Singapore Taxi Services Analysis & Training

This assignment delves into the challenges facing Singapore's taxi services, particularly the decline in the sharing economy's impact. It analyzes the need for driver training programs to address technological advancements and evolving customer expectations. The report emphasizes the importance of effective human resource management and technology integration for improving driver skills and service quality.

Running head: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training and development
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Executive Summary
The main purpose of the following report is to emphasize on the rational and purpose of training
and development of Comfort Delgro Corporation Limited in the modern market of sharing
economy. The report includes a survey of the business environment and the training needs
analysis of the drivers of the mentioned taxi company. The report has also focused on whether
the training provided by the organization is aligned to the business goal. The report has also
highlighted the needs for the training of the drivers and making them accustomed to the modern
technology. The researcher has also highlighted on the different resources needed for the
organization to perform the training.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................4
Rational and Purpose for Training...................................................................................................4
Survey of the business Environment...............................................................................................5
Figure 1- Percentage of Taxi Brands...............................................................................................6
Figure No 2- Business Concerns of Taxi.........................................................................................7
Table no 1- Taxis on Roads Indicator..............................................................................................8
2. Training Needs Analysis..........................................................................................................8
Alignment of Training and Achievement of Goals.........................................................................8
3. Appropriate Training and Assessment Method........................................................................8
4. Validity and Reliability of the Assessment Methods...............................................................9
5. Resources Required................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction
ComfortDelGro is amongst the largest land transporting companies based in Singapore.
The company has a global workforce and has global shareholders who have invested in the
company. The Delgro group was established in the year 2003 through the merger of Comfort
group and Delgro Corporation. The successful merger of the companies has been because of the
successful merger of the companies has expanded its global outlook and thus have increased its
fleet size to more than 43,500. Headquartered in Singapore the company has listed itself in the
Singapore stock exchange. Comfort Transport Limited is a subsidiary of the Comfort DelGro and
has its separate chain of CEO and directors.
Rational and Purpose for Training
The rise in the demand for the app cab system has severely affected the public cab hiring
system. Many companies like UBER and GRAB have capitalized this opportunity and
introduced latest pick and drop facilities for the people in common. However the most important
reason that lies behind the sudden downfall of the private cabs is totally different from the
commonly accepted causes (Lim & Chia, 2015). The private cab owners have started an
unofficial policy of ferrying passengers according to their own choice. The drivers often refuse
to go beyond some limits and prefer to choose their own routes. This has made the customers
quite furious and thus they have switched to alternatives like UBER and GRAB which can be
booked via online methods at any point of time without any refusal. Moreover the drivers of
these companies are trained properly to operate the latest technologies. Thus the drivers of
Comfort must be trained to use such latest modes of communication. Training is thus utmost
necessary to make sure that they can sustain in the market in the future. The company must

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analyze the proper training methods for the workforce of the taxi company to develop their skills
on the latest technological process (Spieser et al. 2014).
The training methods will also include the training of the superiors in the organization.
The managers of the company have to undergo training to make sure they have a better
observation power to analyze the performance of the employees and make them aware of the
responsibilities and the roles of them in the organization. They can also advise the employees on
certain areas where they finds out that there is a problem in their work styles. Apart from all
these the managers must also interview each of the drivers and understand their career goals to
make sure the areas where they need training.
Survey of the business Environment
Taxi business in Singapore is on the rise since the last decade. Apart from the local taxi
operators there are some other foreign companies that have entered the Singapore market in the
last few years. Companies like UBER, Taxi on the GO have entered the market and has a good
market share (Haque, Chin & Debnath, 2013). A survey was conducted to determine the business
environment in the year 2015 and 2016. The conduction of the survey was important to
determine the business environment of Taxis operating in Singapore. A sample size of 150
participants was considered for the survey amongst which 75 of them were the service users and
the remaining of them were the taxi operators and people within the management of the
company. An in depth interview was conducted with the participants for a period of 5 months
starting from the month of January 2017. The age of the participants was selected between the
age of 18 to 80 years. The survey results clearly showed the rise in the amount of taxi commuters
over the years. However app cabs were seen to be the luckiest ones because of the growth of the

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organization. Comfort DelGro had the highest percentage of taxi brands out of the total number
of taxis operating in Singapore. The survey also revealed the growing dissatisfaction of the
consumers over the local car operators and their preference for the new modes of commuting
services. The result of the findings was provided to the government as a recommendation to help
improve the services of the local car operators.
Figure 1- Percentage of Taxi Brands
Source- (Haque, Chin & Debnath, 2013)

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Figure No 2- Business Concerns of Taxi
Source- (Ding, 2017)
T.A 2015 T.A 2016
Percentages of Taxis on road
in peak hours
91% 93%
Percentage of Taxis with
minimum mileage of 250
kms
81% = 81%
Percentage of taxi fleet on
two shifts
68% = 68%
Average taxi bookings cater
rate
97% 99%

