LTA may do a U-turn on its decision 1 day after it came out and said that private-hire and taxis are not allowed to do delivery jobs.
The Straits Times reported that a spokesman for LTA said that “LTA will monitor recent trends to see if these regulations needs to be reviewed”
LTA response came after many affected private-hire and taxi drivers were baffled by LTA’s stand and spoke up against it. The National Taxi Association, whose executive adviser is Member of Parliament for Ang Mo Kio GRC, Mr. Ang Hin Kee called for LTA to review the regulations in order to maximise the current vehicles on the road to complete deliveries.
There are few point raised that were relevant
- Government is pushing for a ‘car-lite’ society, by allowing existing private-hire and taxi to do the job would be better utilization of resources than getting more vehicles on the road to fulfil the delivery orders
- There is an abundant of private-hire vehicles and taxis on the road to meet commuter demands therefore the concern of insufficient vehicle is redundant.
- Government is always encouraging Singaporeans to embrace changes and disruptors in our economy. If the private-hire and taxi drivers do not support Amazon, who else can fulfil Amazon delivery orders.
Being Big and Famous has its repercussions
Private-hire and taxi doing deliveries has been an ongoing thing for many years. It has always been under the radar as no one single company has engaged so many private-hire and taxis in such a short period of time until Amazon comes into Singapore and offers drivers up to $30/hour to do deliveries.
Time for changes
The latest controversy on providing courier service is another new problem that private-hire drivers face in Singapore and needs improvement.
