Comfort Taxis: Modernization Strategies

This assignment tasks students with evaluating the current state of Comfort Taxis in Singapore's competitive market. It analyzes challenges like foreign competition, customer preferences, and operational inefficiencies. Students must develop modernization strategies focusing on driver training, optimized ride scheduling to meet demand fluctuations, and competitive pricing models to attract customers. The final goal is to present a comprehensive plan for Comfort Taxis to regain its market share and thrive in the evolving taxi industry.

Running head: TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMEMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The purpose of this report is to design a training and development plan for the
company of Comfort Transportation Pte Ltd in Singapore. The training and development plan
is essential to assist the taxi industry in Singapore in reducing the heavy loss ratio that they
are incurring due to the advent of the modern sharing economy. This report includes a
detailed discussion of the proposed business goals that will address the challenges or the
shortcomings that the company and the whole industry is facing, based on the available
public information. In addition to this, an organizational training needs analysis, a functional
analysis and an individual training needs analysis, to determine the knowledge, skills and
attitudes necessary for realizing the business goals, has been attempted in this report. This
report also furnishes with the learning outcomes that can be found from the three levels of
training need analysis. The report concludes with the fact that the local taxi industry of
Singapore, including Comfort, is in a pathetic condition. It can be recommended that Comfort
must learn from the causes of immense popularity of the oversees based cab firms and try to
implement similar tactics in their company’s portfolio to boost their productivity, profit ratio
and customer enhancement quality.

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Business Goals:-.....................................................................................................................3
Organizational Training Needs Analysis:-.............................................................................4
Task (Functional) Analysis:-..................................................................................................5
Individual learning needs analysis:-.......................................................................................5
Learning Outcomes:-..............................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
Introduction
ComfortDelGro Corporation is a well renowned intercontinental transport
organization of Singapore. The foundation brick of Comfort was laid in the year 2003 when
the amalgamation of the two famous conveyance companies of DelGro Corporation and
Comfort took place. (Yew, 2012). In the past years, Comfort has enjoyed good dominance in
the Singaporean taxi market. However, all is not well for Comfort in the future market vision.
This unfortunate factor in the business plan of Comfort can be attributed to the rapid
popularization of the modern age sharing economy among the passengers. (Frenken, 2017).
Business Goals:-
 The drastic high cab rental fee is the cause of the primary challenge faced by
Comfort and the taxi industry in Singapore. Therefore, the primary business
goal for Comfort to curb this challenge is to reduce the cab rental fee and
make it pocket friendly (Kaushal, 2017).
 The second challenge faced by Comfort and the Singaporean taxi industry is
the non-availability of clarity in the summation of the booking cost. Therefore,
to make Comfort more rider friendly, the second business goal for Comfort
would be to make the booking fee more intelligible.
 Comfort and the Singaporean taxi industry have a real peculiar rule to charge
higher fees based on the congestion and distance of certain pick up points.
This rule is rather ridiculous and impractical since Singapore is a small city
and easily accessible. Therefore, the third business goal is to make the pick up
fee consistent and precise (Zeng et al., 2014).
 Comfort charges extra prices during midnight ride requests. The hike in prices
can vary from 50% to a whopping 80%. This makes the riders wary of

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pressing the request ride option on their smart phones at midnight. Therefore,
the fourth business goal of Comfort would be to revise the high pricing request
at midnight.
Organizational Training Needs Analysis:-
 The primary organization training need analysis would be re-modifying the
rental fee structure of Comfort. The organization should train the drivers to
transport the customers nonchalantly at the same upfront rental charge shown
in advance, irrespective of the traffic congestion and the distance required to
reach the destination. (Litman, 2015).
 Adequate training must be provided to the managers to calculate the booking
fee accurately on the current market ride price per kilometer. Other minimal
charges such as air-conditioner service; free wifi can be included in the
booking cost. However, nothing extravagant must be charged.
 Singapore has one of the most perfectly managed traffic road systems in the
world. Still, occasional delays happen at time, which is inevitable (Gaididei et
al., 2013). The drivers must be trained to be always ready to pick up customers
and not to cancel the request unless it is absolutely necessary.
 The final most important organizational needs analysis required to be
undertaken by Comfort is to increase the availability of drivers at midnights by
providing extra-added incentives. Doing this, Comfort can ensure its loyal and
interested riders that there would not be any unreasonable hike in pricing at
midnight (Agarwal et al., 2013).
Expected outcomes at this stage can be improvement in the drivers’ performance,
clarity in the pricing structure and quick availability of Comfort Cabs at reasonable charges.

