LTA removes requirement for taxi drivers to clock daily minimum mileage

Taxi drivers will not be required to clock a minimum daily mileage starting from next year (2017). The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on Saturday (17^th December) that it will be simplifying its Taxi Availability (TA) framework and scrapping the requirement for cabbies to ply at least 250km every day. While the daily minimum mileage requirement will be scrapped, the LTA said it will maintain regulations requiring the bulk of a taxi operator's fleet to be on the roads during peak hours.

It will, however, simplify this by removing the requirement for what is called the 'shoulder peak', of between 6:00am and 7:00am, and 11:00pm and midnight. Between the peak periods of 7:00am to 11:00am, and 5:00pm to 11:00pm, taxi operators have to continue to ensure than 85 percent of its fleets are on the roads. The TA framework was introduced back in 2013 to help commuters get a taxi.

The LTA said that with TA, the percentage of taxis on the road during peak hours has increased from 82 percent in 2012, to 93 percent in the first nine months of this year. The move was welcomed by the National Taxi Association, which said that the revisions will help cabbies to minimise empty cruising.