Companies in Singapore barred from selling private-hire cars to individuals for three years after registration

SINGAPORE: From today, companies will have to keep their private-hire cars (PHCs) meant for ride-hailing services for three years before the cars can be converted out of the scheme or transferred to individuals.

In a statement on Feb 19, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said the move is meant to stabilise the supply of vehicles used to provide ride-hailing services.

The agency said the imposition of the three-year lock-in period will ensure that companies which acquire such vehicles will predominantly lease them to drivers providing ride-hailing services.

It will also prevent businesses from converting the cars out of the chauffeured private-hire car scheme prematurely, affecting the supply of such cars providing point-to-point transport services on the market.

Before this, there were no restrictions on such conversions.

Taxis, in contrast, cannot be sold as or converted into private cars.

LTA said it wanted to announce the new requirement after the certificate of entitlement (COE) bidding exercise on Feb 19, but its information technology vendor NCS made an unintended move of releasing the information, which “should not have happened”.

As a result, some industry players were notified of this new lock-in period before the planned announcement.

“To ensure transparency and fairness for all stakeholders, LTA has decided to bring forward the implementation of this new policy to Feb 19, before the close of the COE bidding process,” the agency said.

A screengrab of the notification, which was also sent to The Straits Times, began making its rounds as early as noon on Feb 18.

Senior Minister of State for Transport Amy Khor said in a Facebook post that the lock-in period requirement is part of the point-to-point transport sector review the LTA started in 2023.

This followed moves in 2024 to improve aspects such as the availability and reliability of taxis and PHCs.

Dr Khor said more updates would be given in Parliament in March.

The rule affects vehicles that are registered by businesses as chauffeured PHCs, vehicles that were converted by businesses to function as chauffeured PHCs, and vehicles that were owned by individuals and transferred to companies as chauffeured PHCs.

Chauffeured PHCs registered by companies with COEs secured before Feb 19 are not affected. The rule also does not apply to chauffeured PHCs owned by individuals, who typically use them both for ride-hailing services and personal trips.

As at January, the population of PHCs – spanning chauffeured and self-drive rental cars – stands at 90,882 units, up 11.2 per cent from 81,754 units at the end of 2023.