THE Transport Ministry is keen on more people dialling for their cabs, rather than flagging them down.
This will more efficiently match the supply of taxis to demand and reduce the empty cruising of cabs.
To nudge this shift in behaviour along, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is set to raise service standards for call bookings from Jan 8.
Taxi call centres will then need to cater to 90 per cent of calls from 5pm to 11pm.
The compliance rate now is set at 80 per cent. Earlier this year, it was 70 per cent.
This time slot encompasses the hours of highest demand, when people get off work, return home after shops close, or pub-hop.
There are financial penalties if standards are not met.
How ambitious is this 90 per cent compliance target?
After all, a cab company once received an astounding 100,000 calls in an hour on a rainy evening - and the taxi fleet stands at 23,800.
Mr Jeremy Yap, LTA's acting group director of vehicle and transit licensing, says the authority will note unusual events, say, if an MRT line is disrupted and its passengers call for cabs en masse.
New entrants to the taxi sector will have time to ramp up their standards. And cab operators are "zealous" about their reputation, he says.
Commuters think centralised booking is good - a move that the LTA may study with cab companies.
Meanwhile, the standards will likely prod companies to invest enough in better, more responsive call centres.
The larger hope is that more and more taxi trips will be made via call bookings.
Is a total conversion to call bookings likely?
Interestingly, the LTA's online game asks players to play the role of transport minister and to weigh just such a move. It is not a stretch to imagine that officials debate this possibility.
"Currently, we do not mandate a percentage of trips that must be made by call booking," Mr Yap says.
"This is something we can study, of course."
If bookings are the norm one day, the new standards will equip taxi companies to offer that service well.
