Singapore to Stop Taxi service on the road.

[Arcachon]

Up to 2,000 taxis are lying idle - unhired as factors such as higher rental and competition from taxi app firms bite
Christopher Tan Senior Transport Correspondent



If you find it harder to catch a cab these days, it could be because as many as 2,000 of them are lying idle in yards instead of plying the roads.

Higher rental rates, stricter service standards, competition from newcomers such as Uber and GrabCar, and higher incidence of traffic summonses have prompted many cabbies to give up driving taxis.

Trans-Cab, the second largest cab operator here, is one of the biggest victims of this fallout. When The Straits Times visited its premises in Defu and Sungei Kadut last week, there were as many as 800 red taxis parked bumper to bumper, many covered with a visible layer of dust.

The number could work out to 15 per cent of its fleet - the highest unhired rate since Premier Taxis could not hire out 10 per cent of its fleet in early 2009.

"Uber and GrabCar," managing director Teo Kiang Ang said immediately when asked about the situation. "These companies don't have to follow the LTA (Land Transport Authority) rules on taxi availability. They use nine- to 10-year-old cars; we cannot. They pay very low insurance premiums.

"They're having a free lunch."

Even if the other operators experienced a fraction of Trans-Cab's unhired rate, the number of cabs lying idle is likely to exceed 2,000.

Premier Taxis chairman Timothy Chua said there has been a dip in his fleet's hired-out rate, "but the alarm bells have not rung yet".

"There aren't enough drivers," he said. "It's hard to find good drivers."

Dr Lee Der-Horng, a transport researcher with the National University of Singapore, said the whole industry is affected by drivers switching to the likes of Uber and GrabCar. But the smaller cab operators are bearing the brunt of this, possibly because their drivers are not getting enough call bookings from their own dispatch systems.

"Having experienced the benefits of those taxi apps as compared to their own dispatch system, they switch," said Dr Lee.

"In future, nobody will want to be a taxi driver," he said. "The Government must do something."

ComfortDelGro, which accounts for 60 per cent of Singapore's total fleet of 28,600 cabs, declined to comment on the number of its taxis which are not hired out, saying it was "competitive information".

However, a stock analyst, who is covering the transport giant, said it was considering rolling out new incentives to attract drivers in the light of new competition. SMRT is doing likewise, confirmed its spokesman Patrick Nathan.

However, these may not be enough for some cabbies, who said driving a cab has become harder with new service standards stipulating that a taxi must clock at least 250km a day. "With Uber or Grab, you don't have to do this," said one. "You just wait for business to come to your phone."

With the roll-out of more bus lanes and illegal parking enforcement cameras, cabbies are also facing more fines now.

Trans-Cab cabby Francis Goh, 61, said: "Since taxis are a form of public transport, why not let us use the bus lanes as long as we don't stop?"

However, the single biggest factor behind the idle taxis is the higher rental rate. Daily rentals now range from around $130 for a regular cab to about $180 for a new Mercedes-Benz taxi - 50 per cent to 60 per cent higher than a decade ago.

The rental for an Uber car is as low as $60 a day.

An industry source said 30 per cent to 40 per cent of drivers who signed up with Uber and GrabCar fleets are former cabbies. There are an estimated 3,000 of such cars providing on-call taxi services.

Cabbies who have switched said attractions include having access to a car that does not have a taxi sign on its roof, and being able to fetch clients to Malaysia and back.

Mr Thomas Tan, 50, was among half a dozen cabbies who had given up their Comfort Mercedes cabs for Toyota Alphard MPVs.

"This is the new direction, and we're embracing it," he said.

His colleague Leslie Chang, 46, said: "This is like having our own car with a private number plate."

On average, Mr Chang said he does five to eight trips a day. "In a taxi, we had to do 20," he noted.

They pay less than $140 a day on rental, versus $178 for the Merc.

The LTA said 3.8 per cent of taxis - or more than 1,000 - were unhired as at June. Observers reckon the figure has climbed since.

[Arcachon]

But the smaller cab operators are bearing the brunt of this, possibly because their drivers are not getting enough call bookings from their own dispatch systems.

Don't know now a day take Taxi must do call booking, then what is the point of having Taxi on the road.

[minority]

Actually the fall out are those who having been using taxi license as a spare car or cheap personal car that they can also make some side income. With uber this segment is full filled. People realised they can have a private car use it personally and still make income without having to drive a taxi for personal use! Thus goes to show how many real professional taxi driver is out there verses part time personal use taxi driver who refuse to stop when u flag them.

