More commuters satisfied with taxi services
1. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has conducted the second annual Taxi Customer Satisfaction Survey1 to determine commuters’ satisfaction with taxi services, understand their expectations and identify areas for further improvement. Overall, 96.2% of respondents were satisfied with taxi services in 2014, compared to 95.6% in 2013.
Highlights of Survey Results
2. Taxi commuters were surveyed on eight key service attributes: driver’s knowledge of routes, safety of taxi services, taxi stand accessibility, customer service provided by taxi drivers, ease of taxi booking, ride comfort, waiting time, and information on taxi services. All eight attributes registered higher satisfaction levels in 2014, compared to 2013. The top four attributes that saw the largest improvements were taxi booking (from 66.3% to 88.6%), information on taxi services (from 85.1% to 93.0%), taxi stand accessibility (from 87.8% to 92.2%) and waiting time (from 82.8% to 86.2%). More information on TCSS 2014 may be found in the Annex.
More Taxis on the Roads to Serve Commuters in 2014
3. The improvement in overall satisfaction levels could be due to measures such as the Taxi Availability (TA) standards, and the widespread use of third-party taxi booking applications. Since the introduction of the TA standards in January 2013, the percentage of taxis on the roads during peak hours has increased from about 82.4% in 2012 to 86.9% in 2014. This means that over 1,500 more taxis are now available to commuters during peak hours. Commuters are also using the taxis more. The daily taxi utilisation rate, or the proportion of total taxi mileage under hire, has increased from about 64.9% in 2013 to 68.2% in 2014.
Table 1: More Taxis on the Roads to Serve Commuters
|
| Prior to TA | 1st Year TA | 2nd Year TA |
| Total taxi fleet on the roads during peak periods | 82.4% | ↑ 85.2% | ↑ 86.9% |
| Total taxi fleet plying at least 250km daily | 74.7% | ↑ 76.2% | ↑ 78.1% |
| Average taxi utilisation rate | NA2 | 64.9% | ↑ 68.2% |
| Average taxi booking cater rate3 | 93.0% | ↑ 94.7% | ↑ 95.8% |
4. The growing popularity of third-party taxi booking applications has provided an additional avenue to better match commuter demand and taxi supply, especially for commuters who prefer to use taxi booking services instead of street-hailing a taxi (about 20% of taxi trips are by bookings4, and the remaining 80% are street-hail, which includes pick-ups from taxi stands). To facilitate the growth of third-party taxi booking services while safeguarding commuter interests, LTA announced in November 2014 plans to introduce a basic regulatory framework. Third-party taxi booking services will be required to comply with conditions such as dispatching only licensed taxis and drivers holding valid Taxi Drivers’ Vocational Licences for commuters requesting taxi services, and prohibiting bidding and pre-trip tipping for taxi services to ensure that taxi services remain equally accessible to all members of the public. The framework is expected to come into effect in the second quarter of this year.
1 The survey was conducted from 22 August to 8 September 2014 by Media Research Consultants Pte Ltd. 1,200 regular taxi commuters aged 15 years and above were interviewed at 19 taxi stands island-wide during both peak and off-peak periods, as well as across different days of the week.
2 This is the percentage of calls dispatched that are successfully matched with taxis, and applies to bookings made directly to taxi companies.
3 Detailed taxi utilisation rate was only monitored after January 2013.
4 This is the percentage of calls dispatched that are successfully matched with taxis, and applies to bookings made directly to taxi companies.
Based on TCSS 2014, about 80% of taxi bookings were made through taxi companies (through their call centres, in-house booking apps or short-messaging booking services) and 20% were made through third-party apps.
