SINGAPORE – The general manager of Gojek Singapore has called on the authorities to consider lowering the age requirement for private-hire drivers, so there is a bigger pool of drivers available to meet the high demand for ride-hailing services.

“We always need more supply,” Mr Lien Choong Luen told The Straits Times on Nov 23 on the sidelines of an event to mark Gojek’s fifth year of operations in the Republic.

“We raised the age to 30... Is that something that we can review?” he said, noting that the demand for taxi and ride-hailing services far outstrips supply in certain parts of Singapore during late-night hours.

The requirement that all new private-hire drivers here must be at least 30 years old and must be Singapore citizens was put in place in September 2020, to mirror the rules for taxi drivers. This came after longstanding calls for the authorities to level the playing field for taxi and private-hire operators.

Previously, permanent residents could also take up a private-hire car driver vocational licence, and there was no minimum age. However, applicants needed to have held a driving licence for at least two years to qualify, which meant that they could be as young as 20 years old.

At the time, the demand for private-hire rides was about 30 per cent lower than pre-pandemic levels, and observers said then that the stricter licensing requirements would protect the earnings of existing and older drivers.

Three years on, demand for ride-hailing services has returned to pre-Covid-19 levels, with 538,000 ride-hailing trips made daily in September, and the lack of available drivers is an issue that has been plaguing the sector since pandemic restrictions were eased in 2022.

With complaints from passengers about high fares and long waiting times, the authorities are now reviewing the way that taxi and ride-hailing operators conduct their business.

The availability of rides is an area of focus of the review, which is due to be completed by the second quarter of 2024.

Gojek has, on its own part, made moves to boost driver supply, with the latest being a reduction in the commission that it charges drivers for every trip.

This commission rate was lowered from 15 per cent to 10 per cent until at least the end of 2024.

While the company had touted this as a way to help increase driver earnings amid increased operating costs, a DBS Group Research report published on Oct 20 had said that the cut would “intensify losses” for Gojek and its parent company GoTo.

The research house said in the report that the rate cut reinforced its opinion that Gojek will leave Singapore in the medium to long term, but DBS later edited the report to remove this view.

On Nov 23, Mr Lien pushed back against the idea that the commission rate reduction is a sign that Gojek is losing its grip on the Singapore market. He said the firm had made the reduction “from a position of strength”.

“It’s actually an investment in the market,” he said. “We always want to grow, but I’m pretty confident about where we are... The fact that we can go to a 10 per cent commission means that we are doing well enough.”

When asked, Mr Lien declined to comment directly on the move by rival Grab to introduce a dynamic commission structure for drivers, saying only that the 10 per cent commission rate gives Gojek drivers greater certainty about their earnings.

He also highlighted the importance of free and open competition within the ride-hailing industry, noting that Gojek’s presence here makes a difference as it provides drivers and passengers with choices.

However, while the Indonesian company entered the Singapore market with “a big bang” in 2018, the focus now is on financial sustainability, said Mr Lien, noting that this is the trend across the industry.

Looking ahead, Mr Lien said there are plans for Gojek to continue investing here, but he declined to provide specifics. He added only that the company is looking at how it can introduce new services that will help drivers to earn more.

Gojek will also double down on cost reduction, Mr Lien said.

Meanwhile, the company is looking to improve the efficiency of its pricing and ride allocation mechanisms on the back end, with a recent improvement in its routing system leading to a more than 10 per cent reduction in pick-up distances.

Safety was the theme of Gojek’s fifth anniversary celebration, and Mr Lien lauded the company’s record here during the event.

He said: “More than 99.99 per cent of our rides this year have been accident free, but the 0.001 per cent is still too many... Prevention is always better than cure. Our driver-partners, all of you, spend many hours of the day on the roads. So we want to improve this aspect of safety.”