SINGAPORE — The proportion of commuters who took taxis or private-hire cars grew last year, with passengers much more likely to take private-hire cars than taxis.

In 2016, about three in 10 people surveyed by the Public Transport Council (PTC) had taken a point-to-point ride in the last seven days, but the proportion increased to just over four in 10 last year.

And in 2016, consumers were as likely to take a private-hire car as a taxi. But last year, the proportion likely to take private-hire cars shot up to 70.5 per cent.

The findings, released on Friday (Feb 23), were part of the Point-to-point Transport Services Customer Satisfaction Survey by the PTC. 

For this component of the survey, 1,503 respondents were polled door-to-door in July and August last year.

The findings correspond with the growth of the private-hire car fleet in the past year, as well as falling taxi ridership, which plunged 18 per cent from 954,000 (average daily ridership) in 2016 to 785,000 in 2017. 

The taxi fleet also shrank by 16 per cent between Dec 2016 and Dec 2017, ending last year at 23,140, according to the Land Transport Authority’s figures. The private-hire fleet is more than double that of taxis.

UNLIKELY TO IMPACT BUS AND RAIL RIDERSHIP

The other component of the PTC’s survey – which polled 1,500 point-to-point transport users at 30 locations last August to September – found that commuters preferred private-hire cars to buses and trains, because of “numerous discounts” dangled.

Commuter satisfaction with the taxi and private-hire car industry went up by 2.8 percentage points from 2016 to 2017.

The proportion of satisfied taxi commuters went up from 94.4 per cent in 2016 to 98.5 per cent in 2017, while that for private-hire car services rose from 97.3 per cent to 98.7 per cent.

Transport analysts said the increase in proportion of commuters opting for point-to-point rides may not have a significant impact on other modes of public transport.

“The demand for buses and trains is relatively inelastic… The increase in commuters taking taxis and private-hire cars will more likely add to overall transport demand,” said National University of Singapore transport researcher Lee Der-Horng.

Latest figures shared by the Land Transport Authority on its website showed that bus and rail ridership rose by 4.3 per cent between 2015 and 2016. In particular, the LRT and MRT led the growth with ridership hikes of 18.4 per cent and 7.8 per cent, respectively.

Ride-hailing firms have been aggressive in securing its market share by trotting out incentives for both drivers and commuters, said Dr Lee.

“Point-to-point travel has also been made a lot more convenient and attractive in recent years through the use of technology and mobile apps,” he added.

Transport consultant Tham Chen Munn agreed that the impact of private-hire cars on other bus and rail ridership “may not be too significant”.

“The greater fight is between the taxis and private-hire cars,” said Mr Tham.

However, both analysts noted that the growing demand for private-hire services would add to the traffic conditions here, with Dr Lee calling for regulations to limit the fleet of ride-hailing firms. “With the Government calling for a car-lite society and promoting other modes of public transport (like buses and trains), this may not be a very positive trend,” he said.