Taxi ridership up for second straight year.
but figures still below pre-financial crisis level
Taxi ridership has risen for the second year in a row but the
fare increase that took effect in December is expected to pull
patronage down this year.
According to the Land Transport Authority, last year's taxi
ridership averaged 933,000 a day up 2.3 per cent from 2010. The
figure is also higher than the 860,000 and 909,000 posted in 2009
and 2008 respectively, but lower than the 994,000 in 2007, before
the global financial meltdown.
In the past decade, the year with the lowest patronage was 2003,
when the severe acute respiratory syndrome kept many commuters
away. Taxi riders averaged 805,000 a day then. The highest was
2005, when ridership hit 980,000, on the back of a recovery from
2004 recession.
Taxi ridership usually goes down after a fare hike. For
instance, when the fares were raised in December 2007, ridership
fell by 3.7 per cent the following year. Operators expect the same
pattern this year.
Ms Tammy Tan, a spokesman for Comfortdelgro, the largest taxi
company here with 15,600 cabs, said the number of weekly trips by
it's drivers has gone down by about 10 per cent - or 8,200 fewer a
day than before the fare hike.
SMRT said it's ridership was "healthy", but it's call bookings
had fallen by 10 per cent.
Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said in Parliament last month
that waiting time for cabs has shortened since the fare hike. But
he added it was too early to say if the situation was
permanent.
Despite this, some commuters said they have a hard time getting
a cab now. Marketing executive K.E. Tay, 42, said: "I usually SMS
for a cab in the morning... But after December, i can't get a
response. Then i have to resort to phoning in, and i have to wait
10 to 15 mins to get one. Once, i waited for almost 45 mins without
success."
By Christopher Tan
Senior Correspondent for Straits Times
The Straits Times, Wednesday, February 15 20112
