VOCATIONAL TAXI-DRIVING LICENCE HOLDERS (Taxi-owners and Hirers)

Mr Teo Chong Tee asked the Minister for Communications and Information how many vocational taxi-driving licences have been issued by the Registrar of Vehicles as at the latest convenient date; how many holdersof these licences are taxi owners and how many are hirers, and how many of them have not been able to drive a taxi due to non-availability of taxis.

Mr Ho Kah Leong (for the Minister for Communications and Information): Sir, I have been asked by my Minister to reply.

Sir, at the end of January 1987, there were a total of 42,427 taxi vocational licence holders. ROV does not monitor the number of owners and hirers. This is left to the operators, owners and hirers to decide for themselves. The training of taxi drivers is also carried out by the operators themselves. ROV's role is to test the driver to ensure minimum levels of knowledge and competence. By not restricting the number of vocational licences, we ensure that taxi operators and owners will have no difficulty in finding relief drivers and hence maximize the use of taxis. In this way commuters will also be better served.

Mr Teo Chong Tee (Changi): Sir, of the 42,427 taxi vocational licence holders, may I ask the Senior Parliamentary Secretary how many taxis are there?

Mr Ho Kah Leong: Sir, on record there are 10,843 taxis in Singapore now.

Mr Tan Soo Khoon (Alexandra): Sir, does the Senior Parliamentary Secretary not agree that there is a lopsided difference between the number of licences and the number of taxis on the road? And does he not agree that something should be done to narrow this difference?

Mr Ho Kah Leong: As I mentioned in my answer just now, the number of vocational licence holders exceeds the number of taxis and this is to ensure that we do not have difficulty in finding relief taxi drivers.