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Commuter satisfaction improves by 2.8 percentage points for Taxi and Private Hire Car Services
23 February 2018
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Commuter satisfaction improves by 2.8 percentage points for
Taxi and Private Hire Car Services
Commuter satisfaction with taxi and private hire car services increased by 2.8 percentage points last year. Results from the Point-to-point Transport Services Customer Satisfaction Survey (PCSS) 2017 indicated that 98.6% of respondents[1] rated 6 and above out of 10 for taxi and private hire car services[2]. On the respective service attributes, respondents also upped the satisfaction mean score from 7.7 to 8.1 out of 10.
2. Taxi services registered an encouraging 4.1 percentage points improvement, with the percentage of satisfied users improving from 94.4% in 2016 to 98.5% in 2017. The satisfaction mean score also inched up from 7.5 to 7.9. This reflects the continuous efforts by the taxi industry to respond to market changes.
3. Similarly, the percentage of satisfied users for private hire car services moved up by 1.4 percentage points, from 97.3% to 98.7%. The satisfaction mean score also made a corresponding increase from 7.9 to 8.2.
4. Respondents were also surveyed on the eight key attributes of taxi services (namely waiting time, ease of booking, information, ride comfort, driver’s knowledge of route, service provided by the driver, safety and taxi stand accessibility). For private hire car services, respondents were surveyed on the same attributes, except for Taxi Stand Accessibility, which is not applicable to private hire car services.
5. Taxi users were most satisfied with the three attributes of safety, driver’s knowledge of route and service information, while private hire car users were most satisfied with ease of booking, safety and service information. Taxi users placed the highest importance on safety, driver’s knowledge of route and waiting time, while private hire car users placed the highest importance on safety, waiting time and ease of booking. The survey also showed that the numerous discounts by private hire cars was the most likely reason why respondents would prefer taking private hire cars, instead of buses and the MRT.
6. As part of the PCSS, PTC also conducted a separate door-to-door survey, which revealed that the percentage of respondents who took a point-to-point ride in the past 7 days almost doubled from 29.6% in 2016 to 41.4% last year. Respondents who took point-to-point rides in the past 7 days showed a greater propensity to take private hire cars, supported by the significant 20.5% jump from 50% in 2016 to 70.5% in 2017. Meanwhile, the number of taxi rides dipped from 50% to 29.5% last year. This could have been due to lower taxi ridership[3] and the availability of more private hire car services.
[1] The PCSS was conducted from 16 August – 2 September 2017 involving 1,500 respondents.
[2] Satisfaction percentage levels are based on users whose overall satisfaction rating was 6 and above out of 10.
[3] Taxi ridership has fallen from 954,000 (average daily ridership) in 2016 to 785,000 (average daily ridership) in 2017.