Singapore's Taxi Industry and the Role of SMRT

Singapore's Taxi Industry and the Role of SMRT Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It offers the most reliable and efficient transportation services to its citizens. From mass rapid transport to taxi hires and private rentals, urban transport infrastructure continues to grow and evolve to provide better mobility services to Singaporeans.

Singapore's Taxi Business: An Overview Taxi business is a revenue-generating model in Singapore as the country attracts millions of visitors every year and offers convenience to daily commuters to travel anywhere. The leading taxi companies in the country are ComfortDelGro, SMRT Taxis, TransCab, Silvercab, and Prime Taxis.

Grab and Uber have entered the Singaporean taxi market as ride-hailing companies and acquired a good number of customers. According to Statista, the number of commuters for ride-hailing and taxi segment in Singapore is expected to reach 2.0 million by 2024. The market volume from this segment may increase to US$1,358 million by 2024 and user penetration is expected to hit 32.8% in the next four years.

Taxi Regulations in Singapore The Land Transport Authority of Singapore requires taxi businesses to follow the Oligopoly pricing model to prevent monopoly and duopoly as well as to maintain fairness in taxi prices. The Oligopoly taxi pricing model is regulated by the government. No matter what is the market share of each taxi company, they will have to follow the same starting price. The Singaporean government also encourages companies to allow taxi drivers to give an equal chance to earn more based on their hard work.

Recently, the demand for taxi services plummeted amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That's why the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Ministry of Transport (MOT) announced a S$77 million Pointto-Point Support Package for taxi and private-hire car drivers. Taxi operators like SMRT Taxis, Comfort, CityCab, Trans-Cab, and others will be contributing to this package to assist drivers in this situation of the financial crisis.

After the Point-to-Point (P2P) Passenger Transport Industry Bill has been passed in Singapore, LTA is planning to introduce a new taxi regulatory framework for the taxi segment in October 2020. This framework will require taxi operators to obtain licenses based on the services they offer, enhance the safety of both commuters and drivers, and offer call booking services to people without any access to smartphones. Drivers will be allowed to choose for which operator they want to work for.

Role of SMRT in Singapore's Taxi Segment According to the annual report of SMRT released in 2019, SMRT Taxis has nearly 2,500 taxis including the fourth-generation Toyota Prius Hybrid. To offer better travel experiences and better customer services, SMRT uses eco-friendly cars, maintains strong a relationship with drivers (and call then its taxi partner), and provides SMRT Book a Taxi App. The taxi operator offers cashless transactions and enables seamless cashless payments by partnering with MasterCard.

SMRT Chairman, Seah Moon Ming believes that the only way to improve service standards is to build trust with its stakeholders, such as commuters, drivers, staff, board members, shareholders, and everyone involved.

SMRT Chairman, Seah Moon Ming, stated “SMRT would not be where we are today without the support of our stakeholders. We value and diligently work to engage our stakeholders and build trust and support...�

The company has introduced the Taxi Share scheme to allow drivers to follow flexible hourly rental prices and has established an Operation Control Centre for taxi partners. For providing amazing taxi services, five tax partners received the National Kindness – Transport Gold Award in 2018. To service the community, SMRT has taken various initiatives including the Wheels Programme. In this initiative, the company partnered with Temasek Foundation Cares and installed Automated External Defibrillator (AED) in 100 taxis to support the emergency needs of the community.

SMRT is currently working to further increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of its taxi services and private car hires.

Conclusion In Singapore, the government and taxi service operators are working together to provide quality transportation to daily commuters and tourists. The taxi industry will continue to grow once the global pandemic ends and people return to their normal routines. The demand for taxi services will increase as per the market statistics mentioned above but operators need to adhere to government regulations, improve customer services, and offer competitive advantages to commuters.