ComfortDelGro Taxi Drivers Will Have 50% off Their June Rental As The Company Can’t Extend Free Rental for 1 More Month

With people staying at home, the only kind of taxis making any money are of the fake kind.

… If you know what I mean.

Innocent Reader Xiaomei: What d’ya mean?

Well, you know… because people are staying at home, and they cannot meet other people so they will be watching more… movies… like…

Innocent Reader Xiaomei: Like…

Uhhh Taxi… Taxi Driver. Yeah. That.

Tasteless references aside, cabbies aren’t earning any money, and that means that cabby companies aren’t earning any money as well.

And that means that the previous full rental waiver for ComfortDelGro cabbies will end from 2 June 2020.

ComfortDelGro Taxi chief executive Ang Wei Neng expects that taxi demand will pick up, although not return to normal any time soon.

“We know that things will continue to be tough for our cabbies still, but having already extended full rental waiver for the last two months, we are unable to do so for a third. We hope that the 50 per cent rental waiver for the month of June will, however, help ease some of their financial load,” he said.

Rental Rates Will Be Halved Instead

Reader Bao: I just started 2 months ago, and that means my usual rental rate is 0. Half of 0 = 0, can?

Yeah, don’t play smartass on me. Sadly, it doesn’t work that way.

The waiver will range from S$45 to S$86 a day depending on make, model and age of the taxi. The S$10 daily payout from the special relief fund by the government which had been extended to September is already included inside the waiver.

Which is sad for everybody’s wallet.

It Doesn’t Help Much

And if everybody’s wallet is sad, who even takes the taxi? It sure doesn’t look good when we’re in a state where we need to bargain for a S$7.60 taxi fare.

Cabby Henry Tay, 49, said, “I think many will return their cabs.”

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“I don’t think there will be any noticeable increase in passenger numbers. Even those who go back to office to work, most will use public transport. Only a minority will take cabs, because everyone knows things will be tough for at least the next one year. So they will not spend more if they can help it. Plus we are still not getting any tourists or corporate travellers.”

And the amount he gets from the streets? Only S$40 to S$50 a day on average. If you were paying attention, the waived rental is S$45 to S$86. Which means that just barely covers the cost.

Instead, we need to look at alternatives.

ComfortDelGro Will Help Secure Alternative Jobs

The cabby has resorted to doing food deliveries to cover his costs.

And it seems like ComfortDelGro is also pushing to do that for its drivers through its delivery platform ComfortDelivery, which has close to 50 F&B outlets, and other similar platforms.

About 2,000 taxis are already making deliveries for more than 800 food partners.

That doesn’t mean all of them will become delivery drivers. 400 were assigned to other jobs like service ambassadors at MRT stations.

Other Taxi Operators Likely To Do The Same

Prime Taxi, the smallest cab operator, had waived rental 100% in the first month of the circuit breaker. In the second, they charged drivers S$20 a day. Going forward, they need to see how, but said that their effective rentals will be lower than ComfortDelGro’s.

Gojek said they will continue offering commission waivers of up to 100% until 28 June.

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