Taxi drivers in S'pore want to deliver Amazon Prime Now goods

No one should be denied the chance to earn a decent living.

Belmont Lay | August 03, 2017, 05:31 PM

Times are hard and taxi drivers need to eat.

And one way for them to do that is to deliver goods for Amazon.

Unable to cope with demand in Singapore, ComfortDelGro taxis have been tapped to do such deliveries, alongside private-hire cars.

But taxi drivers are not allowed to

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) currently disallows the use of taxis and private-hire cars for delivering goods without an accompanying passenger.

The rationale is that taxis and private-hire cars are meant to take passengers for hire and reward, according to The Straits Times.

But passengers who hire them may carry goods.

The LTA was unable to say for sure though what are the penalties for infringement, or if anyone has been taken to task yet.

There are about 26,000 taxis and some 40,000 private-hire cars here.

The case for doing deliveries

In light of these revelations, the government in Singapore is being urged by the National Taxi Association (NTA) to allow taxi drivers to do delivery of goods for courier services, such as Amazon Prime Now.

One reason is because taxis and private-hire cars have excess capacity, especially during off-peak hours.

If these capacities are not utilised, they will be wasted. Empty cruising is a cost.

And once utilised, it can help reduce the number of vehicles on the road as there will be a lesser need for dedicated delivery vehicles.

This is one way of embracing technological disruption and the gig economy.

And taxi drivers are convinced this is the way to go.

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Some issues to sort out

Most pressing are two main issues that need to be sorted out: The legality of the contents of delivered goods and insurance coverage.

With an entity such as Amazon, the delivery of parcels has the assurance that they are legal. With less well-known entities, drivers are exposing themselves to risks if the contents are illegal.

With regards to insurance, in the event goods are destroyed in an accident or because of vehicular fire, the driver may not be insured.

But issues like these can be worked out in time, with the extension of insurance coverage, for example.

The next step

The next step forward is to propose for a trial period to iron out any regulatory issues that come up.

This is to allow the laws to keep up with changes to how society functions and evolve.

The latest word on Aug. 3, 2017, is that LTA is changing its stance by looking into allowing cabbies to do delivery jobs.

Related articles:

ComfortDelGro taxis doing Amazon Prime Now deliveries

Video of a yard full of unhired taxis wins no sympathy for ComfortDelGro

Top photo via Bryn Pinzgauer Flickr