Image credit: Created by Tech in Asia with images from Wikimedia and Pixabay.
Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) has released some fascinating facts. The number of rental cars on the roads has risen to a record high of 24,573 today, a 38 percent surge from August 2015.
According to experts quoted by The Straits Times, the most probable cause of this trend is the rising popularity of ride-hailing apps like Uber and GrabTaxi. These services work with rental firms to provide cars to drivers.
This is a great development for Singapore. And I suspect the Singapore government is secretly cheering Uber on.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is one of the geekiest world leaders around, so his support for cutting-edge technologies is expected.
Singapore has also always had a tough stance against car ownership. Bad for car lovers and car fetishists. Yay for the rest of us.
It’s because of the certificate of entitlement (COE) scheme – in which you must bid and pay for a car ownership license that often costs more than the car itself – that Singapore roads are less clogged than cities like Jakarta, Bangalore, and Manila.
Uber wants to replace car ownership, and for that it gets a high-five from the Singapore government. Since rental cars operated by Uber are fully utilized unlike privately-owned cars, which spend most of their time idle in parking lots, more rental cars on the roads means more efficient road usage.
That’s music to the government’s ears.
Playing politics
Yet the state can only go so far in cheering Uber on. That’s because of an important bloc of voters – the taxi drivers, tens of thousands of them.
A taxi seen in Singapore. Photo credit: Richard Pluck.
To get a taxi driver license, you must be a Singapore citizen. It’s an odd requirement which doesn’t apply to many countries or even other jobs in Singapore.
While the reason for this has not been officially stated, it’s easy to see the political significance, according to a taxi driver blogger.
Secret admirer
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