Commuters 'satisfied' with taxi, private-hire car services for third year running: Public Transport Council

 

SINGAPORE: Commuters gave "high scores" for taxi and private-hire car services in 2021, continuing a trend seen in the two previous years, said the Public Transport Council on Friday (Feb 4).

In a news release announcing the results of the latest Point-to-Point (P2P) Transport Services Customer Satisfaction Survey, the council said P2P services for 2021 received a mean satisfaction score of 8.4, the same as 2020 and a touch above the 8.1 in 2019.

A score of 10 means commuters were "Very Satisfied".

The survey polled commuters on the following service attributes: Waiting time, ease of booking, service information, ride comfort, driver’s knowledge of routes, customer service provided by the driver, safety of the service and taxi stand accessibility (for taxi trips only).

For taxis, commuters gave high marks for safety and route knowledge, with scores similar to 2020. But scores for waiting time and taxi stand accessibility dipped in 2021.

Overall, taxis scored marginally better than private-hire car services for all categories.

For private-hire car services, the data showed that commuters gave waiting time the lowest score among all the categories, dropping from 7.8 in 2020 to 7.6 in 2021. Customer service (7.8) was the other category that came in below 8.0.

The Public Transport Council said that the survey showed that pricing continued to be a key factor for respondents in choosing either taxis or private-hire cars.

"Apart from pricing, some commuters indicated that they chose taxis over PHCs (private-hire cars) due to availability, safety and driver's knowledge of route," said the Public Transport Council.

"Meanwhile, other commuters highlighted that they preferred PHCs over taxis due to ease of use of app, ease of payment and its rewards system."

More than 3,300 taxi and private-hire car users were polled for the survey. Respondents were those who took taxi or private-hire car services at least three times a week or had used such services on the same day of survey completion.