The Land Transport Authority announced today (October 21) that it has converted Ryde Technologies’ existing provisional licenses for Point-to-Point services to a full three-year Ride-hail Service Operator License (RSOL) and Carpool Service Operator License (CSOL).
These full licenses are valid until 29 October 2023.
Under LTA’s P2P regulatory framework, operators with 800 or more vehicles on their platforms will be licensed based on the type of services they provide — street-hail, ride-hail, or carpool services.
This framework was first announced on October 30 last year, when Ryde was awarded one-year provisional licenses to offer ride-hail and carpool services in Singapore.
This allowed Ryde to provide ride-hail services and carpool services while they improve their operational capabilities in order to meet LTA’s regulatory standards for safety and service provision, before they are considered for full RSOL and CSOL licences.
Over the past year, Ryde has demonstrated that they are able to meet LTA’s regulatory standards for full licenses.
Following this announcement, there are now five operators in Singapore that possess full RSOL, including Comfort, Grab, Gojek and Tada. Ryde is also the second operator after Grab to own a CSOL.
Ryde also announced yesterday (October 21) that it will start charging passengers S$4.30 when they cancel their booking or show up late. This move was in a bid to protect the interests of its drivers, who take time to get to desinations and lose profits when passengers dawdle.
Passengers who cancel a booking 15 minutes before the scheduled trip and those who reach the pickup point within four minutes of the driver arriving will not be charged.
The fees will be rolled out gradually over the next three weeks and charges will be automatically deducted from customers’ Ryde wallet balance or credit card.
Passengers of the RydeTaxi service, which allows taxi drivers from other companies to receive bookings through the Ryde app, are exempted from the fees.
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Featured Image Credit: Ryde
