Have you ever taken a taxi in Singapore like the ones above?
These are yellow-top taxis and they're characterised by their recognisable yellow roofs and black bodies.
They're also, sadly, disappearing from our roads.
Unlike other taxi drivers, the drivers behind the wheels of these yellow-tops hold their taxi licences individually under a now-defunct scheme.
So, each time a driver retires, it's one less yellow-top on the road.
As of 2017, there were only 100 yellow-top taxis in Singapore.
That number plunged to 32 in 2023, no doubt exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
What's so special about these taxis?
To passengers, these yellow-top taxis aren't any different from other taxis.
You take one taxi, you've taken all taxis (unless it's this taxi).
But to the drivers of these yellow-top taxis, it is the difference between owning and renting the tools of their trade.
Today, most taxi drivers rent their vehicles from taxi operators like ComfortDelgro and the newly-launched Strides Premier.
Unlike them, yellow-top taxi drivers own their vehicles. They also pay for the vehicle's Certificate of Entitlement (COE), the road tax, insurance, and maintenance.
One yellow-top driver, Chamkour Singh, said in a 2017 Straits Times interview that "having a yellow-top is like having your own house".
Since they don't rent from a taxi operator, they are not subject to conditions set by the latter.
For instance, they do not need to abide by taxi availability standards set by taxi operators.
Drivers of yellow-top taxis own their vehicles. Image via TaxiSingapore.com
Being a free agent comes at a cost -- literally.
When Singh applied to be a yellow-top taxi driver in 1978, he had to fork out S$30,000 for a brand new vehicle, as well as a taxi licence.
To put that figure into perspective, Singh's Clementi HDB flat cost S$12,000 only.
Another driver, Yan, told Lianhe Zaobao that he spent S$14,000 on his first yellow-top taxi and his taxi licence.
Yellow-top taxi drivers also have to fork out money every eight years to purchase a new vehicle, which is a statutory requirement for taxis.
It involves forking out quite a sum of money regularly, but according to Yan, it is cheaper than renting from a taxi company if one takes into account the rental fees.
He also said yellow-top taxi drivers have more free time to send their vehicles for servicing if needed.
Around since colonial times
Yellow-top taxis were brought into Singapore in the 1930s by Wearne Brothers, the predecessor of Wearnes Automotive Singapore.
This means that they have been zipping around the island since colonial times.
The yellow-tops probably reached their peak in the 1960s. The Straits Times reported that in the 1960s, there were 3,800 yellow-tops and they were "synonymous with taxis".
Via RememberSingapore.
But their decline was set in stone in the 1970s, triggered by a change in government policy to award taxi licences to taxi companies instead of individual drivers.
Major changes were also happening in the taxi industry at that time.
A piece on the evolution of Singapore's taxi-cabs by heritage blog Remember Singapore talks about the problem of pirate taxis -- unlicensed taxi drivers who operated their own private vehicles and, crucially, charged an arbitrary fare unlike licensed taxis which went by the meter.
Many felt that pirate taxis were a godsend because they met the demand for cheap(er) transport services during a time when the bus system was frequently paralysed by labour and union strikes.
But the pirate taxis were often poorly maintained and presented safety and insurance issues, especially if they got into an accident.
Remember Singapore also highlighted how fleets of pirate taxis were ran by rogue operators who traded taxi licences at exorbitant prices.
To counter the pirate taxi problem, NTUC formed the Workers' Co-operative Commonwealth for Transport in 1970 with a fleet of 1,000 taxis, which would later become NTUC-Comfort, the largest taxi operator in Singapore.
The government also introduced a 100 per cent increase in diesel taxes for private diesel vehicles, which was very effective in persuading pirate taxi drivers to abandon their unlicensed jobs and jump ship to -- you guessed it -- NTUC-Comfort.
That era marked the start of the taxi-rental model and the beginning of the end for yellow-tops.
Gone in 2032 or earlier
It is estimated that the last yellow-top taxi will be gone from our roads in 2032.
That's when the youngest yellow-top taxi driver in Singapore hits the age of 75, the age ceiling for taxi drivers to work.
But it is likely, if not more so, that these heritage taxis will disappear even earlier than that.
Older taxi drivers might be forced to retire earlier due to unforeseen circumstances like health issues. Others might choose to retire early because being an elderly taxi driver in Singapore is very inconvenient.
One such former yellow-top taxi driver told Lianhe Zaobao that he chose to retire before hitting the age of 70 because the mandatory health examinations and driving assessments would have been "very cumbersome".
Fans of yellow-top taxis and its heritage say that it should be preserved for posterity and their quirky story of surviving an ever-changing taxi industry.
Even though their fate had been determined early on, these yellow-tops have managed to outlive a younger taxi operator (Smart Taxi, which shuttered in 2013), survived buyouts and mergers, and adapted to disruptive technology.
Something to chew on the next time you get the chance to take a yellow-top taxi.
Credits for cover images: Wenxuan Su/Facebook, Singapore Buses/Facebook