THE REASONS WHY UBER DRIVERS IN KUCHING LIKE TO HOLD THEIR SMARTPHONES ON THE LAPS

Saturday, 13 May 2017.

Today I am at Kuching the cat city for my son's sister in-law wedding.

8.33am, booking an Uber from the arrival hall, Kuching International Airport. Mister CHG of Proton Persona picked me and my wife up. At the beginning, this uncle not speak very much. So I need to break the ice. Later, we conversed many things. He used to drive 3 tonnes lorry but now he retired. When I asked him why not using gps, he said, "aiyah, very hard loh, I know where the hotel already, so easier just to drive there directly." So he told me that he drives Uber after sending his wife to work and later in the evening needs to pick her up again. He drives Uber for two months already and doesnt drive at night. "Saya juga mau lehat mah," he said. Later, he sent us to Grand Margherita Hotel.

9.55am, booking an Uber again from the hotel to the wedding hall, which is about 3km away. ALX on proton Persona accepted the job. Like mister CHG, ALX also put his smartphone on the lap. When I told him that most drivers put the phone on the aircond grill, he seemed quite surprised. "Cannot lah uncle, later got burned and kaput also susah," he looked at me. I looked back at him. I told him how can the phone got burned while it hangs on the airconditioner?

After the wedding event, I booked another Uber driver going back to the hotel.

12.55pm, PSL got the job. This young man likes to talk too. He storied-mory about his experiences on driving Uber for the last 3 months. "I accepted all the jobs lah uncle, but I prefers the short distance jobs bcoz of the incentive given by Uber. If I completed 110 trips in one week, I got total rm1000!" he told me. "Before Uber, I was a tutor, the income was very ciput and little, only rm150 per week persubject," he seems happy now. When asked about Grab, he said, "Grab cannot carik makan here lah uncle. Nobody wants to use Grab in Kuching!" Like mister CHG and ALX who picked me up earlier, this PSL also put the smartphone on his lap. I reckon, all of them are new Uber driver and struggling to use the gps, especially the Waze.

UBER UBER WHERE ARE YOU

Thursday, 11 May 2017.

After having breakfast with my daughter at our normal warong in Masai, I drove straight to the office. At the traffic light near Kipmart, suddenly there was a driver telling me that my car tyre on the rear left side was flat. Aiyah! I forgot to check the tyre as I remember the last I time I pumped up the tyre was last week. So, I drove back to Petronas gas station trying to fillUp the air. But as the tyre was totally flat, I decided to replace it with the spare tyre.

After changing the flat tyre to the spare one, I thought it was done and I tried to start the car. The car engine was started normally but it wont move. So I panic a bit. Later, I called my foreman and he told me to use the shorter screws. Aiyah. Although this is not my first time changing flat tyre for other car, but this is my first experience on the Merc.

It was 8.15am already, and I decided to call an Uber to send my daughter to her office. The first driver (9min away) cancelled it. Then the second driver took the booking while he was 13minutes away. The apps showed me the fare was at the range of rm3-5 only. I dont mind.

Later, after I finished changing the shorter screws, then the Uber driver arrived. I dont want to cancel since it was 5 minutes already after my booking. So I told my daughter to take the Uber car and go straight to her office while I drove to mine.