SINGAPORE - If the taxi industry wants private-hire
operators to compete on a completely level playing field, then they
might have to contend with Uber and Grab drivers being allowed to
pick up street hails.
Senior Minister of State for Transport Ng Chee Meng
said in Parliament on Monday (July 11) that 80 per cent of
taxi-driver trips are street hails.
"If you completely level the playing field, it means
that the private-hire cars will have street hail privileges as
well," he said. "This will not bring necessarily the outcomes we
desire."
Mr Ng said this in response to questions from Nee Soon
GRC MP Lee Bee Wah on whether there has been "any measurement to
show that actually Uber and GrabCar bring positive impact to our
commuters".
"If not, then why should we have them in Singapore, and
create so much unhappiness among the taxi drivers?" she asked.
Mr Ng said: "We follow industry practices as best as
possible."
"For commuters' interests, if you level completely the
playing field, and Uber, Grab and taxi companies become
homogeneous, then we will not be able to have the innovative
disruption that private-hire car brings to the industry," he
noted.
"So in the morning peak hours where we have inadequate
supply of full-time taxi-drivers, many of the commuters' interests
are served because there's supplementary drivers that come in the
form of Uber and Grab, and these are mostly part-time drivers."
To a call by Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Ang Hin Kee for three
separate licences for taxi-drivers, private-hire drivers and
limousine drivers, Mr Ng said: "This was actually considered in our
initial original design of the system. So it is possible."
But the minister said the decision to have two
categories was taken to prevent the system becoming too
unwieldy.
"This is part of the whole review to make it not too
cumbersome, with too many regulations, for the drivers to jump
through too many hoops," Mr Ng noted.
"But it's early days yet.... It will take a year to
implement, so we will take your views into consideration."
