When Uber and
Grab entered the Singapore market in 2013, they stressed that they
were not taxi or private-hire car operators, but tech
companies.
They convinced
most people, including the regulators. Perhaps that is why
Singapore has treated these foreign companies with kid gloves.
In early
responses to queries on whether Uber should be regulated like taxi
firms, a Land Transport Authority spokesman reiterated that Uber
was not a taxi company but a "technology company providing a
matching service leveraging on technology".
That was in
2014. Less than a year later, Uber set up Lion City Rentals, which
rents out cars to those who want to drive for a living. In doing
so, it is doing exactly what taxi companies are doing, but without
the livery, rooftop signage, meter, regulations, and service
criteria that cab companies have to meet.
Now, with Grab
in talks to take over SMRT's taxi business, it is once again clear
what these newcomers are: taxi companies with new technology and
new ideas.
The
authorities will point out that private-hire vehicles still cannot
pick up kerbside fares, but that is irrelevant. The smartphone has
become the new kerb. And with so many taxi operators adopting
Grab's hailing app, the question of kerb or no kerb is less
material. What is material is that we are now witnessing the second
phase of these "tech" firms' foray into the multibillion-dollar
door-to-door transport business - all in just four years.
It would have
taken them much longer to get this far if they had taken the
traditional route of applying for a taxi-operating licence. Now
that they are entrenched, it will be a matter of time before they
start doing what they set out to do: Make money.
For commuters,
that means fewer freebies and discounts in the years to come. For
incumbent industry players, thinner profits. And for the country,
perhaps, lower economic returns as more cash gets repatriated to
the home countries of the two newcomers - the United States and
Malaysia.
