Sharing with care

It is more than 3 years since ride sharing companies like Uber and Grab are serving in Singapore. They have scaled up slowly over the years and have gained much popularity in the last 1 year. More and more people are resorting to these taxis instead of hailing green head taxis by the roadside. They offer various riding options of different comfort levels and also throw in attractive discounts too to woo passengers. The companies do good business in volumes, drivers make decent money and passengers get better service at a competitive price.

Everything looks good. But, there are some questions we need to ask ourselves and go through an introspection just to check if we, as a country, benefitted in anyway, beyond dollars and cents.

These companies are generating enormous amount of data for LTA, URA and MOM to analyse and understand the needs of the society. Some obvious analytics like when, where and how people choose their mode of transport and decide on newer routes, extending or rerouting existing services, regulating the frequency etc must have been, I believe, already in place. But has our carbon footprint gone thinner as people have started pooling and lesser cars on road? Has this reduced road congestion even a wee bit or on the contrary is it adding to it? Are people taking up driving as a profession just for money or because they couldn't find a job matching their skills? Are they really qualified to be taxi drivers ? Are they eating into the food that was otherwise meant for people who taken taxi driving for livelihood? Do all these matter much less than the dollars the business is generating? If relevant authorities could come out and publish such analysis for public consumption, it would be great.

Apart from these, these companies are also collecting ratings for both the drivers and passengers from each other after every ride. One of the focus points is 'driving'. Every rider is giving a rating to the driver after they alight. I do believe most of the riders give honest ratings, specially when it comes to rash driving. Does LTA work with these companies to collect info on the driving habits, monitor them and issue discredits? Or, at least, do the respective companies take these ratings seriously and issue warnings or send them for training/counselling sessions? It is a good indicator for insurance companies too to jack up the premium for such errant drivers.

Of late, I've personally 'experienced' this with the newbie drivers who are quite young and have taken up driving as a part time job. I really wonder how could they have passed their driving tests and managed to get a license to drive on roads - that too a taxi with passengers who are paying for the ride. They are putting themselves and the passengers also into a big risk. If they want to do some circus risking their lives, they should be doing in a secluded place harming no one else other than themselves.