ComfortDelGro unveils eco Mercedes-Benz BlueTec taxis
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Cab operator ComfortDelGro will roll out the country's most environmentally-friendly taxis on Wednesday. They will also be the costliest for cabbies to rent.
The 50 Mercedes-Benz E220 BlueTec taxis use around 4 per cent less fuel than the last model, and produce less carbon dioxide.
They will be the first cabs here to meet the strictest Euro 6 emission standard - which will only become compulsory for new diesel vehicles here in 2018.
The new cabs will also be the first to use a urea-based solution called AdBlue that is injected into the exhaust system to chemically transform up to 90 per cent of nitrogen oxide into harmless nitrogen and water vapour.
Fares will be similar to ComfortDelGro's other limousine cabs, with a flag-down charge of $3.90 and a metered rate of 30 cents for every 400m up to 10km.
ComfortDelGro is expected to add another 100 of these new cabs, bringing its total Mercedes fleet size to over 800.
The company owns around 16,800 of the 28,500 taxis plying the roads here, making it the largest operator.
But the greener drive may be a bumpier one for taxi drivers.
According to sources, the daily cost of rental for the new cab will start from $175, reputedly the highest in the business.
This works out to about $5,250 a month.
In comparison, the average daily rental for a new saloon taxi falls in the region of $130, or about $3,900 a month.
For the new Mercedes cabs, drivers will also have to pay for the AdBlue solution.
The chemical's 251/2-litre tank - located in the recesses of the trunk - will need to be topped up about once a week, going by a daily mileage of about 500km.
With one litre costing $1, this translates to an additional $25 a week for cabbies.
The AdBlue is required as part of the BlueTec technology, which while using a high combustion temperature to vaporise particulates, also creates a higher amount of nitrogen oxide.
When the AdBlue tank is empty, drivers will not be able to start their cars. One cabby, who signed up to drive the new Mercedes taxi to replace his current one that is being scrapped, says that by splitting the higher rental with a relief driver, he can still make about $90 a day.
"I have my regular customers, and I would like to continue offering my services to them by getting a new Mercedes cab," he said.
"We have to put down a deposit of about $2,000 and drive the cab for at least one year. I'll try it out and see if it's feasible."
Another ComfortDelGro cabby said he was offered the new cab, but decided to stick with his current Mercedes, which is due to be scrapped in five years.
"I pay about $160 in rental now. The new (rental) pricing is too high," he added.
National Taxi Association executive adviser Ang Hin Kee said: "As rentals get higher, cabbies will have to drive longer hours. In time, it may also translate to commuters having to bear the costs in higher fares."
He also noted that while Mercedes taxi drivers serve a premium clientele, they also face more competition from private car hire apps, such as GrabCar, which also offer limousine-type services.-- SPH
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the market will soon see the way to go is eco friendly. what is 5k if close eyes smelly smelly can get 1Xk. what is need now is educate consumers paying more is better for them and for society
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i already said a long time ago. rents going up. accept it and get on moving. sit and complain will only lose money
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If corporate clients, no one give a damn, because most of these big fat execs will be using company fund, but as individual who is paying himself, he got a sea of blue, red, maroon, silver etc cab to choose, the idea is to move from point A to B, and most of these pirus, renault etc will be adequate enuf to provide a comfortable ride.
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Not only rental will go up, everything will go up, including geyland pros prices, the only thing that will go down in future is our lan jiao
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The rental how much for tis?
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Originally posted by getcarter:
The rental how much for tis?
According to sources, the daily cost of rental for the new cab will start from $175, reputedly the highest in the business.
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One cabby, who signed up to drive the new Mercedes taxi to replace his current one that is being scrapped, says that by splitting the higher rental with a relief driver, he can still make about $90 a day.
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Originally posted by Reliefdriver4u:
$90 a day ah
Imagine if he drives a normal cab on a single shift...
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Originally posted by getcarter:
$90 a day ah
Imagine if he drives a normal cab on a single shift...
Obviously he cant be saying that he made $300 for each shift mah
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Yalor, at least he is more down to earth, say less is better than say more, like some said earn 7k, some said GT can earn $300 net per shift, some said everyweek gets $300 GT gift...
