You may be concerned that the passenger will be upset/angered by the mistake that you made
Because this may affect your customer service APP rating negatively
The best way is to apologize / say “sorry” to your passenger and admit your mistake
OR you may also choose to ignore and just drive quietly to the destination, pretending that your passenger does not / will not know about it but this may affect your customer service APP rating negatively
Personally, I will recommend to let the passenger know about it & apologize / say “sorry” :)
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Starting work: Booking choosing
• After 1 month of familiarization, understanding how to choose your bookings will help you to improve/increase your earnings
• Booking choosing (APP Incentive based)
• For people who are focusing to achieve their weekly/monthly ride hailing APP incentives –
Use app auto-accept, in order to receive bookings one after another OR when there is no follow up/priority booking, just click asap, not looking at the booking at all
• Distance vs Fare, whether if the fare is bigger than the distance, for example, >$10 for 10 km
• This is about value for your petrol $$$ per km travelled, if the fare to distance ratio > 1, you are earning more per 1 km travelled
• Fare vs Estimated time of journey (including waiting time)
• This is related to how much you wanna make/aim to make per hour, and try to choose fares that help you reach the target, like $10 fare with 20 mins each journey to make $30 per hour, or $15 fare with 30 mins each to make $30 per hour or wait for a long trip of $30 fare for 1 hour
• Time to reach pickup point vs app rating
• If you are concerned with personal app ratings, before you accept the bookings, estimate the time to reach the pickup point based on the destination of the pickup point, stated in the booking before accepting.
Because most passengers may give you a lower personal app rating if you take too long to reach the pickup point.
A reasonable time to reach pickup point is around 5-10 mins.
• So if you estimate that you will take more than 10 mins to reach the pickup point, you should choose not to accept the booking such that it lowers the risks of your personal app rating being lowered by the passenger.
• Choosing the booking that goes near to your desired destination / location
• When you want to go home, choose a booking with a destination that goes near your home etc.
• Your desired petrol station
• Your desired location for lunch/meals, toilet etc.
• Going near your camping area to receive your bookings (for example, if you prefer to receive your booking at specific locations, like central area CBD, west side, east side etc.)
• Choosing the booking based on whether if it will take the highway/expressway or go through neighbourhood traffic light roads:
• Some PHV drivers like bookings that will take / go on the expressway
• While some PHV drivers prefer bookings that go through the neighbourhood, within their camping area (west side, east side etc.)
• Places to be careful, bookings with these destinations, including but not limited to:
• Woodlands check point (dropoff point is near train station), Tuas check point, be careful not to go inside the lanes that lead to the checkpoint, else you might get stuck there for hours
• Sentosa,
• Make sure your cash card has enough money inside
• Speed limit not to exceed 50 km/h
• Little India / Mustafa Centre
• Crowded and has lots of people crossing the roads illegally/jaywalking
• Roundabouts (Newton Circle Roundabout, Suntec City Roundabout)
• Moulmein Rd / Thomsom Rd / Newton Rd Intersection
• Choosing the booking based on the expressway/routes that you are familiar with, area that you are familiar with (north/east/south/west etc),
• Choosing the booking based on your experience (for example, if you are starting out new and live in the west, you can start doing only CCK/Jurong area bookings first)
• Choosing the booking based on the payment modes (cash / credit card / QR code / digital payment methods (gopay/grabpay/rydepay etc.))
• If you don’t have enough cash for change, you may want to only accept credit card / QR code or digital payment bookings for the day OR withdraw cash instead
• During peak hours, go for the bookings with the higher demand surcharges ratio/color :)
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