Last Updated on 2022-12-26 , 12:57 pm
While the pandemic was terrible, there were silver linings, like working from home and having fewer cars on the road.
As Singapore worked towards recovering from COVID-19 throughout 2022, both of those silver linings no longer apply. With more people returning to the office and more tourists streaming in, the number of cars on the road has reached nearly pre-pandemic standards.
And of course, with greater demand comes higher prices.
Almost at Pre-Pandemic Levels
According to data from the Land Transport Authority, there has been a rise in the number of taxis and private-hire vehicle (PHV) rides since April, which was when we fully opened out borders.
Statistics showed that there are about 585,000 trips by taxis and PHVs daily. 97,000 of these rides are roadside flag-downs, while the remaining 488,000 are either by mobile apps or by calling.
Additionally, the number of rides in October was a 1.5% increase from the number in April 2022. Compared with the number of rides in October 2021, there is an increase of 10.5%.
These statistics signal that our taxi and PHV industry has recovered to 78.2% of pre-pandemic levels.
Increase in Demand, But Decrease in Supply
Despite the increase in demand for PHV and taxi services, there has been a decrease in drivers willing to do the job.
In October 2022, Singapore had 93,800 professional taxi drivers, which is 776 fewer than in April 2022. Singapore also had 48,000 professional PHV drivers in October 2022, 364 fewer than in April 2022.
Additionally, having a license doesn’t necessarily mean the drivers are out on the road. There were only 20,900 taxi drivers actively driving in October, which was only 22.3% of license holders. Similarly, only 73.3% of PHV license holders were actively working, with 35,200 active PHV drivers.
This means that the demand for drivers is way higher than the supply of drivers, causing ride prices to rise.
Even if you’re willing to pay those ridiculously high prices, you might not even get a driver. You’ve experienced more of these situations recently, right?
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No Plans to Allow PHVs to Stop at Taxi Stands
With the rising popularity of apps like Grab, Ryde, Gojek and TADA, will LTA expand the use of taxi stands to allow PHVs to stop there too?
LTA revealed that there are 306 taxi stands across the country, with the main purpose of allowing roadside passengers to get a ride in a safe and orderly manner. Only taxis can provide curbside pick-up, and there are no plans to allow PHVs to do so.
LTA said that PHVs can still pick up and drop off passengers at commercial buildings, at public pick-up or drop-off points, and at places where roadside parking is allowed. They will continue to monitor the situation to see if curbside rules should be applied to PHVs as well.
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