Taxi fleet growth rate to dip 2%: LTA

This lower fleet expansion will be from August 2012 to December 2013 as LTA works out new taxi availability rules.

In a release, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will require taxi operators to meet new taxi availability (TA) standards from January 2013. From January 2014, taxi operators will be required to meet these standards before they will be allowed to expand their fleet.

Here's more from LTA:

LTA is currently working out the details of the TA standards and the TA-linked growth rates in consultation with the taxi industry and the National Taxi Association. In the interim period from August 2012 to December 2013, taxi operators will be allowed to grow their respective fleets at the historical taxi ridership growth rate.

LTA has decided that the taxi fleet growth rate during the transitional period from August 2012 to December 2013 will be 2% p.a. This rate will be applied on individual taxi operators based on their respective fleet sizes.

As some taxi operators have obtained Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) in earlier bidding exercises, they will be allowed to use all of these COEs to register taxis within their validity periods. LTA will also exercise flexibility on a case-by-case basis for situations that merit such consideration, for example taxi operators that have committed to orders of new taxis before the announcement last week.

As announced previously, the COEs used for taxi fleet expansion will be extracted from the Open Category (CAT E). The net change in taxi population in each 6-month period will be deducted from the CAT E quota in the next quota period3. The provision for vehicle growth based on the vehicle population as of 31 December each year4 that is attributable to the taxi population will now be added to CAT E quota instead of CAT A.