BELOW AGE 30
The lure of car ownership and flexible work has attracted many under the age of 30 to join the industry, raising concerns about the new employment trend.
Taxi drivers have to be at least 30 years old. On the other hand, there is no age requirement for private-hire car drivers. However, they need to have held a valid driving licence for a continuous period of at least two years.
Grab has said in newspaper reports that between 20 and 30 percent of its private-hire drivers are younger than 30; for Uber, about 25 percent.
Grab added that only an extremely small number of its young drivers do the job full-time, while Uber said such drivers are in it to achieve financial goals, such as paying for higher education.
Still, National Taxi Association (NTA) executive adviser Ang Hin Kee, also a labour Member of Parliament, is concerned.
He questions the long-term prospects. “A suspension of driving licence will mean a severe dent on livelihood, and a lack of Central Provident Fund (contributions) will affect longer-term medical and retirement adequacies,” Mr Ang adds.
Low barriers to entry could lead to more younger workers abandoning opportunities for trying out new careers or upgrading themselves, he says, adding that ride-hailing apps – and even taxi operators – need to be responsible in how they market the jobs.
SHAKING UP INCUMBENTS
While they have given commuters more choice and created jobs, ride-hailing apps have encroached into the turf of the taxi industry.
Many cabbies whom The Sunday Times spoke to say incomes have been hit by at least 20 to 30 percent due to the competition.
One is Madam Valerie Chee, 44, a limousine cabby who used to net about $200 in fares during the evening peak period of 6pm to 9.30pm, but is only hitting between $120 and $130 now.
“Because I cannot hit the target within the same hours as before, I will just have to stay positive and keep driving,” said Madam Chee, who has been a cabby for eight years.
The numbers tell the story.
According to LTA data, the average daily ridership for taxis was 853,000 in the first four months of the year, a drop of 13 percent from 977,000 in the same period last year. This is also an eight-year low.
The taxi population is also shrinking. As of May, it stands at 26,172, down 7.2 percent from the 28,211 in the same month a year ago.
Cab companies, such as Trans-Cab and Premier, have been fighting back, by slashing rentals by up to 40 percent; while SMRT launched an hourly-rental scheme to reduce the daily cost burden on cabbies.
Cabbies, ultimately, see the ride-hailing apps as unfair competition. Madam Chee says: “Private-hire cars and their drivers should be held to the same standards as taxis.”
Up until the start of last month, when new regulations for the private-hire car industry kicked in, ride-hailing apps have been given free rein to recruit drivers. Unlike cabbies, drivers did not need to be registered with the LTA or go through any formal training.
IMPACT OF NEW REGULATIONS
In a move to safeguard the interest of commuters, private-hire drivers are now required by law to attend a 10-hour vocational training course and to display their licences in their cars. Cars used for private hire must also have a serialised decal on the front and back windscreens, for them to be identifiable by passengers and the authorities.
Experts say these measures are a good move, in the light of the increase in road accidents, which the General Insurance Association (GIA) surmises is due to the growth of private-hire car numbers.
The GIA said in March that motor accident reports last year soared to a five-year high of 161,361 – about 8 percent higher than the 149,511 reports made in 2015.
While the association said it would be taking a closer look at the issue, its chief executive Derek Teo points out that there were more private-hire cars, and many drivers were young and inexperienced.
Motor insurance lawyer Anthony Chey says: “The new regulations require the licence holder to keep a register of the private-hire car, which has the effect of establishing the identity of the driver driving the car at any point of time.
“This requirement is similar to that imposed on taxis… Often, passengers involved in road traffic accidents are injured and sent directly to the hospital, and they do not have the opportunity to gather any information relating to the vehicles or drivers involved,” says Mr Chey, a partner with RHTLaw Taylor Wessing.
Based on cases he has handled, Mr Chey says it has always been challenging to find out the identity of a private-hire car driver in accident cases, leading to “undue delay in the processing of the claims”.
Lawyer Patrick Yeo, a partner at Withers KhattarWong, says with decals, other motorists will recognise the private-hire cars immediately and may be more cautious when driving past them.
Despite the new regulations, NTA’s Mr Ang says more could be done to level the playing field.
He noted that taxi operators are still saddled with compliance costs, such as the need to monitor quality of service standards, like how efficiently phone bookings are met with dispatched taxis. As more commuters turn to apps to book trips, this is less relevant, he says.
Mr Ang says private-hire cars should also be subject to safety standards similar to those for taxis, such as being inspected every six months for roadworthiness.
The safety of private-hire cars was cast in the spotlight earlier this month, when the Wall Street Journal revealed that Uber had leased out more than 1000 Honda Vezel cars that were defective to drivers in Singapore.
The LTA said that only 9 percent of Uber’s fleet of defective Vezels had been fixed, contradicting the firm’s earlier claim that all affected cars had been repaired.
Asked repeatedly if it had replaced the defective parts which made the cars fire-prone, Uber would only say it is “working closely with LTA and importers to ensure that LTA’s records are up to date”.
Mr Ang says: “While taxis and private-hire cars are technically different products of service, the difference is less obvious to commuters and the gap is closing.”
The lines are getting blurred.
The Grab app, for example, has pooled all taxis and private-hire cars into a single service called JustGrab, which means passengers who call for a ride can be dispatched to either. Uber still makes a differentiation.
Grab’s Mr Lim says passengers are “prioritising efficiency and accessibility over specific vehicle types”.
