No plans to 'fully liberalise' cross-border ride-hail services: LTA

There are no plans to fully liberalise ride-hailing services between Singapore and Johor Bahru, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has said on Sunday (Aug 3).

This comes after Johor chief minister Onn Hafiz Ghazi said in a Facebook post that the proposal for a cross-border e-hailing service was discussed during his meeting with Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow on Aug 1.

Onn Hafiz said that such a service would "offer more flexible mobility options" and reduce congestion on major routes as well as opening revenue opportunities for drivers.

LTA, however, said in a statement on Sunday, that no decision was made on whether to allow cross-border e-hailing services to ferry passengers.

"While we are open to ideas to improve the cross-border commuting experience, we would like to clarify that LTA has no plan to fully liberalise cross-border point-to-point transport via ride-hail services," it added.

LTA, instead, said that it is exploring ways to enhance its existing cross-border taxi scheme, which allows a licensed fleet of up to 200 taxis from each side to ferry passengers between Singapore and Johor Bahru.

These licensed taxis are permitted to pick up and drop off passengers only at a single designated point in the other's country - Larkin Sentral in Johor Bahru for Singapore taxis and Ban San Street Terminal in Singapore for Malaysian taxis.

LTA noted that the existing quota of the cross-border taxi scheme is not fully utilised.

"We are also considering increasing the number of boarding and alighting points in each other's country, and to use ride-hailing apps to book cross-border trips on licensed taxis," it said.

LTA said that in any adjustment to the cross-border point-to-point transport regime, its key priorities are to better meet commuter demand while safeguarding the interests of Singapore's taxi and private hire drivers.

"As cross-border taxi scheme is a reciprocal arrangement, any change will require agreement from both governments," it added.

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chingshijie@asiaone.com