3,000 Silvercabs join Grab
A message showing the Grabtaxi offer for Premier Taxi (Silvercab) drivers, Oct 3, 2016. Photo: Koh Mui Fong
SINGAPORE — All 3,000 of Premier’s Silvercab taxis are going to be on the Grab platform, in the ride-hailing app’s second tie-up with a taxi operator here in two months.
This brings its fleet of taxis and private cars for hire in Singapore to more than 40,000, and for Premier, this means its booking charges are now in line with rival taxi operators.
Commuters using Grab to get a Silvercab will enjoy a lower booking fee of S$3.30 instead of S$4.50 for peak hours, and S$2.30 instead of S$2.50 for non-peak hours. Before this, Silvercabs charged the highest booking fees among taxi firms. Comfort, CityCab, Trans-Cab and SMRT taxis charge a peak-hour booking fee of S$3.30 while Prime Taxi charges S$3.50.
Mr Lim Chong Boo, managing director of Premier Taxis, hopes that the partnership with Grab will give the company’s drivers more ride bookings and increase their income.
New Silvercab drivers will undergo training to familiarise them with the Grab app, and to learn about Grab’s safety guidelines and code of conduct. Grab will also provide Silvercab drivers with subsidised smartphones that are compatible with the app.
Trans-Cab was the first taxi operator to strike a deal for all its 7,000 or so taxi drivers to use Grab to accept bookings. More than half of the Trans-Cab drivers have started using Grab to date, with the remainder waiting for Grab’s iPhone software to be updated.
GrabTaxi Singapore deputy head Melvin Vu said Trans-Cab drivers are enjoying a 25-per-cent increase in booking matches through the mobile app. One such driver, Mr Sam Chen, 55, who has been with Trans-Cab for 11 years, said: “Last time, with the Trans-Cab booking hotline, we get just one to two calls a month. Using Grab, I get five to six calls a day.”
Among the private-hire car service providers, Grab is Uber’s fiercest competitor in South-east Asia.
In survey findings released by the Singapore Management University’s Institute of Service Excellence last month, Uber and Grab edged out ComfortDelGro — Singapore’s largest taxi operator running Comfort and CityCab taxis — in terms of customer satisfaction when it comes to booking a ride on their apps. Uber led with a score of 69.7 out of 100, followed by Grab (69) and ComfortDelGro (68).
