ComfortDelGro hopes to woo riders with flat-fare rates

SINGAPORE — ComfortDelGro started offering its flat taxi-fare option yesterday, which costs slightly less in general compared with metered trips or those booked on ride-hailing apps, whether during off-peak hours in the afternoon or the evening peak period.

Taxi drivers with the company said that the new option would help them get more rides, adding that passengers would stand to gain since they do not have to pay more during jams, and the surcharges that come with cashless payments.

The drivers themselves could pocket more, because they would not have to cough up the 10-per-cent commission payment when taking bookings via the Grab app or the call-booking levy of 40 cents previously imposed by ComfortDelGro.

To further incentivise drivers, the operator will also give S$100 to 1,000 drivers fulfilling the most flat-fare assignments this month. This information was sent to the cabbies via their mobile data terminals.

Checks yesterday on ComfortDelGro’s mobile application showed that a flat-fare ride from Raffles Place to Yishun costs S$18.50 at 3pm, and S$26.50 at 6pm when peak-hour charges began.

These prices are in the range of the traditional metered fare — S$17.50 to S$19.50 for 3pm and S$25 to S$27.50 for 6pm — still on offer through the app at the same timings.

The estimated price of a Uber ride, calculated on a surge-pricing model, was 70 cents cheaper than Comfort’s S$18.50 at 3pm, but it became S$1.86 more than the flat fares that Comfort was offering during the after-work peak hour.

For a JustGrab ride, prices stayed consistently higher than the flat-fare rates, costing S$20 at 3pm and S$31 at 6pm across the same destinations.

ComfortDelGro, in charge of about 60 per cent of the taxi fleet in Singapore, announced that it would roll out the flat-fare option last Monday, just days after Grab switched to dynamic pricing for taxis and taxi-like services.

The flat fare is computed ahead of a trip, taking into account the distance to be travelled and existing surcharges.

Comfort driver Nick Tan, 36, who is not on the Grab service, said that the certainty of a flat fare could be what is wooing passengers back from Grab and Uber.

Mr Tan said that he is expecting to take more calls than the five or six he gets daily now.

However, Comfort’s flat-fare option does not thrill limousine cab drivers who are offered the same fare as cabbies driving standard taxis, because they pay about S$40 more in rental a day.

A 38-year-old driver, who wanted to be known only as Mr See, yesterday rejected a flat-fare call of S$21.30 during the morning peak hour for someone heading from the Toh Yi area near Upper Bukit Timah to the Central Business District.

He later received the same call again, and the passenger chose the metered-fare option. The final rate came up to S$27.50, which was fair to Mr See.

Another Comfort driver, 39, who identified himself only as Mr Ng, said that this new option truly benefits just the passengers, because they get to cross-check and compare charges across taxi-booking apps.

One scenario where Comfort drivers will lose out is if they meet a traffic jam on a flat-fare trip, but “no choice, (the measure is necessary) to compete with private-hire cars”, Mr Ng said.