SINGAPORE — Transport analysts have suggested that small to medium-sized taxi operators consider integrating operations, especially on call-booking.

This comes after news that Smart Cab will not have its operator licence renewed, as it failed to meet Land Transport Authority’s (LTA’s) requirements for matching call bookings with taxis.

Assoc Prof Lee Der Horng, transport researcher at the National University of Singapore, said: “The call booking requires fairly extensive financial resources.

“On the other hand, even if you have that kind of financial resources to set up your call-booking centre, if your fleet size is not (big) enough, then (it’s still likely) that your call booking matching rate cannot satisfy the government’s regulation.

“So if the different companies can coordinate with each other in terms of the financial resources, and also in terms of their fleet availability, then I think — either to the operators themselves or to the passengers — it’s good news.”

Meanwhile, Prime Taxi — which has a fleet of 907 cabs — said it plans to buy over Smart Cab’s operations and hire more drivers. Prime Taxi said it is confident of the move as rental rates of its hybrid vehicles are fairly low

However, it added that it feels constrained by the government’s requirement of a two per cent annual growth rate for taxi fleets by the end of the year.

Mr Neo Chee Yong, deputy general manager of Prime Taxi, said: “Looking at the market situation, our population and our tourist arrivals are expected to increase. So this two per cent will not be sufficient. We hope that the government will give us, taxi operators, a bigger space to expand our fleets to cater to this increasing demand.”