Update:
In response to TISG’s media queries, Ms Tammy Tan, Group Chief Branding and Communications Officer, ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited said:
All Covid-19 Driver Relief Fund (CDRF) given by the Government are used to subsidise the Taxi Hirers’ daily rentals over and above CDG Taxi’s taxi rental waiver. This has been communicated to them in circulars that they receive. If Mr Wang’s neighbour is a relief driver with the Company, he would need to check with his hirer.
Depending on the private arrangement between them, the hirer may or may not pass the subsidies to him as it is also dependent on how many hours the relief drives a day. If Mr Wang’s neighbour is a hirer, we hope he contacts us so we can assist him.”
Separately, it was also clarified that ComfortDelGro is no longer a cooperative under NTUC which ceased in 1993. NTUC Comfort was corporatised that same year and renamed Comfort Transportation Pte Ltd.
Singapore — After speaking to his neighbour, a taxi driver, netizen James Wang came away with many questions for the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) on the cash grant given out by the Government.
In a Facebook post on June 1, Mr Wang said that when he spoke to his neighbour, a ComfortDelGro taxi driver, the latter was completely unaware that through the Covid-19 Driver Relief Fund, drivers would receive S$25 per vehicle each day, up from S$15 per vehicle — that’s S$750 a month per vehicle — until the end of June.
Mr Wang wrote that what he learned from his neighbour was “shocking”.
“1) NTUC which owns Comfort taxis didn’t tell him of this government cash grants to taxi drivers
2) previous cash grants were not given direct to the taxi drivers. NTUC received these cash grants in full but drivers received lesser sums from NTUC”, Mr Wang wrote.
While Mr Wang’s neighbour did add that he received S$11 out of the S$25 given by the Government, the former asked NTUC for an explanation.
Mr Wang asked why no information was. given to the drivers of the cash grant, and why the drivers were not given the full amount.
He also wanted to know why the cash grants were not given directly to the drivers themselves.
After a decline in ridership since tougher measures to combat Covid-19 kicked in on May 16, the Government set aside S$27 million to bail out taxi and private-hire car drivers. This is on top of the S$188 million put aside for payments under the fund from January to June.
According to a report on TODAY online, ComfortDelGro had increased its daily taxi rental waiver to 50 per cent per taxi from May 18 to June 13, up from 15 per cent previously.
TISG has reached out to both NTUC and ComfortDelGro for comment and clarification. /TISG