Thursday, June 07, 2007

Taxi Fares in Singapore

Dear Mr Tan,

You complained that taxi fares are expensive in Singapore. Yet, you suggested that the flag down fare should be raised. You appear to be contraditing yourself. Can you explain?

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REPLY

I support raising the flag down fare, to replace all the various surcharges. I hope that this improve the utilisation and efficency of the taxi service, and ultimately, the cost will be lower.

The cost of any service depends on the following:

* the actual cost of operation, eg taxi hire, petrol, charges, etc
* how well the service is utilised

The current system of surcharges is complicated. Some taxi drivers do not wait for a booking before they take the passenger, to enjoy a high booking fee. This results in poorer utilisation of the taxis. It leads to higher cost.

If we have a more efficient system, the cost will come down.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Tan, I agree with you suggestion to have a higher flag down flag and stop all the surcharges like phone booking, CBD, peak hour, midnight charges, etc. I have seen so many taxis purposefully avoiding customers to get more money via phone booking. Then I suspect we will all get a cab anytime, anywhere, any weather.

June 07, 2007 9:11 PM
Anonymous said...

About the mid-night surcharge, would you like to work at 12am to 6am and drawing the same pay as other working the normal office-hours in the morning??

October 23, 2007 3:11 AM

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