In an effort to try and increase the taxi availability in town, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is considering feedback that Taxis should get discounts on ERP rates.
Currently, taxis pay full ERP fares and when they are hired, the costs get passed on to the consumers.
This means that if taxis do not have customers, they will have to pay the ERP toll themselves if they want to go into the town area.
As a result, some taxi drivers avoid going into town on their own unless they are taking a passenger there.
Because of this, there are fewer taxis in the town area than what could be achieved without ERPs.
To address this, the LTA is considering lowering the ERP rates for taxis or giving them discounted monthly passes.
It is puzzling that the LTA does not want to make ERPs free for all taxis. ERPs are meant as a way to reduce congestion but shouldn't taxis be considered a form of public transport that may be helping to reduce the number of private cars on the road?
If the LTA made ERPs free for all taxis, the cost of taking a taxi would become slightly cheaper as consumers need not pay the ERP fee and taxis could easily go into the town area to try and pick up more customers.
There should be little concern of taxi drivers driving unnecessarily through congested roads because of the lack of tolls as that would be highly counterproductive for the drivers. Drivers want to go where they have potential passengers so that they can maximise their profits each day.
This will also coincide with greater taxi availability as more taxis will travel to the places where there are more passengers looking for taxis.
Cabbies are experienced drivers who will avoid congestion when not taking passengers so ERPs are not the only deterrent for travelling on congested roads.
It seems that the only thing stopping LTA from taking more definitive measures that would benefit both taxi passengers and drivers is their own greed to collect more money.