Size seems to count in the taxi trade. The 3 newest and smallest
taxi industry players, namely Transcab, SMART Automobiles and
Premier Taxis (Silvercab), all could not meet some of LTA's laid
down service standards.
TransCab, failing the "Call Answer Rate" in two consecutive months
(June and July 2005), face financial penalties of $3,180.
Premier Taxis faces penalties of $2,988 for failing to meet the
"Call Answer Rate" in three consecutive months (July, August and
September).
Smart Automobile failed the"Call Answer Rate" between June and
September 2005 and "Cater Rate" in the months of June, July and
August 2005. As such, Smart Automobile will face penalties of
$6,697.
SMART's 2nd fine of S$2,420, will go towards it for failing to
dispatch a cab at least 90% of occasions to customers who got
through from June to July 2005. SMART was also hit with a 3rd fine
of S$2,000 for exceeding the accident rate allowed (2
injury-related accidents/10 million km clocked).
SMART boss, Tommy Harjantho, was very upset. He said that the
company had invested in a $100,000 voice-response system, and they
couldnt had failed the 90% requirement.
On the other hand, ComfortDelgro's operated Yellow Top Cab, was
also fined S$3,471 for exceeding the maximum accident rate
allowed.
The audit moniters Taxi companies Service levels, Quality of
Service, Time taken to confirm booking, Success in catering to a
booking, and passenger waiting time for the booked cab, and Taxi
safety standards.
More information, please read here:
http://app.lta.gov.sg/corp_press_content.asp?start=1457