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On the road to match supply and demand
Maria Almenoar Tue, Dec 11, 2007 The Straits Times
WITH the latest round of fare changes announced yesterday, an average 9km taxi ride here during peak periods will cost just as much as one in Hong Kong. Riding in one of the 15,000 ComfortDelGro taxis here - which make up the majority of taxis on the road - will cost commuters $14.35 from Monday while in Hong Kong, that same trip costs $14.30, according to figures provided by the company yesterday. Singapore's taxi system is often compared with Hong Kong's where - with twice as many people as here but fewer cabs than Singapore's 23,000 - it is still easy to get a taxi when you need one. Some have argued that taxi fares here are too low, which is why commuters consider it just another public transport option, alongside buses and trains, instead of a premium service.

And although in the run-up to the fare hike, there were calls to raise the flag-down rate to as high as $10, no one realistically expected ComfortDelGro to go that far.

Even National University of Singapore (NUS) postgraduate student Han Songguang's call for doubling the current flag-down rate was too much for the transport giant to stomach.

In his latest contribution on the topic to The Straits Times last month, he envisioned that a flag-down rate of $5 was needed to weed out marginal users and ensure that taxis are always available for those who really need them.

Mr Han, like many industry players, wants commuters to understand that taxis are not mass transportation, and that the 'cheap and good' mentality could not be supported.

ComfortDelGro, which announced its increased flag-down fare of $2.80 yesterday, agrees that taxis are a premium service and fully expects that the demand for taxi services will be reduced with the fare adjustments.

'This is not necessarily a bad thing as this will regulate demand and supply such that they are more evenly matched.

'Taxis are a door-to-door service and those willing to pay should get that service at the times and the places they need it most. We hope that the adjustment will result in that,' said spokesman Tammy Tan.

Transport researcher and NUS associate professor Lee Der-Horng as well as Mr Han, however, did not see the latest fare changes as being significant enough to have that effect.

All in all, said Mr Han, the majority of people will still view taxis as a form of public transport and commuters will find themselves back to square one - long queues and endless grouses despite higher fares.

A slightly more optimistic Prof Lee said the recent increase was a 'step in the right direction' to signalling that taxis were premium services.

'Fare adjustments give commuters an opportunity to seriously rethink their choice of transportation modes and plan their trips ahead of time,' he said.

'It will take commuters some time to adapt to the changes but they will eventually go back to using taxis.'

In one area, however, things have become worse.

A common complaint of cabbies and passengers was that the menu of surcharges that determined the final fare was just too hard to figure out.

And instead of simplifying matters, Mr Han believes it has become more complicated with more distance-based percentage surcharges and higher flat surcharges.

'Commuters and especially tourists unfamiliar with the surcharges may fall prey to errant cabbies who overcharge and conversely cabbies may find it hard to explain the surcharges to their passengers.'

mariaa@sph.com.sg