ComfortDelGro, the company behind Singapore’s main taxi fleets Comfort and CityCab, recently shared some interesting numbers for the year ending 31st December 2014:
- A total of 35.6 million taxi bookings were made in 2014 (10 per cent higher than 2013).
- Half of these bookings were made through its taxi booking app.
- There were 2.5 million downloads of ComfortDelGro’s booking app in 2014.
- The highest number of taxi bookings catered in a single day — 124,426 bookings — took place on 31 October, one of the wettest Fridays in 2014. The booking record was about 28% more than the daily average.
- In August 2014, taxi demand peaked at over 3.1 million bookings, 6 per cent more than the monthly average as the Southwest monsoon season hit.
What caught our attention was the fact that the app registered 2.5 million downloads — a substantially high figure considering the fact that Singapore has a population of 5.5 million. This is despite the rise in popularity of third party taxi booking apps in Singapore in 2014, such as GrabTaxi, Easy Taxi and Uber.
GrabTaxi’s total downloads were also revealed to be 2.5 million, but this figure is made up of users from not only Singapore, but around Southeast Asia.
New Makeover For Taxi App
To show its commitment to mobile taxi booking experience, ComfortDelgro is currently revamping its app and adding new features to it. Other than a new look, the new app will be able to recommend commuters with routes to take, as well as provide estimates on metered fares. There will also be a “history” feature where you can check the details of your last 10 journeys.
The existing “favourites” feature will be enhanced too, to allow users to book a taxi from any of their bookmarked locations and trips. Commuters will also be able to e-mail e-receipts to their own registered e-mail accounts, as well as share trip details with others.
There are no further details on when the app will be available on the app stores for download. At the time of publication, both the Apple store and Google Play are still showing the older version of the app.
Just so we know: do you use ComfortDelgro’s app to book a taxi?