New 3-year lock-in period for business-owned PHCs

Making good on earlier promises by the Singapore government of ensuring a stable supply of vehicles for ride-hail services, the LTA has announced a mandatory three-year lock-in period for all vehicles either newly-registered, converted, and transferred from individuals to businesses as chaffeured Private Hire Cars (cPHCs).

The new measures come into effect immediately (from 19 February 2025), and will require new business-owned cPHCs to remain classified as such for at least three years. This effectively means that they cannot be sold to individual owners, or transferred to other businesses for at least three years starting from their registration, conversion or transferrence.

The new policy - which takes immediate effect - is aimed at ensuring a stable supply of vehicles for ride-hail services

Notably, the three-year lock-in period will not apply to existing business-owned cPHCs registered, converted, or transferred before today. Apart from being exempt from the new rules, the potential transference of such cars to another business in the future will also not trigger a lock-in period.

The LTA has also made sure to clarify that cPHCs owned by individuals will not be subject to the lock-in period, since these are typically used for both ride-hail services and personal trips.

Originally intended for announcement sometime after February's second COE bidding exercise, the new measures were brought forward due to an "unintended release of information" by LTA's vendor, NCS.

In response, the authority states that its official implementation of the policy now - before the close of the exercise - has been undertaken to "ensure transparency and fairness for all stakeholders". The current bidding exercise began on 17 February 2025, and will conclude at 4:00pm on 19 February 2025.