ComfortDelGro to waive commission for affected drivers over Sept 15 outage affecting taxis’ terminals

SINGAPORE – Taxi operator ComfortDelGro (CDG) will waive the commissions it takes on eligible trips for two days, following a disruption on Sept 15 to the mobile data terminals inside cabs used to take bookings.

The waiver will apply to trips made from noon on Sept 25 to 11.59am on Sept 27.

It is a “gesture of goodwill”, said Yee Hon Wai, head of rental at Zig by ComfortDelGro, told The Straits Times on Sept 22.

Currently, CDG takes a flat commission between 70 cents and $1 for app-based bookings on Zig.

Taxi drivers pay the lowest amount at 70 cents a trip, while those who rent a private-hire vehicle pay a commission of 80 cents. Drivers of non-CDG cars pay $1. No commission is charged for trips not booked via the app.

On Sept 15, a disruption experienced by CDG’s external service providers caused an outage to CDG’s mobile data terminals, which are also used by cabbies to receive information.

Cabbies said they first noticed issues with their terminals early in the afternoon.

Full service was restored at 12.10am the next day, said Yee, adding that the recovery timelines varied across the different external service providers.

On Sept 18, the operator messaged affected drivers about waiving commissions, explaining that the disruption was caused by a telco network outage on Sept 15.

Contacted by ST, CDG did not provide details about the cause of the disruption and the number of drivers affected.

Teo Siew Pan, executive secretary of the National Taxi Association (NTA), told ST that the disruption mainly affected taxis with mobile data terminals connected to Singtel, instead of every CDG taxi.

Jacky Tung, 46, one of the affected taxi drivers, said he was unable to take bookings through the terminal, or pick up passengers hailing cabs on the street if they opted to pay via NETS or credit card.

“I felt very frustrated, because even though I tried restarting the terminal, it was still hanging,” he said.

Screenshots from cabbies showed that CDG informed them of the outage through SMS at about 3.55pm.

The message told taxi drivers to “continue to operate using street-hail trips where possible”, adding that no action was required on their part.

A subsequent message at around 5.30pm informed them that those still experiencing issues should not log in or use the terminals until further notice, as that could affect any restoration works happening in the background.

It was only after midnight on Sept 16 that drivers were told service had been restored, with CDG sending a follow-up message later that morning confirming the system was fully back online.

On Sept 15, fibre services in parts of Bishan and Thomson were disrupted after construction works damaged NetLink’s fibre infrastructure.

NetLink Trust designs, builds, owns and operates the passive fibre network infrastructure of Singapore’s Nationwide Broadband Network, and about 2,000 connections were affected, including subscribers to telcos Singtel, StarHub and M1.

NTA’s Teo said that following the disruption, the association immediately negotiated with CDG for financial relief and support for affected drivers, adding that it will continue engaging the operator on members’ concerns.

She said the association had asked CDG to inform affected drivers of the waiver in advance, so that those cabbies can plan their shifts accordingly.

However, the waiver is of little comfort to Tung, who estimated his income loss at about $80 to $100 because of the outage.

“One day’s rental for me is about $86. If the system is down for 12 hours, I think it’s only fair that my rental is waived instead.

“I don’t think it makes sense that I still have to pay the daily rate.”

Aqil Hamzah is a transport journalist at The Straits Times. He is also interested in issues related to crime and technology.