[Arcachon]

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/why-khaw-b...inkId=17867070

Other than that one incident when he suggested that the leaders of a certain opposition party commit ritual suicide for committing a mistake, I generally like Minister Khaw Boon Wan. Not only is he an unofficial “influencer” with his blog posts, but over the past decade, he’s been quite the ministerial superhero.
After all, when he became Minister for Health, he handled the double whammy of SARS and the NKF scandal. When he was Minister for National Development, he implemented property cooling measures in response to the skyrocketing housing prices. Now that he’s Minister for Transport, he’s going to take on his biggest challenge yet.
Uber.
More accurately, he’s tasked Senior Minister of State for Transport Ng Chee Meng to review private car-sharing apps and to “forge a fair solution” and “level the playing field” for taxi drivers. Mr Khaw announced this in his first blog post as the new Transport Minister, and his call for “a balanced approach” sounds like a good plan.
Except it isn’t.

Wait, wait, wait… what’s wrong with the “playing field” for taxi drivers right now?
Simply put, it’s a lot easier to become an Uber driver in Singapore than it is to become a taxi driver. At first glance, it may not seem so bad:
Taxi Driver Uber Driver
At least 30 years old At least 25 years old
Must be a Singapore Citizen Singapore Citizen or Permanent Resident
Valid Class 3/3A driving license for a continuous period of at least 1 year Valid Class 3/3A driving license for a continuous period of at least 1 year
(Must have at least 2 years of professional driving experience for potential UberExec drivers)

So if you’re a Singapore PR, or if you’re below 30, you won’t be eligible to become a taxi driver, but you can become an Uber driver. But that’s not the end of it.

What about how much it costs to be a taxi driver compared to an Uber driver?
Taxi drivers are required by law to obtain a vocational license, and this is the main difference compared to Uber drivers, who don’t have to be licensed. A taxi driver vocational license costs $40 for the application process and another $355 for a 5 module course that is expected to take 95 hours. That’s like going back to driving school!
On the other hand, Uber drivers have no such requirement. All they do need to do is set up their own business (which can be easily done online), and obtain a vehicle that is registered for commercial purposes with commercial insurance coverage for up to 4 passengers. Most Uber drivers choose rent this vehicle, naturally. Rentals tend to be about $65 per day, and in rare cases, go as low as $50.
What’s more, since 2014, LTA demands that taxi drivers have to meet a daily minimum mileage of 250 kilometres on weekdays, while simultaneously ensuring that 85% of a taxi company’s fleet are on the roads during peak periods. Uber drivers, being “private contractors”, don’t need to follow either of these restrictions. In fact, they are given incentives to drive more often, especially during peak periods.

Wow! Then why is Uber still charging me a comparable price for my journey?
That’s the big question here, isn’t it? Essentially, Uber saves on not needing to train their drivers, or provide rental and maintenance services, and passes on these savings to you, the customer. How? By not charging you for the convenience their service brings.
After all, convenience is the main reason why so many users have switched to private car-sharing apps like Uber. It cannot be understated. There is no booking fee, their mobile app is easy to use, and they run on cashless transactions. Yet their fares (outside of surge pricing) are similar to, and sometimes even cheaper than flagging down a taxi.

Hmmm… I think I know what you’re getting at… if the “playing field” gets levelled…
Exactly. Levelling the playing field and forcing Uber drivers to take on vocational licenses would simply reduce the amount of savings that Uber is passing on to their drivers and customers. This will eventually drive up costs of uberX rides. Which, at first glance, would be the eventual outcome that taxi drivers are hoping for. But here’s what may also happen.
Say Uber eventually becomes no different from other taxi companies in Singapore. Because younger Singaporeans have been enjoying the convenience of apps like Uber without paying for the premium, they are likely to continue using Uber despite the rising prices. After all, Uber has the market advantage – no other taxi company currently has a booking app as comprehensive as Uber’s, without charging exorbitant fees for the use of credit cards.
In response, other taxi companies will need to invest time and money to develop better apps to compete, or lose out in the long run. This will drive operational costs up, and you know the companies aren’t going to absorb the cost. They’ll be passing it on to us, the customers.

So what can we suggest to “level the playing field” so that consumer costs don’t go up?
Very simply, LTA needs to reduce the cost and duration of a vocational license. Then, even if Uber drivers are expected to take up these licenses, it will hopefully not increase their costs by such an extent that they’ll pass it on to us, the consumers.
That’s really it. At the end of the day, Uber is not a taxi company and shouldn’t be treated like one. Since Minister Khaw is against banning them outright, then the onus needs to be on taxi companies to streamline their operating costs and expenses. The government can’t be expected to spoonfeed taxi companies just because their profits are affected by a new, sleeker industry player.

[proud owner]

at the end of the day, govt is one of the biggest 'benefactor'... every little thing they also CHARGE..