SINGAPORE — For the third time in as many weeks, Grab is extending its rental discount campaign to woo ComfortDelGro drivers — this time, by a day.

The ride-sharing company said the recruitment drive, originally due to wrap up on Friday (Oct 6) after two extensions over a fortnight, will stretch until Saturday.

ComfortDelGro is Singapore's biggest taxi operator and the only one among the major cab companies here that has not officially partnered Grab. ComfortDelGro is reportedly in exclusive talks with Grab's rival Uber, though little is publicly known about the status of their discussions.

As of Friday, more than 3,000 ComfortDelGro drivers have joined the Grab platform as part of the recruitment drive, with the majority signing up as private-hire car drivers, a Grab spokesperson said in response to queries.

TODAY reported last week that Grab was prolonging its offer by another week, after having previously extended it by two weeks.

Strong interest in the promotion prompted Grab to set up a dedicated space at its Sin Ming office last week to serve ComfortDelGro drivers who wanted to make the switch.

ComfortDelGro has seen the size of its fleet plummet in recent months to hit an eight-year low.

It had 15,127 Comfort and CityCab taxis on its books in August, its eighth consecutive month of decline, latest Land Transport Authority statistics released this week showed.

The company has lost 1,368 cabs, or about 8.3 per cent of its fleet, since the start of this year. The August figure represented a near 12 per cent drop from its peak of 17,143 cabs in April last year.

In August last year, ComfortDelGro said it had 37,000 drivers.

In an effort to counter Grab’s deals, ComfortDelGro ran an advertisement in Chinese language daily Lianhe Zaobao last month, touting rental rebates totalling S$3,600 over six months — which came short of what Grab is offering.

Grab’s offer, broadcast by phone text messages to thousands of ComfortDelGro’s cabbies, promised rental rebates that would cut their rental bills in half in some cases.

Grab is offering a S$50 daily discount for half a year if drivers join any of its five partner taxi firms: Trans-Cab, Prime Taxi, SMRT Taxis, Premier Taxis and HDT Singapore Taxi. This adds up to about S$9,000 in savings.

The discounts are larger — with savings totalling about S$10,120 over six months — if drivers move to a private-hire car through Grab’s rental arm. Grab will fund the rebates, TODAY understands.

Grab’s aggressive discounting had earlier raised questions over whether its campaign flew in the face of fair competition.

Singapore University of Social Sciences urban transport expert Park Byung Joon, for instance, was of the view that Grab may be hindering fair competition by drawing on its financial power. He had said the authorities should look into whether this was allowed. 

In response to TODAY’s queries earlier this week, a spokesperson for the Competition Commission of Singapore said discount schemes are employed commonly as a form of price competition, and are generally encouraged.

“We will continue to monitor the effect of such discount schemes on competition in the markets,” the spokesperson added.

Singapore’s competition law does not prohibit firms from achieving or striving for market power, but it will be “anti-competitive if a dominant player, in any market in Singapore, abuses its dominance”, the spokesperson explained.

ComfortDelGro drivers interviewed by TODAY last month, who were in the process of switching camps, said they were disappointed by the lack of an adequate counter-offer by the company. Hit by falling earnings, some said they would go with whichever operator offering the cheapest deals.