• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

More private rides, more ricebowls shattered

by onlinecitizen
16/05/2015
in Politics
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0

By William Lim,

Yesterday, a Bill had been passed to regulate third-party taxi booking apps.

While Minister Lui addressed some minor concerns regarding the third-party apps, he neglected to address the more important concerns regarding private limousine services provider like Uber Executive, Uber X, GrabCar etc. This makes it rather apparent that the only point that Minister Lui brought across is that, all limousine providers like Uber and GrabCar are allowed to operate in Singapore!

Have the government stopped to consider the dire consequences of allowing them to operate in Singapore?

The Pioneer Government successfully wiped out the pirated taxi services in the 1960s and 1970s, only to have Minister Lui reverse the good work done by the Pioneers now!

Passengers have always been voicing their confusion about the local taxi fare. Now with the introduction of these private Limousines that set their own pricing, wouldn’t it be more confusing to the passengers? For instance, Uber had their price surge when their limousines were in demand; the fare for a single trip could cost as high as $200. While Grabcar, with their complicated formula, charges different prices at different timing; this is not transparent to passengers at all. All these services are theoretically using metered charges, but they are easily tampered with so this casts doubts on the accuracy of the metered charges.

These days, any app provider is able to create meter apps on mobile phones, so does this mean that the government deems this to be legal?

Whenever someone witnesses a taxi getting involved in an accident, the first thinking would tend to be, “Taxi at fault again!”  Actually, with the constant watchful eyes of the public and in-car video recorders these days, most of the drivers will behave while driving on the roads. This cannot be said for those limousine drivers as the public does not know if they are transport service providers or private-owned cars.

While taxi drivers are worried that the “Feedback” given to LTA or their companies would result in them losing their rice bowls, it is unknown how these “Feedback” will improve the service standard of the drivers overall.

Due to stringent safety standards set by LTA to the taxi companies (for example, the taxi companies are not allowed to exceed the number of accidents per 10,000km travelled), the taxi companies are to comply with higher maintenance, while no rules are set for the Limousine operators.

Taxi vehicles are allowed to be used up to a maximum of 7 years with one year optional extension, upon which the taxis have to be scraped; whereas the limousine vehicles are allowed for use up to the end of the COE expiry date, and worst yet, the COE may be renewed to extend the life of the limousines!.

It is foreseen that a trend might emerge such that people buy their own vehicles under a company, using them to fetch passengers as and when they like without being subjected to any form of regulations at all.

This will in turn flood the industry with excess of transport providers, posing potential serious threat to the rice bowls of the full-time transport providers.

Taxi industry has been allocated to Singaporeans. With the introduction of the private transport providers, PRs are now allowed to drive, so the taxi industry is losing its original grounds of being an industry reserved for Singaporeans only.

Taxi fares are set by taxi companies; and any increase in fares need to be approved by PTC. Ironically, fare adjustments by private transport providers do not require seeking of the same approval, hence fares may be adjusted at the providers’ whim and fancy.

Certainly, a bad bill has been tabled and throngs of taxi drivers will soon be out of a job soon!

This article was first published on Singapore Democratic Alliance’s website. Mr Lim is the current Constituency Secretary of Singapore Justice Party. 

 

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.

Related Posts

38-year-old Indian mother who has her two kidneys “stolen”, deserted by husband
Crime

38-year-old Indian mother who has her two kidneys “stolen”, deserted by husband

01/02/2023
Can we trust the words of prosecutors, police officers, civil servants and their witnesses at face-value?
Opinion

Can we trust the words of prosecutors, police officers, civil servants and their witnesses at face-value?

01/02/2023
Myanmar junta prepares for poll, raising fears of more bloodshed
AFP

Myanmar marks coup anniversary with eyes on junta election plan

01/02/2023
No update on Karl Liew’s criminal hearing for providing false evidence against Parti Liyani
Crime

No update on Karl Liew’s criminal hearing for providing false evidence against Parti Liyani

01/02/2023
Record jobs growth in 2022, but no breakdown of the foreign and local workers in the workforce and jobs growth
Labour

Record jobs growth in 2022, but no breakdown of the foreign and local workers in the workforce and jobs growth

01/02/2023
Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud
Business

Market ignores Adani’s 413-paged rebuttal against Hindenburg’s allegation and continues the sell-off

01/02/2023
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

38-year-old Indian mother who has her two kidneys “stolen”, deserted by husband

38-year-old Indian mother who has her two kidneys “stolen”, deserted by husband

01/02/2023
Can we trust the words of prosecutors, police officers, civil servants and their witnesses at face-value?

Can we trust the words of prosecutors, police officers, civil servants and their witnesses at face-value?

01/02/2023
Myanmar junta prepares for poll, raising fears of more bloodshed

Myanmar marks coup anniversary with eyes on junta election plan

01/02/2023
No update on Karl Liew’s criminal hearing for providing false evidence against Parti Liyani

No update on Karl Liew’s criminal hearing for providing false evidence against Parti Liyani

01/02/2023
Record jobs growth in 2022, but no breakdown of the foreign and local workers in the workforce and jobs growth

Record jobs growth in 2022, but no breakdown of the foreign and local workers in the workforce and jobs growth

01/02/2023
Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

Market ignores Adani’s 413-paged rebuttal against Hindenburg’s allegation and continues the sell-off

01/02/2023
Driver dies after vehicle fell into sea at Keppel Terminal

Driver dies after vehicle fell into sea at Keppel Terminal

01/02/2023
One pilot dead after Vietnamese military fighter jet crash

One pilot dead after Vietnamese military fighter jet crash

31/01/2023

Trending posts

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

Former Singaporean shares change of life in Australia with annual pay of S$80,000 as a plumber

by Yee Loon
30/01/2023
19

...

Two Indian nationals paid about S$330 and S$730 respectively for forged certificates submitted in their S-Pass application

MOM found issuing EPs meant for foreign PMETs to PRC waitress and general worker

by Correspondent
26/01/2023
41

...

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

Earning only S$400 a month, delivery-rider turned hawker threw in the towel after two years of running a rojak stall

by Yee Loon
26/01/2023
24

...

Indian rupee falls 60% since signing of CECA while Singapore becomes top investor in India

by Correspondent
25/01/2023
67

...

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

Temasek and GIC reportedly in talks with Adani Group accused of “brazen” market manipulation and accounting fraud

by The Online Citizen
26/01/2023
58

...

Ho Ching breaks silence over Temasek’s write down of its US$275 million investment in FTX, says it “can afford to be contrarian”

US regulator questions VCs’ due diligence work prior to investing in FTX; Ho Ching says Temasek can afford to be contrarian

by The Online Citizen
24/01/2023
28

...

May 2015
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031
« Apr   Jun »

The Online Citizen is a regional online publication based in Taiwan and formerly Singapore’s longest-running independent online media platform.

Navigation

  • Editorial
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Community

Support

  • Contact Us
  • Letter submission
  • Membership subscription

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

wpDiscuz