‘Human error’ caused premature message about new 3-year lock-in period for business-owned private-hire cars
The vendor that was working on changes to the IT system made a deployment error, which prematurely revealed the message about the new lock-in period to some users, says Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor.
Vehicles on a highway in Singapore. (File photo: CNA/Jeremy Long)
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SINGAPORE: It was a case of human error when the message about the new three-year lock-in period for cars designated for ride-hailing services was prematurely revealed, Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor said on Monday (Mar 3).
The IT system vendor NCS has since taken steps to prevent a recurrence of the issue, she added.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced the new regulation on Feb 19 - ahead of schedule - after it discovered that the information had been unintentionally released.
The error prompted a parliamentary question from Non-Constituency MP Hazel Poa, who asked about the circumstances that led to the early release of the information and whether an investigation would be conducted.
Dr Khor said on Monday that the NCS team working on changes to the IT system had made a deployment error, which prematurely revealed the message about the new lock-in period to some users.
“The mistake was due to human error,” she said, adding that it was “unintentional”.
The error occurred because when the system changes were being rolled out, the lines of code that controlled when and to whom the message about the lock-in period would be displayed were not rolled out, said Dr Khor.
As a result, drivers who were using the digital services for the relevant vehicle transactions could see the message, she added.
The Land Transport Authority had originally planned to announce the policy change regarding the mandatory three-year lock-in period for all newly registered or converted business-owned chauffeured private-hire cars during the Ministry of Transport’s Committee of Supply debate in March 2025. However, it had to bring forward the implementation date due to an unintentional error by its system vendor, NCS. The deployment error resulted in the message on the lock-in period being prematurely revealed to some users before the planned announcement date. The mistake was due to human error. Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor said this in a reply to parliamentary questions on Monday (Mar 3). She added that NCS has acknowledged and taken responsibility for the error, and it has also taken steps to prevent a recurrence.
NCS has since implemented additional checks and established a buddy system with a senior developer who will review the work done, said Dr Khor.
The authorities had initially intended to announce the changes in March while laying out the transport ministry’s spending plans for the year, she noted.
But a decision was made to push forward the announcement.
“This was because there was an ongoing COE bidding exercise from Feb 17 to Feb 19, and we wanted to ensure fairness and transparency to all parties and allow bidders sufficient time to decide whether to adjust their bids before the bidding cycle closed at 4pm on Feb 19,” Dr Khor said.
Under the new regulation, businesses must now keep their private-hire cars designated for ride-hailing services for three years before they can be converted or transferred to individuals.
This ensures that businesses who acquire such private-hire cars do so predominantly to lease them to drivers who provide ride-hail services, LTA said on Feb 19.
It also prevents the premature conversion of such vehicles out of the chauffeured private-hire car scheme, which will affect the supply of vehicles available for point-to-point services.
The mandatory three-year lock-in period applies to all newly registered or converted chauffeured private-hire cars that are owned by businesses, and all such vehicles that are transferred from individuals to businesses.
The transport ministry will provide more details about the review of the point-to-point transport sector during the debate on its spending plans in March.
