LTA to implement measures to improve P2P industry

As announced at the Ministry of Transport's Committee of Supply 2025, LTA will be implementing several measures to improve the stability, contestability, and inclusivity of the point-to-point transport (P2P) industry.

Working in the CBD? Facing difficulties in getting on your ride? Fret not. In response to requests from PHC drivers and commuters, LTA will convert nine most frequently used taxi stops in the Central Business District to "P2P stops", which can be used as pick-up and drop-off points by taxis and PHCs. This will make P2P services safer and more convenient for all commuters.

In addition, LTA states that taxis are important for meeting P2P demand for two main reasons: As compared to PHCs, they provide more consistent supply throughout day and offer street-hail services, which are important for commuters who are less familiar with ride-hail apps and for locations with high demand such as airports.

In Phase One of its P2P review, which took effect from 1 January 2025, LTA announced various changes to the regulatory regime for taxis and PHCs, such as extending the statutory lifespan of taxis from eight to 10 years, reducing the inspection frequency for taxis below three-years old to once a year, increasing the inspection frequency for PHCs above 10-years old to once every six months, and to remove call-booking requirements for smaller taxi operators.

LTA will also require the disclosure of a vehicle’s PHC/taxi history for all newly registered cars using Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) obtained from the COE bidding exercise that ended on 5 March 2025, and newly converted or transferred chauffeured or self-drive PHCs

LTA will introduce further measures to provide taxi operators with greater flexibility to manage their operating costs and support them in growing their fleet. This will include a continued suspension of the 2% annual growth cap, allowing taxi operators to grow their fleets by more than 2% a year based on their growth plans and fleet productivity, as well as being allowed to convert used vehicles that are less than five-years old to taxis, subject to LTA's approval. Taxi operators will also be allowed to resell taxis that are more than three-years old, by up to 5% of their fleets annually, which will reduce operators' risks in trialling new taxi models.

In February 2025, LTA also announced a three-year lock-in period for business-owned chauffeured PHCs (cPHCs), ensuring that businesses who acquire such vehicles do so for the sole purpose of leasing them to drivers providing ride-hail services.

With immediate effect, LTA will also require the disclosure of a vehicle’s PHC/taxi history for all newly registered cars using Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) obtained from the COE bidding exercise that ended on 5 March 2025, and newly converted or transferred chauffeured or self-drive PHCs.

As the ride-hail sector is a matching market, large operators are naturally better able to match drivers and commuters. Therefore, large operators should bear greater responsibility to set market norms that continue to protect the interests of commuters and drivers. To further protect driver and commuter choice, LTA will subject large operators to additional responsibilities, including higher data disclosure obligations to LTA as regulator. This will build on its broader regulations to promote multi-homing, providing greater assurance to drivers and commuters that large operators will not implement practices that restrict drivers' or commuters' choice.

LTA will also consult sector stakeholders to review its rules, ensuring all operators can continue to innovate and improve service offerings.

In a recent LTA-commissioned survey conducted with seniors, the most common challenge cited was difficulties navigating the ride-hail application interface. As well as that, seniors and other commuters with special mobility needs may come to rely more on P2P services for their medical appointments. To address these pain points, LTA will launch a P2P Inclusivity Co-funding Grant, which provides co-funding of up to 50% and is capped at $500,000, for the development of ideas that can improve access to P2P services.