Non-payment of Taxi Fare

Assoc Prof Randolph Tan asked the Minister for Transport whether the rate of recovery of unpaid fares in taxi fare evasion cases referred to PTC/LTA for investigations is satisfactory.

The number of taxi fare evasion cases is about 150 every month, out of about 700,000 taxi trips. Sixty-five percent of fare evasion cases involved unidentified fare evaders, which are very challenging to resolve. So, that is about two-thirds, that means about 100 such cases per month. Because they are not identified, we do not know the identity of these evaders.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) was able to recover fares for about half of all cases referred to it for investigation. These include both identified as well as unidentified evaders and we were able to help resolve about half of them, bearing in mind that among all fare evasion cases, two-thirds are without identity.

To further deter fare evasion, we introduced higher penalties for fare evaders in May this year. If found guilty, fare evaders are liable to a fine of up to $1,000 for first-timers, while subsequent offenders may be fined up to $2,000, or jailed up to six months, or both. It is also mandatory for offenders to make restitution payment to taxi drivers.

Madam, I thank the Minister for sharing those statistics. The concern that I have is that, for taxi drivers, unlike other forms of public transport, they do not have as large an infrastructure to support them in a situation like this.

The Minister mentioned a very important point about the increase in penalties for fare evaders. But given that a large number of fare evasion cases involved unidentified fare evaders, is it possible for the Public Transport Council (PTC) and LTA to consider maybe helping the taxi drivers who actually suffer from such fare evasion cases directly, so that it reduces the risk that they face in the course of providing a very important public service?

Madam, we are most sympathetic to the taxi drivers who experience such incidents. But if the taxi driver could not tell us the identity of the person, other than saying that the person is of a particular race or gender, it is very hard for us to track down the person. So, I think commonsense requires the taxi drivers, when they encounter such an incident, to get as much information as they can from the fare evader basic information like name, address and so on. There are instances we know of where they could not get the information, they will try to report to the Police, fetched the passenger all the way to the Police station and let the Police step in.

The primary duty or responsibility of helping the taxi drivers resides with the taxi operator, and the operator should be the first to help out, which must also include sharing with their taxi drivers tips on how to reduce such incidents and, as I said, some of which are commonsense, which is that you must get the basic information.

I think taxi operators can also take a look at how some of the new players in this field, for example, Uber and Grab, how they handle such cases. And there are obviously good best practices which they can pick up from these new players. But my message to commuters who cheat on taxi drivers is this: taxi driving is tough work and they need the money, the revenue, to feed their family. Please do not cheat on them.

Clarification, Madam. I would like to ask the Minister if he would consider in-vehicle cameras to identify passengers which would also help protect taxi drivers.

Madam, as I said, the primary duty or responsibility lies with the taxi operator. Certainly, ideas like this are things that they should consider and, I think, some already do. But sometimes if you just get the image but without much other information and the fellow just runs away, it is not easy to track down.

Where the identity is known, our success rate in tracking down and getting the money back for the taxi driver is pretty good. Where it requires us to go all the way to the Court, the success rate is about 85%. But we do need to know the identity.