Business Times - 28 Nov 2006
Flagdown fare for new taxis may rise
Increase will be due to 22% higher price of ComfortDelGro's Sonata
fleet
By SAMUEL EE
COMFORTDELGRO'S new Hyundai Sonata taxis may have a higher flagdown
rate than the
Toyota Crown models they will be replacing.
The land transport giant yesterday announced that it had ordered
700 new taxis from the
Korean car maker for $40 million, with an option for another 1,000
units. The first batch of 100
cabs has already arrived at the port and will be sent to have
Comfort Transportation colours
painted on next week. They will then be registered in January and
replace the company's
five-year-old Toyota Crown and Nissan Cedric models.
The Sonata has automatic transmission and a two-litre turbo-diesel
engine that complies with
the environmentally friendly Euro 4 emission standard. As a result,
its market price is 22 per
cent higher than the old Crown, which has a Euro 2 diesel
engine.
Because of this, ComfortDelGro is said to be considering a higher
rental rate. And to ensure
that its taxi drivers will not be burdened with a higher rental
rate, the company is also said to be
mulling over an increased flagdown fare.
Currently, ComfortDelGro's Crown and Cedric taxis have a flagdown
fare of $2.50. It is possible
that the group may raise that slightly but keep it below its
limousine taxi flagdown fare of $2.80.
The limo taxis available here are Continental makes like the
Mercedes-Benz E-Class and
Skoda Superb models.
'The current practice in the market is for operators to charge
higher flagdown rates for Euro 4
models,' said ComfortDelGro group corporate communications officer
Tammy Tan. 'Depending
on the operator, the rate is between $2.80 and $3.00. ComfortDelGro
has yet to introduce
differential pricing for the Euro 4 cars we have been trialling.
This is an option we are
considering but no decision has been made.'
ComfortDelGro operates 15,300 taxis under three brand names -
Comfort, Yellow-Top and
CityCab. The group's combined fleet represents more than 70 per
cent of the roughly 22,000
taxis in Singapore.
The Business Times first reported in August that the Sonata could
end the Japanese models'
dominance of the volume taxi market here. ComfortDelGro's six-month
trial of two Sonatas
culminated in a high-level team travelling to Seoul that same month
to assess the model's
suitability before the deal was closed.
Hyundai dealer Komoco Motors will sell the Sonata exclusively to
ComfortDelGro for the next
two years.
