Skip to main content

New! You can personalise your feed. Try it now

Advertisement

Advertisement

New minimum age for private-hire driver licence applicants unlikely to affect fares, waiting times, experts say

SINGAPORE — The setting of a minimum age for private-hire car drivers — a move that has been long awaited — is unlikely to have a significant impact on the supply of these drivers on the roads, transport industry experts say.

Transport industry experts do not expect any significant change to waiting times or fares as a result of the introduction of a minimum age of 30 for private-hire car drivers.

Transport industry experts do not expect any significant change to waiting times or fares as a result of the introduction of a minimum age of 30 for private-hire car drivers.

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

  • The Land Transport Authority on Tuesday announced that private-hire car drivers must be at least 30 years old to apply for a licence
  • Transport analysts do not expect any significant changes to fares or waiting times as a result
  • These young drivers make up a small proportion of all drivers and retrenched workers will more than fill that void, they say
  • While some drivers said the change would help, they were divided on whether there should be more regulation

 

SINGAPORE — The setting of a minimum age for private-hire car drivers — a move that has been long awaited — is unlikely to have a significant impact on the supply of these drivers on the roads, transport industry experts say.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) on Tuesday (Sept 15) announced that all new applicants for the Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL) must be Singaporeans and aged at least 30.

Previously, applicants were required to have held a driver’s licence for at least two years, meaning they could be as young as 20 years old.

Those below 30 but who already hold a PDVL are exempt from the change and can continue renewing their licence so long as they keep it from expiring, LTA clarified with TODAY on Wednesday.

Despite the raised barrier for people to become private-hire drivers, transport analysts are not expecting any shortage of drivers or notable changes to fares or waiting times, as people out of a job in the current Covid-19 pandemic are likely to more than fill that void.

“You need to view this in the context of what is happening now, which is in the middle of the pandemic,” Dr Terence Fan from the Singapore Management University said. “Even if we restrict the pool a little bit, as we are seeing now, it won’t affect much in terms of the wait time because the demand is probably not going to increase much.”

These younger drivers also make up a small proportion of private-hire drivers and most of them work part-time, ride-sharing firm Gojek Singapore’s general manager Lien Choong Luen said on Tuesday.

PDVL holders below the age of 30 make up about 15 per cent of the overall pool of drivers, equating to 7,500 licensees, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Transport, said on Facebook following the announcement.

The change, LTA said, was meant to align the PDVL’s eligibility criteria with the requirements for a Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence. Dr Khor also said that the Government had considered how the rule change would help older drivers a little during this difficult period.

Dr Fan, however, believed the motivation behind the updating of rules is to improve the quality of private-hire drivers on the road without really impacting the wait time for people using the service.

“Some accidents that have happened before might have involved people of a lower age and therefore less driving experience,” he said. “(The authorities) haven’t published the numbers, but maybe these are people who are not citizens and maybe not too familiar with certain parts of the city.”

Associate Professor Gopinath Menon from the Nanyang Technological University said the change to the minimum age can be seen as a push for younger people to aspire for other more sustainable careers.

Tweaks to regulations like this are ultimately temporary solutions, urban transport specialist Park Byung Joon said. Uber’s foray into Singapore in 2013 had marked the beginning of the disruption to the taxi industry in the country and brought up an abundance of lingering issues yet to be properly addressed.

“We need to move away from taxi regulation and fundamentally review the regulation of the private transportation industry,” the associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences said.

Plans for a wide ranging regulatory framework for the taxi and private-hire car sectors have been in the works for at least two years, with the Point-to-Point Passenger Transport Industry Act passed in August last year. The implementation of the framework was delayed twice because of the Covid-19 outbreak and is set to be released next month.

MIXED VIEWS FROM DRIVERS

While cabbies have long called for the minimum age of private-hire drivers to be raised to 30 to bring them on par with requirements for taxi driver licensees, some said the change to the rules will help them only a little, especially during this pandemic.

Ms Kirsty Foo, 60, said her monthly income as a taxi driver has been down about 70 per cent since March.

“Definitely it will help a bit, but the rules will have to be (further) tightened,” she said.

Ms Foo suggested making private-hire drivers undergo the same driving course as taxi drivers, which takes about two days compared to one day for private-hire drivers. This, she said, will not only raise the barriers to entry but could also help reduce the number of accidents on the road.

Part-time private-hire driver Mr Wong, 26, believes, however, that the tightening of restrictions was too drastic a measure and would have unfortunate effects for the job prospects of fresh graduates.

Mr Wong, who declined to reveal his full name as he does not want to be seen as moonlighting from his regular sales job, had been driving part time since he was a university undergraduate.

While he already holds a PDVL and will not be affected by the change, he said the raising of the minimum age will take away a crucial wage earning opportunity for other young graduates who are unable to find jobs amid the pandemic.

“For undergraduates who, for example, need to pay off their student loans, (this announcement) came at a very untimely period,” said Mr Wong.

He suggested placing curbs, such as placing a cap on how much young drivers can earn, and not deprive them of the opportunity altogether.

Related topics

private-hire car Jobs driver

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.