ComfortDelGro takes a swipe at Grab, says it will not raise its taxi fares

Singapore-based mobility firm ComfortDelGro Group has announced that it will not increase any of its fares and that it will also reduce the daily rental rate of its taxis by 50% until June 13, in a veiled response to Grab’s fare hike.

Photo credit: The ComfortDelGro Group

The move comes after Grab announced earlier this week that it will raise its current base fare of S$2.50 (US$1.88) by S$1 (US$0.75) across most of its transport offerings starting on June 1, marking its first hike in fares since 2017.

Grab increased its base fare to address complaints from its drivers and tripartite partners that the company’s services have not kept pace with the rising costs to allow drivers to continue providing their services.

ComfortDelGro Group in its newsletter and Facebook post said, “Any increase, even S$1, can just be too much to bear in times like these.” The ride-hailing firm added that it does not want to pass on the financial burden to its cabbies or customers.

A screenshot from ComfortDelGro’s newsletter / Source: ComfortDelGro

The company is also expanding its reach by partnering with Lazada to leverage the latter’s wide user base while boosting the Alibaba-owned startup’s offerings and “relevance as a one-stop destination for daily needs.”

First reported by Tech in Asia in April, the CDG Taxi service was seen positioned alongside Lazada’s main offerings, which include LazMall, Taobao, RedMart, and LazLive, on its app’s home page.

This development came after ComfortDelGro had added 25 private-hire cars in January as part of a month-long trial of its ride-hailing service, taking on Southeast Asian giants Grab and Gojek.

Recently, ComfortDelGro also committed S$50 million (US$37.1 million) to clean energy technology and research for the next five years as part of its push toward raising its overall sustainability quotient.

These recent developments suggest that the ecommerce player is trying to evolve beyond its core service to become more of a super app like Grab and Gojek.