Comfort Delgro

(17-05-2018, 09:23 PM)Bibi Wrote: .....The only time when its worth taking a taxi is when trains break down or heavy downpour. Private car pricing can be as crazy as $40+.

During such times, there will be long queues at taxi stands and it is the most difficult time to get a taxi. The taxi booking system is not smart enough to inform taxi drivers of the up to minute demand status. The surge pricing, together with a large supply of PHVs, will help to restore the demand-supply balance within a shorter time. Having too many PHV drivers going back to drive taxis may not be a good thing for taxi commuters.

(18-05-2018, 11:21 AM)wsreader Wrote: During such times, there will be long queues at taxi stands and it is the most difficult time to get a taxi. The taxi booking system is not smart enough to inform taxi drivers of the up to minute demand status. The surge pricing, together with a large supply of PHVs, will help to restore the demand-supply balance within a shorter time. Having too many PHV drivers going back to drive taxis may not be a good thing for taxi commuters.

Not entirely correct...taxi companies had joined force with Grab and taxi drivers are allowed to get jobs via the App. So actually, there is no need to queue at taxi stands to get a taxi.

Ultimately I strongly believe it is still the convenience of getting a PHV, pricing wise cannot compare with last time when Uber was still around in the market. On the other hand I thought PHV drivers also got the "luxury" to choose customers too?

(19-05-2018, 11:29 AM)new-comer1 Wrote: Ultimately I strongly believe it is still the convenience of getting a PHV, pricing wise cannot compare with last time when Uber was still around in the market. On the other hand I thought PHV drivers also got the "luxury" to choose customers too?

Only Uber business model does not allow its drivers to choose customers. The rest of others allows PHV drivers to choose. Which is why after Uber left, I have difficulty getting a PHV when I put my destination as school. Experienced drivers wont want to go such places. School's jam are notorious. So in the end, I have to input a HDB address closest to the sch and walk my son to the school.

Not only that, sometimes in the early morning when the prices are low, no drivers want to pick up including taxi drivers.

Speaking from personal experience, I use Comfort's app most of the time and hardly use Grab these days, especially after Uber folded. My thoughts along a few common dimensions of a typical experience as follows:


Price
During off-peak, Grab is roughly the same price as Comfort flag down which in turn is ~10-15% cheaper than the Comfort app fixed fare option due to the later incorporating booking fee into its fixed price quotation. For peak periods, Grab’s surge pricing is very volatile from roughly same level as Comfort app fixed price to 2-3x higher depending on the actual market conditions such as weather, breakdowns, events etc.
 
Accessibility
Under most conditions, I find Comfort faster in getting a booking. The challenge for Grab drivers is in addition to generally lower fares compared to Comfort app, they are charged a commission anywhere from 20% - 40% of the fee by Grab (depending on which acceptance bracket they fall into). This means their takings are very low and they have to be “smart” about selecting jobs that work for them. Grab also has a lot of flex part time drivers picking up people in between errands, so they tend to be more selective in terms of location and timing as it has to gel in with their personal time table.
 
Grab however does have an advantage during stress conditions due to their ability to surge price upwards by multiples, so let’s say there is a massive MRT breakdown or thunderstorm and you are desperate to get somewhere on time and don’t mind paying, Grab will probably be your most realistic option.
 
Road Comfort
Most of the time Comfort is better as their cabs are mostly either Sonata or the latest Crown (this one really very comfortable, feels even better than a normal Mercedes limo). PHV cars are mostly Attrage, Mazda 2s, Kia and Vios which IMO isn’t that great in terms of road stability and spaciousness. Recently Toyota CHR started getting popular due to Borneo dumping this model at dirt cheap prices to fleet owners, but the back seats are really cramped as this is not a model designed to ferry passengers at the back seat.

If you are going to the airport on a holiday with the family, I strongly suggest going for Comfort or any other taxis as most of the PHV car models have limited boot space for luggage.
 
Driver Competency
Though there are blur sotongs on both sides of the fence, it’s quite undeniable that PHVs have far more part time and transient drivers, so the chances of getting a “drive by GPS” driver is considerably higher in PHV space. This can be a bit tricky if you are coming from / going to places where the exact location of pick up / alighting can be different from where the GPS indicates resulting in lost time spinning around.
 
Family Friendly
 I think by now most people would realise one of the strange quirks of our road regulations is that a taxi can ferry children without child seats whereas a PHV has to have one. Most PHVs do not have child seats and special orders are more expensive and hard to come by due to limited cars available. Some PHV drivers are willing to take the risk whereas some will reject and charge cancellation fees on the spot, depends on your luck. For those with kids, I strongly recommend going for the taxi instead of risking wasted time and cancellation charges just to save that few dollars.
 
Above are my general observations after using both PHVs and Comfort taxis for some years. Do note that no matter what there’s going to be bad apples in both barrels, but macro wise those are my observations.

ComfortDelGro and Uber Part Ways

ComfortDelGro Corporation Limited and Uber Technologies, Inc. have agreed to dissolve the strategic agreement that they entered into last December.

As a result, ComfortDelGro will no longer be acquiring the 51-percent-stake in Uber’s wholly-owned car rental subsidiary in Singapore, Lion City Holdings Pte Ltd. Consequently, the application to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore will be withdrawn.

More details in :
1. http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Announce...eID=507406
2. http://infopub.sgx.com/FileOpen/Media%20...eID=507407

okay, next player, GO-JEK!!

Its beneficial to CDG to not take this deal IMO.

Grab and Comfort's competition has reached about equilibrium. Furthermore, Lion City rental dosen't seem to be making profits

We all know the impact of the last (price war) had on CDG. Again, if you have competitors who do not have profit-driven motives (at least in the short-medium term), then it is a tough and dangerous path ahead.

Another price war seen in ride-hailing market

A PRICE war will break out again in the ride-hailing industry, even as major player Grab has said it would bank on innovation instead of "promo codes" to compete in the field, observers told The Business Times.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Grab launched GrabFood and unveiled its vision to become an "everyday app" for South-east Asian consumers, a development coming just four days after Indonesia's Go-Jek announced its US$500 million investment to expand into four new markets in the next four months - Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/technol...ing-market

(25-05-2018, 06:27 PM)brattzz Wrote: okay, next player, GO-JEK!!

http://www.msn.com/en-sg/news/other/new-...ocid=ientp

Here comes the fights!! 5x!! smaller and more nimble!