Taxi apps (functional and non-functional) are the talk of the town and they have good reasons to be so.

For a small country like Singapore, there are at least five third-party apps, giving commuters plenty of choice. Fans of Grab Taxi swear by its popularity; while Uber users love the cashless system.

There is, however, one nifty feature lacking in all the apps: the ability to car pool. There's already an app called Split-It. However, its popularity remains to be lukewarm at best.

Luckily the foundation has already been laid.

1. Destination

Most apps allow you to enter your destination, making it easy for cabbies to find commuters heading to the same area. They need not board at the same area; they could board along the pre-determined route by GPS, which brings us to the next point.

2. GPS system

If you are looking for the one major upgrade from dialling for a cab, this is it. GPS allows passengers to view where the cabs are in real-time and time taken to reach the pick-up point. Tapping on this, cabbies can quickly round up passengers who are going to the same destination.

3. User profile

To make it safe for commuters (because nobody likes to share a cab with a dodgy person), apps require users to log in with a phone number or Facebook account to verify. Granted, you can use a fake Facebook account. But they could easily ask for credit card details, NRIC or use a two-step verification for added safety.

Can this be done?

But hey, it's the Internet. Don't just take it from us. Better hear it from an authority, say, someone like the Executive Advisor of the National Taxi Association (NTA) Ang Hin Kee.

In a radio interview last month, Ang suggested these taxi apps could easily implement car pooling services.

"The apps can also easily calculate the fare for each passenger based on the pick-up and drop-off points. The same one cab can actually ferry three or even four passengers to the same general area."

He added: "Cabbies can even pick up another two to three passengers along the way if they know where people are going. This brings down the case of having just one person traveling in a taxi. People don’t necessarily have to board the taxi at the same point, but they can drop off at points near to one another."

Easy with the regulation 

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will be regulating these taxi apps by the second quarter next year.

- Dispatch only licensed taxis and drivers holding valid Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licences, to ensure that commuters are served by legit taxis and drivers.

- Specify upfront all information on fare rates, surcharges and fees payable for the journey, before commuters accept the dispatched taxi, to safeguard commuters and eliminate any “hidden charges”. Taxi booking fees cannot be higher than those charged by taxi companies.

- Allow passengers to decide whether to provide destination information before they make bookings, to avoid taxi drivers “picking and choosing” passengers.

- Provide customer support services, including lost and found services and channels for commuters to make complaints and enquiries.

There's still a long way to go to the second quarter of 2015, so things might change. But if the authorities are keen to take the load off the trains and buses, carpooling might just be the answer.

Top photo from here. 

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