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Originally posted by michaelhuat:
i already said a long time ago. rents going up. accept it and get on moving. sit and complain will only lose money
Its not so simple. Cab company cannot impose working hours on cabbies. But they can increase the rent in jumps of $15 everytime a new model launches. If they jack up the rent to $200 suddenly, people will make loud noise. By increasing the rent slowly, there comes a time when cabbies are forced to keep running around fetching people. The high rents also means people will be deterred from using the cab as their private car. The taxi company is not going let cabbies huat too much.
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Adblue is not cheap..where the driver going to top up the Adblue? Buy himself or go CDG top up? 25 litres leh...a lot to top up if ownself buy.
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Originally posted by Taxilim88:
Adblue is not cheap..where the driver going to top up the Adblue? Buy himself or go CDG top up? 25 litres leh...a lot to top up if ownself buy.
sbs transit bus depot loh the bus depots all have adblue pumps... all the new buses are using dblue..
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Adblue is still a diesel fuel aka Diesel Exhaust fluid, and it is not enviromental friendly, in fact, the exhaust is still chemical toxic to people, but lower than diesel. It is the SCR aka selective catalytic reduction (exhaust piple below) that filter out the particles. However, with adblue the utilisation rate of fuel will be less as such fuel are optimised to full usage. The problem with Singapore govt is that, whether you drive a hybrid or gas or reduced toxic emission vehicle, there is no reduction on road tax and cost of the vehicle, this directly put the cost into driver, who have to bear high cost due to cost of this type of engine, if govt is really to promote green enviroment, they should rebate road tax and car prices to people who buy it, and reduce rental for TD who choose to take enviroment friendly vehicle. Simply put it, cost of taxis + road tax + insurance = price of taxi rental if cost is down, road tax is down, insurance is down...price of rental should be down.
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Got 1 pte limo told me....why need to rent from cdg at such ridiculous rental. . He rented his merc from a rental car company for $3500 a month...
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Wah, Moderator ambulance is back .....
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Originally posted by decent02:
Got 1 pte limo told me….why need to rent from cdg at such ridiculous rental. . He rented his merc from a rental car company for $3500 a month…
Provided his lobang is so powderful to sustain that rental car and make profit also.....
Don't forget is not like taxi can pick from street or queue airport.....
Or else will be more jiak lut than those limo cabs.....
But now got UberX and Grabcar, don't worry.....
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Not necessary, if got money, why not rent it out for private use, a good merc now cost nearly 300k, at 3.5k...rent for few years without having to pay maintainences, insurance and road tax..why not?
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You wrong liao. Not many people got the balls to pay $3500/mth car rental. Dun forget rental car mostly petrol. I rather rent a nasi lemak stall than to pay 3.5K car rental. Much much easier to make money selling food than to get private limo jobs. Driving a new limocab is alot safer even with the crazy rental. You think grab or uber so easy everyday confirm 3 durians for u?
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Pay more $ to help the environment
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Originally posted by f1taxidriver:
You wrong liao. Not many people got the balls to pay $3500/mth car rental. Dun forget rental car mostly petrol. I rather rent a nasi lemak stall than to pay 3.5K car rental. Much much easier to make money selling food than to get private limo jobs. Driving a new limocab is alot safer even with the crazy rental. You think grab or uber so easy everyday confirm 3 durians for u?
I wrong nevermind, as said, if I can drive a merc around, got satki mah, then take a few jobs to cover the rental, singapore car only last 10 years, some people can take to drive to work, free servicing, got insurance, got road tax, spoil still can get another one, then weekend go take grabcar or uberx job...drive 7 years, give back liao. -
A lot of constraint driving a pte merc or now pte normal saloon car.....
Give you one departure, drop liao cannot queue airport, cbl until next job, 3 hour later at Jurong....
Mind set must be very strong to sustain long.....
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smlj mindset, once you decided to transport people from A to B, be it grabcar, taxi driving, uber, pte etc etc, your mindset is already gone case
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Drive taxi cannot talk about mindset strong or weak, because in driving taxi, condition and enviroment change very fast, today you can throw key, tomorrow you drive for another companies, few minutes ago, you get a nice polite chio bu, the next minute you end up quarrelling with a ah neh... so in taxi driving, your mind must be flexible, cannot be set, if you just follow a mindset, be it strong or weak, you can hardly pass your day in taxi driving or limo driving, so to speak