All ComfortDelgro Taxi Drivers Won’t Need to Pay Rental for a Month That’ll Cause ComfortDelgro $19 Million

When PM Lee spoke about how most workplaces would be closed and how schools would have to shut down, I’m pretty sure I can heard frowns even from the comfort of my bed.

Boss: Wait, aren’t you supposed to be working from home?

My bed is my desk, Boss.

With people staying at home and working from their bed home, you can bet that the roads have become much emptier. And even if you need to dabao food, a hawker centre is always within walking distance

So this could only mean one thing: taxi and PHV drivers would be impacted so badly, they might as well stay home, too.

But maybe not ComfortDelgro taxi drivers.

All ComfortDelgro Taxi Drivers Won’t Need to Pay Rental for a Month That’ll Cause ComfortDelgro $19 Million

Lest you’re not aware, ComfortDelgro is a big company.

It’s a merger between Comfort and Delgro, which explains its highly creative name.

Other than having its iconic blue and yellow taxis plying the road, it owns 75% of SBST Transit. Also, it’s in the business of vehicle inspection (they own VICOM), a driving school, outdoor advertising and many more.

So I’ll go out on a limb and said that only a business like them can execute such a loss-making decision.

The company is going to waive taxi rental for a month, from 7 April to 5 May.

And when we say waive, we mean the entire rental and not just $10 or $20 or $46.50.

Before that, they’ve already provided daily rental discounts of about $46.50 daily, which is partly funded by the Government, till end of September.

In other words, if you’re driving a blue or yellow taxi, you won’t need to pay a single cent for rental come next Tuesday.

But of course, like what this taxi uncle says…

…bo lang (no people) leh.

Total Cost of All Rebates: $99 Million & a Red in Their Balance Sheet

Previous measures have cost the company a staggering $80 million (because it’ll last till September).

This latest measures would cost the company an additional $19 million.

ComfortDelGro Taxi CEO Ang Wei Neng said, “With the closure of non-essential workplaces and schools, our cabbies are going to find it even more difficult to make ends meet.

“With the full rental waiver, any fare they pick up will go straight to their pockets. We hope that this will help them tide over this incredibly difficult period.

“We want them to know that we are in this with them and we can pull through this together.”

It’ll agak agak lose $1,700 per taxi.

And with this move, it’s official: this “will effectively push it (P&L) into the red” for this year, and would be the first time that they post “full-year losses.”

Wait…it wasn’t losing money initially?

Hmmm.

And also, over to you, Grab and Go-Jek.