School buses, move over.
It’s time for “school cars, ” which parents hire to send their kids to school, to shine.
Or not.
With these private transportation services being options in the market, some parents have turned to utilising them as their children’s mode of transport to school.
However, a particular group of students in Singapore ended up stranded at their homes without a ride after their parents hired such services.
And their parents even paid for the services in advance.
Here’s what happened.
Group of Parents Booked Car to Send Sons from Punggol to Hwa Chong Institution Daily
Mdm Chen (Hanyu pinyin), one of the victims, explained to Shin Min Daily News that she contacted a pick-up service last December and arranged for a car to send her son from their home in Punggol to Hwa Chong Institution, which is located in Upper Bukit Timah.
Her son, who just entered Secondary One this year, was supposed to take the car with three other students after their parents and Mrs Chen came together to book a seven-seater car for the four of them.
The “school car” services ended up being priced at $550 per month in total, which the four families split within themselves.
The families also transferred the money to the company in advance.
Car Did Not Appear on First Day of School, Person in Charge No Longer Answering Calls
However, when school started on 3 January this year, Mrs Chen realised that the car had not reached their home even after she and her son waited at the pick-up point for ten minutes.
She then contacted the person in charge to inform them that the car had not reached the pick-up point.
However, the person did not answer her calls and only replied to her text messages to apologise and tell Mrs Chen to send her son to school in a taxi.
The person added that the company would pay for the taxi fare and settle the issue within the next few days.
After discussing with the other parents, all the families felt that the company was unreliable. Hence, they decided to stop hiring the pick-up services and asked for a refund.
However, they did not receive any compensation from the company afterwards.
According to Mrs Chen, the person in charge also stopped answering her calls.
This prompted the parents to file a police report against the company.
Other Parents Got Scammed Too
And it seems like Mrs Chen and her group of parents aren’t the only ones affected in this situation.
Another parent, Mrs Wang (Hanyu pinyin), also contacted the same company to employ their pick-up services.
She hired them to send her son from their home in Sengkang to Victoria School, which is located in Siglap.
Like Mrs Chen, Mrs Wang claimed that she paid the company in advance.
However, she contacted the person in charge a day before school started after hearing other parents say that the company had yet to confirm the pick-up schedule with them even though school was starting the next day.
The person replied, admitting that they had yet to arrange for drivers to work on the first week of school and that the services would only begin on the second week of school.
After the incidents, the police confirmed that they were alerted of this case.
Investigations are ongoing.
Featured Image: Shin Min Daily News + Hwa Chong Institution