Taxi Drivers Must Auto-Print Receipts For Non-App Rides Or Risk $50 Fine

Taxi Drivers Should Provide Printed Receipts To Help With Contact Tracing

While many of us rely on apps to summon cabs to our doorstep, hailing rides from the street could remain an option if surge prices are unaffordable.

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However, in light of the Covid-19 situation, all cab drivers will be required to track these rides with physical, printed receipts if booking has not been done through an app, reported The Straits Times on Saturday (13 Jun).

Specifically, they will receive a $50 fine if receipts were not printed for rides via:

• Street-hailing
• Phone bookings

Apparently, this rule has been in place since Apr 2020, and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will investigate each case if riders report drivers who don’t comply.

E-receipts for taxi bookings through apps

Those of us who use popular taxi or ride-hailing apps will be familiar with e-receipts issued for our rides.

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Contact-tracing, however, would be more difficult if say the ride is done ad-hoc, and no physical record of the trip is kept by either rider or driver.

$50 fine could wipe out daily earnings

That’s why a $50 fine has been suggested, according to ST, originated from a message sent to drivers from “various taxi operators”.

On the flipside, the LTA has been asked to reconsider strict ruling as a $50 fine could easily “wipe out their entire day’s savings”.

Printing of receipts & QR code scanning

You may be wondering why there’s a need to print physical receipts for contact tracing purposes, as QR code scans & SafeEntry have been introduced in taxis & private-hire cars.

LTA shares that the measure is to help customers who can’t use the QR code system for any reason.

To print or not print, that’s the question

Although tracking our rides is a major priority to curb the spread of Covid-19 & formation of clusters, we hope a balance can be struck to help our taxi drivers & riders stay safe.

What are your thoughts on this measure to ensure contact tracing on cab rides? Would printing of receipts be a good way to track rides, and is the potential $50 fine a fair way to ensure compliance?

We’d love to hear your comments below.

Featured image adapted from Singapore Budget & All Singapore Stuff.