QUEUES AT TAXI STANDS

QUEUES AT TAXI STANDS

12.

Dr Lim Wee Kiak asked the Minister for Transport (a) what is the Ministry doing to ensure that there are sufficient taxis to cope with the rise in demand with more tourists visiting Singapore; and (b) what is the Ministry doing to address complaints about long queues at taxi stands.

Mr Raymond Lim Siang Keat: Sir, the taxi industry was liberalised to allow market forces to determine the pricing and supply of taxis to meet demand. As a result, our taxi industry is a competitive one where companies have the flexibility to increase their taxi fleet and new entrants can enter the market to cater to the increase in taxi demand. Taxi companies are also able to employ differential pricing through the implementation of surcharges to meet the varying taxi demand at different times of the day and at different locations.

Although it is a liberalised industry, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) continues to monitor the service standards and availability of taxis. In consultation with various stakeholders, LTA has instituted Quality of Service (QoS) standards that include measuring the call-booking performance of taxi companies. LTA also monitors the waiting times at taxi stands with high demand that are located in the city and city fringe areas. The results show that taxi companies are meeting the QoS standards for call booking, and that the average waiting time at taxi stands is generally less than 15 minutes.

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There were, however, occurrences when the waiting times at some taxi stands in the city area exceeded 20 minutes. These were mainly during the 9.00-10.00 pm period and due to the surge in demand for taxis when shopping malls closed. LTA recognises that these malls have an interest in managing the waiting times for their customers, and have been working with some of them to look at ways to facilitate improvements at these taxi stands. These include looking at ways to increase the space for taxis to queue, and facilitate the mall management in calling up taxi companies to broadcast to taxis in the vicinity to ply at taxi stands where the queue is long. In addition, LTA works with the taxi companies by sharing the results of waiting time surveys at taxi stands with them for the information to be disseminated to their drivers.

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