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Table no 1- Taxis on Roads Indicator
Source- (As Created by the Author)
2. Training Needs Analysis
The Human Resource Department has the responsibility of assessing the training
methods in the organization and the new Training Methods are adapted by the
organization to help the drivers get accustomed to the new system. The main training
needs include the transparent understanding of the new online systems of booking and
communicating with the customers properly. This helps them to stay ahead of the
competitors and gain a considerable market share in the business. The use of the modern
technologies will see a positive impact on the industry. The implementation of the
technology along with its proper use will help the organization to gain customer
satisfaction (Agarwal et al. 2016).
Alignment of Training and Achievement of Goals
The main aim of the mentioned Taxi Company is to provide the best quality taxi services
in Singapore and in the way maximize the profits of the customers. The management of Comfort
DelGro always has the aim to innovate new product and services for the service users. Such
varied goals help in the achievement of both the goals of the company.
3. Appropriate Training and Assessment Method
The functional area has shown that drivers need to be trained with the latest technology
so that a superior customer satisfaction is achieved. The main task of the management of the cab
transport company is to ensure that the tasks allocated to the different employees’ matches their

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areas of expertise and makes sure that no awkward task is provided to them (Abbas, 2016). The
three key areas where the company has concentrated are safe driving, customer service and use
of new technology. The training session will concentrate more on meeting the practical
requirements of the taxi drivers. The training has been designed to concentrate more on practical
studies rather than theoretical knowledge. Operational excellence and safe driving will be the
main focus of the training. The drivers will be provided the knowledge of new technologies like
online bookings, portal updates and review ratings and will be provided with new skills to
ethically behave with customers. The review ratings will in turn help the organization to manage
the errant drivers and to reward the good drivers. The organization can also impart a training on
ethical behavior to help them behave properly with the customers.
4. Validity and Reliability of the Assessment Methods
The supervisors of Comfort must identify the outcomes of the training needs analysis of
the particular training that the company would be providing to the customers. According to Xu
et al. (2016) the managers of the mentioned organization have to assess the performance of the
drivers on a regular basis to analyze whether they are able to implement the skills that were
imparted to them during the training. The basis of the assessment depends on the feedbacks of
the customers. The findings from the reports help to manage the training needs of the drivers. For
example a particular driver may receive a feedback of overspending from a number of service
users or thre may be a complain of rogue behavior on a driver. The managers in charge of
assessing such feedbacks have the task to interview the drivers related in those particular cases
and put them under appropriate training methods to change the current situation.

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5. Resources Required
The key requirements of every training method are the human resources of the
organization. Presence of effective human resources helps the organization to deliver proper
training methods within the given time and make their employees capable enough to deal with
different kinds of technological advancements and deal with other issues that occurs while
driving. The latest technology platform for accurate vehicle booking is also one of the key
resources in the training module which helps the organization to train the drivers with the
effective technological advancements. The company has tied uop with a software giant to
provide them with the software needed for the operations of the company.Apart from these the
company needs training vehicles and training grounds where practical knowledge can be easily
imparted to the drivers.
Conclusion
The thorough analysis of the research over the fall in the sharing economy and the
disruption in the taxi services of Singapore has revealed the existing problems and the ways to
tackle them properly. The researcher has highlighted the need for different kinds of training to
the drivers to make them compatible enough to deal with the different technologies and
customers who use the services of the mentioned cab. The managers of the company must be
capable enough to deliver the best training for the employees. The organization can also conduct
on the job training for the managers to increase their skills for helping them to stay updated on
the latest developments. Therefore it can be concluded that training is the most important factor
behind the success of the business organization.

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References
Abbas, K. A. (2016). Estimation of Taxi Fleet Size: A Generic Algorithm. SIGMA Journal of
Engineering and Natural Sciences, 7, 21-29.
Agarwal, S., Cheng, S. F., Keppo, J., & Sato, R. (2016). Learning by Driving: Evidence from
Taxi Driver Wages in Singapore.
Chan, M. L., Gustafsson, L., & Liddle, J. (2015). An intervention to support professional driver
retirement transition: Results of a pilot study for older taxi drivers in Singapore. British
Journal of Occupational Therapy, 78(6), 391-400.
Ding, Z. (2017). Taxi Driving Anomalous Route Detection Using GPS Sampling Data.
In Intelligent Computing, Networked Control, and Their Engineering Applications (pp.
304-312). Springer, Singapore.
Haque, M. M., Chin, H. C., & Debnath, A. K. (2013). Sustainable, safe, smart—three key
elements of Singapore’s evolving transport policies. Transport Policy, 27, 20-31.
Lim, S. M., & Chia, S. E. (2015). The prevalence of fatigue and associated health and safety risk
factors among taxi drivers in Singapore. Singapore medical journal, 56(2), 92.
Spieser, K., Treleaven, K., Zhang, R., Frazzoli, E., Morton, D., & Pavone, M. (2014). Toward a
systematic approach to the design and evaluation of automated mobility-on-demand
systems: A case study in Singapore. In Road Vehicle Automation (pp. 229-245). Springer
International Publishing.

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Xu, X., Yan, F., Li, Y., Chen, W., & Cao, Y. (2016). Ride Comfort Simulation and Abnormal
Vibration Improvement of a Commercial Vehicle. In Proceedings of SAE-China
Congress 2015: Selected Papers (pp. 521-527). Springer, Singapore.