Regulating Taxi Population Growth Rate and
Taxi-Related COE Changes
1. As announced
last week, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will require taxi
operators to meet new taxi availability (TA) standards from January
2013. From January 2014, taxi operators will be required to meet
these standards before they will be allowed to expand their fleet.
LTA is currently working out the details of the TA standards and
the TA-linked growth rates in consultation with the taxi industry
and the National Taxi Association. In the interim period from
August 2012 to December 2013, taxi operators will be allowed to
grow their respective fleets at the historical taxi ridership
growth rate.
Growth Rate During Transitional Period (August 2012 to December
2013)
2. LTA has
decided that the taxi fleet growth rate during the transitional
period from August 2012 to December 2013 will be 2% p.a1. This rate will be applied on individual
taxi operators based on their respective fleet sizes.
3. As some taxi operators
have obtained Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) in earlier bidding
exercises, they will be allowed to use all of these COEs to
register taxis within their validity periods2. LTA will also exercise flexibility
on a case-by-case basis for situations that merit such
consideration, for example taxi operators that have committed to
orders of new taxis before the announcement last week.
Impact on COE quota
4. As
announced previously, the COEs used for taxi fleet expansion will
be extracted from the Open Category (CAT E). The net change in taxi
population in each 6-month period will be deducted from the CAT E
quota in the next quota period3. The provision for vehicle growth
based on the vehicle population as of 31 December each
year4 that is
attributable to the taxi population will now be added to CAT E
quota instead of CAT A.
