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| Photosource: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/transport/story/taxi-apps-singapore-20141217 |
Yesterday, a Bill had been passed to regulate third-party taxi booking apps. While Minister Lui addressed some minor concerns regarding the third-party apps, he neglected to address the more important concerns regarding private limousine services provider like Uber Executive, Uber X, GrabCar etc. This makes it rather apparent that the only point that Minister Lui brought across is that, all limousine providers like Uber and GrabCar are allowed to operate in Singapore!
The Pioneer Government
successfully wiped out the pirated taxi services in the 1960s and 1970s, only
to have Minister Lui reverse the good work done by the Pioneers now!
Passengers have always
been voicing their confusion about the local taxi fare. Now with the
introduction of these private Limousines that set their own pricing,
wouldn't it be more confusing to the passengers? For instance, Uber had their
price surge when their limousines were in demand; the fare for a single trip
could cost as high as $200. While Grabcar, with their complicated formula, charges
different prices at different timing; this is not transparent to passengers at
all. All these services are theoretically using metered charges, but they are
easily tampered with so this casts doubts on the accuracy of the metered
charges.
These days, any app
provider is able to create meter apps on mobile phones, so does this mean that
the government deems this to be legal?
Whenever someone witnesses
a taxi getting involved in an accident, the first thinking would tend to be,
“Taxi at fault again!” Actually, with
the constant watchful eyes of the public and in-car video recorders these days,
most of the drivers will behave while driving on the roads. This cannot be said
for those limousine drivers as the public does not know if they are transport
service providers or private-owned cars.
While taxi drivers are
worried that the “Feedback” given to LTA or their companies would result in them
losing their rice bowls, it is unknown how these “Feedback” will improve the service
standard of the drivers overall.
Due to stringent
safety standards set by LTA to the taxi companies (for example, the taxi
companies are not allowed to exceed the number of accidents per 10,000km
travelled), the taxi companies are to comply with higher maintenance, while no
rules are set for the Limousine operators.
Taxi vehicles are
allowed to be used up to a maximum of 7 years with one year optional extension,
upon which the taxis have to be scraped; whereas the limousine vehicles are
allowed for use up to the end of the COE expiry date, and worst yet, the COE
may be renewed to extend the life of the limousines!.
It is foreseen that a
trend might emerge such that people buy their own vehicles under a company,
using them to fetch passengers as and when they like without being subjected to
any form of regulations at all.
This will in turn
flood the industry with excess of transport providers, posing potential serious
threat to the rice bowls of the full-time transport providers.
Taxi industry has been
allocated to Singaporeans. With the introduction of the private transport
providers, PRs are now allowed to drive, so the taxi industry is losing its
original grounds of being an industry reserved for Singaporeans only.
Taxi fares are set by
taxi companies; and any increase in fares need to be approved by PTC. Ironically,
fare adjustments by private transport providers do not require seeking of the
same approval, hence fares may be adjusted at the providers’ whim and fancy.
Certainly, a bad bill has been tabled and throngs of taxi drivers will soon be out of a job soon!
Yours sincerely,
William Lim
Constituency Secretary, SJP
