An SMRT cabby said in a note to us that the taxi company may drop the midnight surcharge from 1 January 2017. SMRT is however revising its peak hours. The new peak hours from 1 Jan will be from 7am to 11am, and 5pm to 11.59pm.
Competition from taxi booking app has forced both the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the taxi operators to reconsider their operating framework.
LTA recently acknowledged that technology has greatly enhanced the point-to-point mobility landscape in Singapore in removing the “Minimum Daily Mileage of 250 km” requirement for taxi drivers.
Taxi operators however have to continue to ensure that between the peak periods of 7am and 11am, and 5pm and 11pm 85 percent of their fleet is on the roads.
The six taxi operators in Singapore run more than 27,500 cabs and it is estimated that Uber and Grab had a combined fleet of about 25,000 private cars. Second Minister for Transport Ng Chee Meng n announcing the changes to the framework recently said that he hoped “that taxi companies will consider passing on the savings to taxi drivers, by lowering rentals, for example, or improving welfare for them.”
SMRT is revising its ‘additional 0.66 rent-free days per month till Oct 2017’, with a ‘1.66 days promotion’.