• Removal of “Minimum Daily Mileage of 250 km” Requirement
• Removal of Shoulder Peak Periods Requirement from “Percentage of Taxis on the Roads during Peak Periods” Indicator

    Following the review of the Taxi Availability (TA) framework and in consultation with key stakeholders such as the National Taxi Association (NTA), taxi drivers and taxi companies, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be simplifying the TA framework. From 1 January 2017, the “Percentage of Taxis with Minimum Daily Mileage of 250km” requirement, and the shoulder peak periods requirement in the “Percentage of Taxis on the Roads during Peak Periods” indicator, will be removed. Please refer to Annex A for details of the fifth year TA framework.

2.  Technology has in the last one to two years particularly, greatly enhanced the point-to-point mobility landscape in Singapore. Today, third-party taxi booking applications and taxi companies’ own enhanced in-house booking applications have enabled better matching between commuters and taxis, and there are also more options available for commuters such as private hire car services provided by the likes of Uber and Grab. As such, and in order to give taxi companies and taxi drivers more flexibility to adapt to the evolving market, LTA will simplify the TA framework.


More taxis on the roads during peak hours; more commuters able to get taxis

3.  Since the introduction of the TA framework on 1 January 2013, the percentage of taxis on the roads during peak hours has increased from 82% in 2012 to 93% in the first nine months of 2016. This translates to about 2,000 more taxis being made available to commuters during these hours.

4.  Over the same period, the percentage of taxis plying at least 250km daily has also increased, from 75% to 81%. In fact, 64% of taxis clocked more than 300km daily from January to September 2016. The proportion of taxis on a two-shift system has also increased sharply from 53% to 68% in the four years since the TA framework was introduced. These trends indicate that more taxis are plying the roads, and more commuters are able to get a taxi via street-hail.
 

Table 1: More Taxis Serving Commuters with TA Framework

Removal of “Percentage of Taxis with Minimum Daily Mileage of 250km” requirement

5.  For the reasons mentioned above, and as the assessment is that there are and will continue to be sufficient taxis plying the roads to meet commuter demand, especially during the non-peak periods of the day, LTA will remove the 250km minimum daily mileage requirement from 1 January 2017.


Removal of Shoulder Peak Periods requirement in “Percentage of Taxis on the Roads during Peak Periods” indicator

6.  LTA will also amend the “Percentage of Taxis on the Roads during Peak Periods” indicator by removing the shoulder peak periods requirement from 1 January 2017. Based on analysis over the past three years, the demand for taxis during the shoulder peak periods (6am – 7am and 11pm – 12am) is well-catered for.

7.  The peak periods requirement in the indicator “Percentage of Taxis on the Roads during Peak Periods” will, however, be retained. This is to ensure that commuters would still be able to get a taxi during these high demand periods.


Financial Penalty and Growth Eligibility

8.  In 2017, in assessing whether the taxi operators will have to pay a financial penalty for TA performance, LTA will apply the 2017 standards (unlike in 2015 and 2016 when LTA applied the 2014 standards for assessment of financial penalties).  As for the condition for taxi fleet growth, this remains the same: taxi companies will have to pass the 2017 standards in at least four months of every half-yearly period to be eligible to expand their fleet in the corresponding six-month period in the following year.

 

Annex A: Fifth Year Taxi Availability Framework