LIMOUSINE taxi services are getting more popular, going by the number of Mercedes-Benz taxis expected to hit the road.
Market leader ComfortDelGro, which already has about 620 Merc cabs, will buy up to 200 more this year.
Trans-Cab, operated by bottled gas supplier Union Energy, will get it maiden fleet of 100 Merc taxi in June.
“We are expanding our limo fleet by another 100 units over the next three months, and possibly up to another 100 more before the year end,” said ComfortDelGro chief executive Yang Ban Seng.
“By then, we will have 800-plus limo cabs. This is to gear ourselves up for the opening of the new Terminal 3 at Changi Airport, and, in time to come, the integrated resorts,” he said. The new terminal is due to open next year.
The other three cab operators all have Merc cabs. SMRT has 212, Smart Automobile, 101 and Premier Taxis, 50.
In all, there are close to 1,000 Merc cabs on the road here – up from a mere 30 in late 1996, bought by ComfortDelGro’s CityCab. This has pushed the percentage of Merc taxis from less than 0.2 percent in 1996 to 4.3 percent today By the end of the year, their cohort could swell to 5.4 percent of Singapore’s total taxi fleet of 24,000 or so.
A ride in a Merc costs 30 cents more when you flag one down the road. If you call for one, the booking fee is $8 for a current booking and $16 for an advance one. With ordinary Japanese cabs, the fee is $4 for a current booking during peak hours and $5.20 for an advance one.
The daily rental to drivers is $126, versus $94 for a new Toyota taxi. Yet ComfortDelGro says demand from drivers s high. Cabby Tommy Ong, 53, has been driving a taxi for more than nine years, seven of them in a Merc.
Besides being “quieter and more comfortable”, the 2.2 litre Mercedes turbodiesel cab consumes “less diesel than a 3.0-litre Toyota Crown”. “It also helps me get more clients,” he added.
Mr Ong does not want to reveal how much he makes, but he said is “quite comfortable”
Ms Angie Soh, 50, an administrative executive at a physiotherapy clinic, said she calls for limo cabs when she has patients who need extra help. “They provide better service,” she said.
*Text taken from the Home section in today's Straits Times
