Will increasing surcharges kill off demand for metered taxis? | Deep Dive Podcast 

Is Walter a government employee? If so, we know he is honest 👀

Booking ride hailing is a pain. Sometimes too tired to play games with errant PHV drivers.

Thank you for the quality speakers you guys engage for the podcast! It’s especially enlightening when we hear people share objective views of the situations we’re in.

It's a hard time for senior citizens to hail a taxi ride.

Most times we book rides via app as no choice. Most times, no way to flag down a cab on the road (none available these days) even taxi stands can be empty. Right now, hailed cars during peak can be double the price of metered taxi. So even taxi drivers would switch to taking calls via apps (who wouldn’t). So even if we give up our cars, the hailed car service is so expensive (with fluctuating fares) without metered taxis, hailed car prices likely spike a lot more. Someone has to ‘foot the bill’. 😢

With rising cost in every field it will be practical to introduce midnight charge for PHV and far away location like zoo, Tuas, Changi etc This will sustain drivers in the long run and encourage more to serve in this field

We need taxi to keep the hail ride charges competitive. If no taxi, it will be like no more hdb, bench mark charges

😮🙏 Yes , it is wiser to have other metered taxi or other e-hailing companies around , just in case one of these e-hailing company's servers are down & healthy competition helped to maintain service quality & keep the prices reasonable! 🙏🕯🌍✌🕊

keep meter taxi going.

I like metered fare. I try to get taxi when I can.

Taxi should be purely run on meter and phv run on app But now taxi are taking phv job and meter taxi are getting lesser

I like to book normal taxis, be it metered or fixed fares from zig :) At least the commissions they take from drivers is lower at 7%, compared to grab which is 20%+!

People are booking because there’s no choice. There are no taxis available.

Surge pricing should be regulated or removed, or at the minimum be transparent with how it works and a ceiling should be applied. During higher demand periods, the platform or app can allow the user to put in extra “tips” to incentivise drivers to pick up the fare

For me it's not about whether taxis stay or not but what my boss tells me to do🤣🤣🤣

15:29 Private hire Apps has become the problem it sought to solve. Now a lot of drivers are on all the Apps and they choose to drive during peak hours only and choose jobs which pays the most.

Our Grab and Taxis can be so dirty or driven by not so pleasant drivers. How are they a premium service. Many of our trains, on the other hand, have fantastic air conditions and are clean.

The last few times I hail a taxi, I was asking the uncle where is it going, it used to be WHERE I PAID TO GO....

yes. is nice when we can change our route and these guys are very good when it comes to short cuts

Another comment I don't see is the benefit of flag down and metered fare taxis having the choice to pick who you are comfortable with. A common use case for that is at night when clubbers or drinkers are getting home via taxi as trains and buses have ended service. The driver can choose to reject a drunken customer but that is not possible via an app as the booking has been made

Would love to hear an ep on automated driving in sg :)

Whether is taxi, grab or any other hailing Cos shld have a max age cap. The max age cap to be reviewed.

The RENTAL for taxis are too high which OFFSETS whatever surcharges or perceived“incentives” there are for Taxi drivers..

Tourists have no idea about these automatic charges until paying the fees in cash and at times leaving us in a pickle cause the lack of available cash. Until now I have no clue what’s going on. The charge is for gas emission or for the traffic? I don’t really see traffic much in Singapore. So what’s the charge for if cars are EVs

Phv by lta definition is not a public transport

And the irony taxi drivers do choose when seeing luggages at airport and wave to cancel. Taxi indeed is more of a tourist or elderly services. Most will be ride hailing. If only on super urgency the flagging a taxi is just the last resort. Can’t recalled last i took a taxi, but it usually on super urgent that needed a flag

If $3 surcharge is one time is ok, why not $5?

O my goodness. Who is this guy?

I drove 1 single trip from Upper serangoon Road going thru KPE N PIE, to Corporation road then to Jurong West....then top up petrol, which cost me max $7 only, so ya sorry, metered reading is really way over priced.... If i were to take a metered reading cab, it'll cost me about $25.....

Metered fare means taxi drivers likely would take the longest route or give you a joy ride; tourist beware.

Don't worry people. There is 0.2% employed in taxis. The labour can be redeployed. 1. Remote Autonomous vehicle monitoring. 2. Luxury limousine driver. 3. Private tourist guide. 4. Tow truck Autonomous vehicle rescue. 5. Cooperative Autonomous vehicles operator. Just an upgrade. (Don't let left winger, street agitate and create ignorance) 😂❤

There is a noticable lesser in demand for taxi, since the increase in fare. It shows that the demand for metered fare was in high demand before the increase as those PHV were too costly.

Is Walter married to a beautiful woman?😅

Who says taxi drivers don't pay commission, taxi drivers absorbs the GST that company has to pay the government on top of the commission, do your homework, whether ride hailing drivers or😢 taxi drivers, we pay commission and the GST, but the multi million companies, when they receive GST rebates of the government, do they return the fair bit to the drivers, check all facts, just don't sit down and do comparisons 🙏

Take public transport or walk.😅😅😅

Imagine your father/mother, spouse or yourself is a taxi driver. Put yourself in their shoes. Thanks.

people always talk so much ! GRAB monopolise the mkt which everyone KNOWS is unhealthy and look at all the complaints YES we know bcos its all around and legit WE WANT THE METRE CAB BACK!!! without rubbish booking fee (alike overseas except stopd aussie) to hell with non-state-owned monopoly

Raining. Fare high. Definitely fair because it's very stressful driving in the rain.

Why Taxi drivers die in their cars so much recently? High living expenses demand longer hours on roads.

When i see this so called professor, i switched off and changed channel

yes i am taking a scooter.

Relax Sgrean rich can afford

taxi in Singapore is one of the WORST. so many different charges, the taxi driver choose passenger or where they wanna to go and to make it even worst, most of them just wait at the street and wait online call or grabs etc, rather than just drive in the street, to look for passenger. Hotels and big shopping malls shall prepare taxi stands for the sake of the visitors. Car rental in Singapore is also very bias, not welcoming foreign visitors as one of the requirement is to have a local driving licence or local address, which foreigners dont have. Singapore shall follow international practices.

S'poreans are very rich indeed. Many thanks to the PAP govt for bringing them wealth by means of stable and high-paying jobs in a safe and secure environment.❤❤

Look at Taipei, I could survive without cabs with their extensive train and buses for the entire trip. To lower cost of living, some would reduce transport budget, non public transport is rather too expensive and unnecessary in Singapore or other metropolitan cities, like Taipei.

Taxi will die off slowly. Nowadays I take grab, becos the taxi got many pattern. Only drive to certain place and etc. Grab don’t have such drama. However, grab have it own issue. Sometimes at certain place the waiting points are confusing. Example north point. Both waiting point at so near uob.