DUAL CHALLENGE
If an application is the only method to get a car, taxi services would be just a tap away from ride-hail solutions. From the client viewpoint, taxis may drop the competitive advantage of fast, easy availability on the street without any booking.
On the phone ( even in the same app ), the battle boils down to how quickly we can get a ride and how much it costs. On both matters, it might be challenging for vehicles.
The presence of cars is a problem as the number of cars shrinks. Over the last 10 years, between 2014 and 2023, the number of cars fell by more than quarter from over 28, 700 to 13, 300. It is no accident that, during that same time, the number of private rent cars exploded from 1, 600 to 53, 400 as Uber, next Get followed by Gojek entered the Singapore business.
Also, car charges seem to keep going up. Taxi operators added a , a fresh weekend peak hour surcharge, and an hour-long extension of the normal evening peak surcharge in December 2023. Comfort DelGro, the largest car operator, furthermore increased its flagdown suffer and distance-based prices for supplied rides.
The two aspects – accessibility and prices– are gently related. Recently, my study group surveyed over 800 ride-hail vehicles and found that 45 per share drove or had earlier driven cars. In order to stop vehicles from moving to ride-hail systems, taxi operators are reportedly going to raise prices.