From Wednesday (Feb 19), businesses in Singapore must keep their private-hire cars designated for ride-hailing services for three years, before they can be converted or transferred to individuals.
This new rule ensures that businesses who acquire such private-hire cars do so predominantly for the purpose of leasing them to drivers who provide ride-hail services, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in a news release.
This also prevents the premature conversion of such vehicles out of the chauffeured private-hire car (PHC) scheme, which will affect the supply of vehicles available for point-to-point (P2P) services.
The mandatory three-year lock-in period applies to all newly registered or converted chauffeured private-hire cars that are owned by businesses, and all such vehicles that are transferred from individuals to businesses.
It will also apply to vehicles that have their Certificates of Entitlement (COE) issued as part of the ongoing bidding exercise, which closes on Wednesday.
LTA had originally intended to announce the new requirement after the current COE bidding exercise.
“However, due to an unintended release of information by our vendor NCS, which should not have happened, some industry players received notification of this new lock-in period before the planned announcement date,” the authority added.