SINGAPORE — To help its drivers tide through the Covid-19 situation, ComfortDelGro Taxi is extending its daily rental relief until September, a move that will effectively push it into the red, the company said on Monday (March 30).

ComfortDelGro Taxi drivers are receiving a total of S$46.50 per taxi per day in rental relief, comprising S$36.50 from the company and S$10 from the Government’s Special Relief Fund (SRF).

The relief amounts from the company were originally supposed to reduce gradually in April and May. 

“However, the worsening economic conditions and enhanced Covid-19 measures have made it imperative that more help be extended to cabbies,” it said in a statement.

And so ComfortDelGro will match the SRF amount of S$10 until September and, depending on the prevailing conditions, also extend the additional S$26.50 per day relief till then. 

That is, hirers can expect to receive S$46.50 per taxi per day in rental relief from now until the end of September if the economic situation does not improve, the company said.

Extending the relief to September is expected to cost ComfortDelGro Taxi as much as S$80 million, which will cause it to post its first ever full-year loss, it added.

Mr Ang Wei Neng, ComfortDelGro Taxi's chief executive officer, said: “Our priority is our cabbies’ survival. The dramatic drop in tourist arrivals, the increased number of people working from home, the enhanced measures to restrict crowds at shopping malls and eateries, as well as the closure of nightspots, are having a massive impact on our cabbies.

"It is unprecedented. Our cabbies are part of the ComfortDelGro family and we want to help them continue to put food on the table.”

In addition to the rental relief extension, ComfortDelGro will also pass on to taxi drivers all the savings it will make from the licence fee waiver and the S$2,200 that is being given by the Government for each unhired taxi.

This will be done through a waiver of the call levy till September, on top of the S$1,000 a month that the Government is giving to self-employed persons over the next nine months, the company said.

The moves come after Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said on Sunday that taxi and private-hire car drivers can now help make grocery and food deliveries to help address a shortage of delivery slots, as the Government has encouraged people to order food and groceries online instead of venturing out.

This will also help such drivers to supplement their income, he added.

During his Resilience Budget speech last week, Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat told Parliament that the Government has set aside an additional S$95 million, on top of a S$77 million point-to-point transport support package that was announced during the annual Budget in February. 

Under this package :

• Eligible taxi and PHC drivers and their respective operators will continue to receive SRF payments of S$300 per vehicle per month from May to September.

• S$12 million has been set aside to help taxi operators defray the costs of their growing unhired fleet. The Government will also work with taxi operators to pass on these savings to drivers in the form of rental reductions and waiver of early return contract breakage costs.

• Drivers get a one-time waiver of the S$100 PHC vehicle outward conversion fees from May to September.