SINGAPORE: Commuters were mostly satisfied with taxi and private hire car services in Singapore in 2016, according to a survey by Public Transport Council (PTC).
The survey released on Monday (Feb 13) was revamped to include the tracking of commuter satisfaction with private hire car services. Respondents were surveyed on eight key attributes of taxi services: Waiting time, ease of booking, information, ride comfort, driver’s knowledge of route, service provided by the driver, safety and taxi stand accessibility.
Of the 1,526 taxi and private hire car services users interviewed for the Point-to-Point Transport Services Customer Satisfaction Survey, respondents gave a satisfaction mean score of 7.7 out of 10 for such services, while 95.8 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the services.
The survey also revealed that out of all rides taken by respondents over a seven day period, about half were private hire car rides while the other half were taxi rides.
For private hire car services, respondents were surveyed on the same attributes except taxi stand accessibility, which is not applicable.
The survey also found that respondents placed the highest importance on three attributes – driver’s knowledge of route, safety and waiting time. Taxi users were most satisfied with these same three attributes, while private hire car users were most satisfied with driver’s knowledge of route, safety and ease of booking, PTC said.
PTC added that the stated satisfaction mean score for taxi services saw an improvement from 7.5 in 2015 to 7.6 in 2016. The percentage score is also higher at 93.6 per cent, a significant 2 percentage point improvement, reflecting “the taxi industry’s efforts in improving their level of service to commuters”.
The stated satisfaction mean score for private hire car services is 8.1, and the percentage score is 96.2 per cent, it said.
Nexus Link was commissioned by PTC to conduct the survey, which ran from Aug 13 to Aug 28, 2016, at 30 locations in Singapore during both peak and off-peak periods as well as across different days of the week.
