Higher price for cabs at peak hour, in the city

Tuesday • December 11, 2007
Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

THOSE who catch a taxi home from the city each evening, or travel long distances during peak hours, will from Monday bear the brunt of higher fares when they board ComfortDelGro cabs.

The taxi company unveiled its new pricing structure yesterday, designed to address the twin concerns of cabbies' soaring operating costs and the dearth of taxis during peak hours.

Passengers will pay between 10 and 49 per cent more, with not just higher basic fares, but also a tripled city area surcharge and a 35-per-cent peak period premium that replaces the flat charge.

Current booking fees, on the other hand, will go down by 50 cents for prime-time calls, to "better match demand and supply".

The greatest increase will hit trips originating in the city from Mondays to Thursdays, between 8pm and midnight.

An average 9km trip — say, between Raffles Place and Bishan — that now costs about $7.65 will set one back by $11.40.

In announcing its overhaul of its taxi fare structure yesterday, ComfortDelGro said it was "aimed at making taxis more readily available to commuters when they need it most" and "to address the issues facing the taxi industry".

Its fleet of 15,000 — comprising Comfort, CityCab and Yellow-Top taxis — accounts for 65 per cent of the 23,000 cabs on the roads here. The in-depth review took into consideration feedback from the public and taxi associations.

Commuters will, for a short time at least, have the choice of turning to other taxi operators, which have yet to inform the Public Transport Council of plans to raise fares. A two-week notice period is required.

But come the new year, other taxi operators, who have been waiting to see what the market leader had planned, will likely follow suit — if only because they will otherwise lose drivers to ComfortDelGro, say analysts.

Smart Taxis managing director Johnny Harjantho told Today the company, which has about 800 taxis, will "most probably" follow ComfortDelGro's lead in raising fares, but may differ on surcharges.

SMRT, with a 3,000-strong taxi fleet, said it would notify the council about its fare adjustment soon.

It remains to be seen if ComfortDelGro's new pricing structure — with the most comprehensive changes in eight years — will succeed where tweaks last year had failed in solving commuters' woes of "vanishing" taxis.

Not only will the city area peak surcharge go up from $1 to $3, the effective hours will also be extended, to cover Mondays to Saturdays from 5pm to midnight.

And from midnight, the late-night surcharge will take over — in a reversion to the flat 50-per-cent charge on the metered fare. Besides simplifying the current staggered charges, the move will complement the peak city area surcharge and prevent taxis from "hiding", said ComfortDelGro.

But will new problems be spawned? Transport researcher Han Songguang of the National University of Singapore (NUS) warns that the city area surcharge could mean taxis may bypass passengers waiting at the city fringes. "This will be bad news for people working or staying just outside the Central Business District and I am not sure how taxi companies or Land Transport Authority will be able to discourage errant cabbies," he said.

ComfortDelGro said it would work with the LTA to address this potential issue.

Commuters Today spoke to had mixed reactions to the changes. Some believed it would dampen demand for taxis and even put taxi rides beyond the reach of many.

Ms Melissa Kong, 27, who commutes by cab from her Orchard Road workplace, wondered why consumers had to bear the cost. "What the taxi drivers are doing, such as hiding from passengers and only taking call bookings, is wrong in the first place."

Bukit Panjang resident Jimmy Lim, 32, who works in the city, said: "I will evaluate my needs more carefully and whether I have exhausted all means before getting a cab."

NUS don Lee Der-Horng thinks other operators may not have the resources to copy all of ComfortDelGro's moves, but they could try to be "creative". "I would further lower the booking surcharge to attract passengers and my drivers would also have less empty cruising time," he said. — With additional reporting by Ng Jing Yng

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