Last week, six Sunday Times reporters boarded six cabs at the same time from Toa Payoh Lorong 1 and headed to Toa Payoh Central. Each left behind a sealed, A4-size brown envelope, marked 'urgent' and 'confidential', containing documents.
They all called the respective cab companies to report their 'loss' about an hour after alighting. Three of them got their packages back. The other three had not received theirs as of last night.
COMFORT
Fleet: 15,000
What happened: We made 16 calls over two hours before we reached a customer service officer on the lost-and-found hotline.
She asked if we had known about a service on its website allowing passengers to file their lost reports online, but she took our details down.
Time it took to retrieve lost item: Item has not been found.
How much it cost to retrieve it: Not applicable.
PREMIER (SILVERCAB)
Fleet: 2,500
What happened: After having been put on hold for five minutes on the lost-and-found line, we tried the booking hotline. A customer service officer asked for details and said she would put out a broadcast. The next morning, we called again and the operator promised to put out an hourly broadcast. Two hours later, we called again but there was no news. Half an hour after that, the cabby was found.
Time it took to retrieve lost item: 201/2 hours. The cab driver explained that the delay was due to the change in work shifts. His co-driver alerted him to the item only when he had handed the cab back the next morning.
How much it cost to retrieve it: Nothing. The cab driver offered to deliver it to us and declined to be paid.
PRIME
Fleet: 150
What happened: We called the booking hotline and the operator immediately recognised the reporter as having booked a cab earlier when we mentioned the pick-up point. He managed to track the cab driver down almost immediately.
Without prompting, the operator said that the cab driver was on his way to our drop-off point with the item.
Time it took to retrieve lost item: 15 minutes
How much it cost to retrieve it: Nothing. The cab driver, Mr Giam Cheok Tat, 49, refused our repeated offers to pay for the trip.
SMART
Fleet: 800
What happened: We were put on hold on the booking hotline for five minutes.
The operator recognised the reporter's voice immediately and remembered the cab she had dispatched to us earlier.
Three minutes later, she called to say that the cabby, who was in Marine Parade, would be delivering the item to us in Toa Payoh, but we had to pay the metered fare.
Time it took to retrieve lost item: Half an hour
How much it cost to retrieve it: $10.
SMRT
Fleet: 3,000
What happened: We got through to the booking hotline on the first try. The polite customer service officer called back about an hour later to say that the item had not been found. The company called again the next day and said that it should be found soon.
Time it took to retrieve lost item: Item has not been found.
How much it cost to retrieve it: Not applicable.
TRANS-CAB
Fleet: 2,140
What happened: We were put on hold for five minutes on the lost-and-found hotline. We were told that no item matching our description had been returned. We were given a report number so that we could track the case.
The next morning, no one on the hotline answered our call. When we finally reached someone that afternoon, we were told that the item had not been found.
Time it took to retrieve lost item: Item has not been found.
How much it cost to retrieve it: Not applicable.
Tan Dawn Wei, Chen Meiyue, Alex Liam, Samantha Eng, Jamie Ee, Shuli Sudderuddin and Nur Dianah Suhaimi