The Land Transport Authority (LTA) and Ministry of Transport (MOT) announced today a S$77 million fund to help taxi and private-hire drivers whose livelihoods are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Of the sum, S$45 million comes from the Government, while the remaining S$32 million will be contributed by Singapore’s taxi firms and ride-hailing operators.
Called the Point-to-Point Support Package, its main bulk amounting to S$73 million will help active full-time drivers cover drops in business.
Taxi and private-hire drivers are said to have experienced a 25 to 30 per cent dip in earnings over the past week.
About 40,000 drivers will be receiving a Special Relief of S$20 per day for the next three months, starting 14 February 2020.
According to a statement from Gojek, this daily amount is equally shared by the Government and the companies, both contributing S$10 each.
Taxi drivers can expect to automatically receive the relief into their accounts through their taxi companies.
Private-hire drivers, on the other hand, qualify to receive support if they completed at least 200 trips per month from October to December 2019, and will then have to apply through their ride-hailing companies.
ComfortDelGro, CityCab, SMRT Taxis, Trans-Cab, Premier Taxis, Prime, HDT Taxi, Grab and Gojek are firms that will be providing the package.
Drivers who do not qualify for the Special Relief can still apply for support from a S$2.7 million fund set up by the Government and NTUC.
With the remaining S$1.3 million, LTA will waive three months of operator licensing fees for taxi and ride-hailing companies.
LTA also said it will delay implementing its new street-hail and ride-hail operator licensing scheme to September 2020, which was initially meant to take effect in June 2020.
Featured Image Credit: AFP