Synopsis:
The story is about being victimised by an uber-partnered car rental company by being unfairly charged an exorbitant fee for third party insurance excess, which was due to an accident clearly involving negligible damages to the third party.
Story & details:
I began driving for uber as a partner in August last year in hopes of earning a side income to pay for my university fees. I’m not currently an uber partner anymore.
As with most uber partners, I rented a car from a company called LCR. Unfortunately, I was involved in an accident along Upper Bukit Timah road on 11 July (see attached pictures for reference). It was involving my car and a Comfort taxi.
As seen, the damage to my rental car was apparently severe, but damage to the bumper of the taxi I “crashed” into was practically non-existent.
Under the contract I signed with LCR, I was liable to pay insurance excesses of $2140 for personal damage (to my rental car), and $2140 for third party damage (which they refer to as “Section 2 excess”).
I paid LCR $2140 for personal damage and got my car fixed at their appointed workshop. The car was eventually returned to LCR after the 5-week contract ended.
Throughout this entire period (August 2016 till today), LCR did not inform me that there had been a claim (allegedly) against them by the taxi driver (whose taxi I knocked into). LCR have not submitted proof that the taxi driver did indeed file a claim against their insurer.
As a result, I was shocked to receive a letter in my mailbox from LCR today, demanding that I paid $2140 in third party damage chargers.
Remember that it had been more than 10 months from the date of accident until I got LCR’s notice today. Insurance claims of this triviality do not take 10 months to be settled, so one can reasonably suspect something fishy going on here.
I have not made this payment to LCR because I feel victimised and abused.
I don’t think any reasonable taxi driver would actually file an insurance claim for a few paint scratches on the bumper of his taxi. Notice the number itself itself was protected by an advertisement sticker, further negating the point that the bumper suffered damage, if at all.
On the day of incident, the taxi driver himself told me that he would not be claiming on LCR’s insurer because his taxi did not suffer any effective damage. We drive off from the scene after about 10 minutes. No traffic police was involved.
The highlight of this story is (and I’m sure most would agree to) that LCR acted immorally by clearly profiting of this case. They do so by charging me $2140 for what is essentially zero damage to the third party’s vehicle.
They do not even provide any proof of a claim. Even if they could, no claim would amount to $2140 for a few scratches on a stickers bumper.
The victimisation arises because I’m legally bonded to LCR’s contract, and therefore have little choice but to pay up.
This has been an issue amongst many uber drivers who rent from LCR, and I have myself read very similar articles in the past, where drivers were also victimised by LCR.
Again, I hope your team gives story consideration to be published on your site and social media outlets. I really want Singaporeans to be aware of the immorality this rental company is engaged in.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Do email me if you need more information!
I’ve attached a few images below as proof to my stance.
Submitted via email: Jared