By Fawwaz Baktee
In response to the Taxi Fare Structure Review announcement made by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the Public Transport Council (PTC) on 31 March 2015, the National Taxi Association (NTA) said that standardising several taxi fare components may benefit both commuters and taxi drivers.
NTA Executive Advisor Ang Hin Kee said: “While the taxi industry has been deregulated since 1998, neither the commuters nor taxi drivers fully benefitted from the market forces where taxi companies were supposed to compete vigorously to set attractive taxi rental and fares.
“Instead, deregulation of the industry has led to taxi fares being too complex for commuters, the same goes for taxi drivers. More choices did not necessarily impact commuters and taxi drivers in a positive way.”
Standardising Components
Expected to be implemented in the second half of 2015, the PTC will require taxi companies to standardise taxi fare components such as the unit fares, surcharges, booking fees and additional passenger fees.
Mr Henry Tay, a 45-year-old taxi driver, said that he was glad that things will be more standardised and less complicated.
“Even as a taxi driver, I get confused when passengers ask me about fares of other taxis. I would usually tell them that I’m not too sure. But this standardisation will at least give us taxi drivers and our commuters more clarity,” said Mr Tan.
Conflict Of Interest
The flag-down fare component will however not be a part of the standardisation, given a conflict of interest among stakeholders.
Standard taxis have a flag-down fare ranging from $3.20 to $3.90, while premium taxis charge a flag-down fare of $3.50 to $5.00. According to the LTA, most commuters would prefer the flag-down fares to be levelled downwards if it is standardised. On the other hand, taxi operators and many taxi drivers indicated that they would prefer to standardise flag-down fares by levelling them upwards.
Working Together
Mr Ang urged: “It is crucial that our work does not stop here. Moving ahead, all stakeholders of the taxi industry must pull in the same direction and continue to review issues pertaining to taxi fares, to find solutions and ensure that taxi fares and rentals are attractive and beneficial to commuters and taxi drivers.”
NTA also said that it welcomed the active involvement of the Public Transport Council (PTC) in the review. NTA said it will play a proactive role in supporting PTC through feedback from the ground and by contributing insights on the impact of taxi fares and livelihoods of taxi drivers.
Source: NTUC This Week
