Taxi Taxi App - Why LTA, why?

There should be 20,000 taxis plying the streets of Singapore. Why only 3,533?

LTA, Singapore's Land Transport Authority, announced, in November 2014, they were launching a taxi app and commuters were taken aback to why the authorities would want to this.

Today, LTA's Taxi-Taxi SG app is made available for iOS and Andriod, and  the public was shocked that this taxi app was not what it was perceived to deliver.

The Taxi-Taxi app doesn't allow users to book taxis. It just lets users to identify if there are taxis nearby so that commuters can "can better decide whether to continue waiting for a taxi on the street, walk to a location with more available taxis, book a taxi instead, or make alternative transport arrangements".

Even The Straits Times found it hard to phrase its survey.  "Which would be your go-to app if you need a cab?" to give the government endorsed app an edge over commercial counterparts. As of this post, GrabTaxi leads the survey with 44.44% while LTA's Taxi Taxi app is lagging behind in fourth with 6.67%.

Being able to locate a taxi in the vicinity will only just locate and help me get a cab when I need one.

LTA's other argument is that when the surge of users at a location waiting for a taxi and if taxi drivers can identify the location, taxi drivers will swarm to that area.

I can easily think of a scenario where this can happen but the means may not justify the end.

The easiest example would be Vivocity taxi queue where you can see long lines of people queuing for a taxi. In order for the taxi drivers to identify this surge of commuters, there should be a huge number of using the Taxi Taxi app. However to get these commuters to download the Taxi Taxi app would require LTA to spend on offline and online advertising. Such spending on advertising to promote an app should not be done at the expense of taxpayers money.

Even if taxi drivers see this surge, would they respond to this demand?

Probably not, as the taxi driver would have their GrabTaxi app switch on rather than the Taxi Taxi on the front screen. With the GrabTaxi app, taxi drivers can earn additional booking fee minus the GrabTaxi booking charge of $0.30 without GST. As such, there is no incentive for the taxi driver to open up the Taxi Taxi app, let alone the responding to the swarm.

Taxi drivers are also self made business people. and they would want to make the most out of each trip. Responding to a booking gives them more money than responding to LTA's Taxi Taxi app.

Some have supported the app saying that this give them information on whether if taxis are nearby. Really, we need a government funded app for this?

can better decide whether to continue waiting for a taxi on the street, walk to a location with more available taxis, book a taxi instead, or make alternative transport arrangements. - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/transport/story/lta-launches-new-taxi-app-show-available-taxis-the-vicinity-20141217#sthash.GfGXejqU.dpuf

can better decide whether to continue waiting for a taxi on the street, walk to a location with more available taxis, book a taxi instead, or make alternative transport arrangements. - See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/transport/story/lta-launches-new-taxi-app-show-available-taxis-the-vicinity-20141217#sthash.GfGXejqU.dpuf