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
Task (Functional) Analysis:-
An ideal task (functional) analysis to determine the observable actions and tacit
cognitive functions of Comfort needed for proficiency in the identified job tasks would be to
measure by its financial performance and customer satisfaction rate (Artz, Homburg & Rajab,
2012).
 Comfort must duly maintain a monthly financial assessment chart of their
operations and services for all locations in Singapore. The management team
of Comfort would then compare the financial assessment charts from month to
month.
 Similarly, a rating system must be implemented in the company’s portfolio,
where the customers, after the ride, can rate the overall service in stars.
Expected outcomes at this stage are the clear display of the monthly profit earned
ratio and the customer satisfaction rate of Comfort.
Individual learning needs analysis:-
 The individual learning need of Communication must be provided to the
drivers of Comfort. Drivers must be able to listen and understand clearly, what
the riders want and must also be to communicate his thoughts lucidly to the
riders. It would be beneficial if the drivers were provided a bilingual course as
because Singapore is regarded to be one of the best multicultural cities in the
world (Gallois & Giles, 2015).
 The individual learning need of superior driving skills must be provided to the
drivers. The drivers must be efficiently guided with the knowledge of all the
accessible routes and lanes of the city to transport the rider to his destination

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
point in the shortest possible time and with less traffic stoppage (Markoff,
2012).
 The individual learning need of advance technological skill must be provided
to both the drivers and the managers. The drivers must be able to access the
GPS or road tracker system while on the road such as checking the online
maps for alternative routes other than the shown route to cut time and cost.
(Yuan et al., 2013).
 The individual learning need of attitude and positive conduct must be given to
the drivers. Drivers must be taught to be always on time and courteous with
the riders. Drivers must try not to give an excuse to the customers to give a
low rating or file a complaint against alleged misconduct or unacceptable
behavior.
Transportation firms are service based industries. In a service industry, there are two
operations, the back stage operations and the front stage operations. The efficiency of the
front stage staff matters the most in the service industry. The drivers are the front stage staff
of Comfort (Agarwal et al., 2015). Therefore, the company Comfort must take adequate time
and spend resources to train and develop the drivers in the most productive manner.
Expected outcomes at this stage are the enhancement of the navigable, technological,
and behavioral skills of the driver.
Learning Outcomes:-
In the completion of all the above analysis, it is evident that certain learning outcomes
have emerged from the discussion. They are-

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
 The taxi industry is very competitive. The learning outcome, which can be
acquired from here to be designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must
practice innovation at all levels to beat out the intense competition.
 Cab rental charges play a major role in the customer’s preference of the cab
organization. The learning outcome, which can be acquired from here to be
designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must practice reasonable pricing
strategies to be more attractive to the riders.
 Riders really prefer abundance in the availability of cabs at odd hours of the
day, such as midnight or early dawn, due to business or personal reasons. The
learning outcome, which can be acquired from here to be designed in
Assignment 3, is that Comfort must make moderate number of drivers
available on the road to cater to the ride requests of the customers.
 The drivers and the management personnel must be sufficiently trained to
make the riding experiences of the customers enjoyable. The learning
outcome, which can be designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must
continue to train and develop the individual learning needs of the employees
on a constant basis.
Conclusion
In the conclusion, it can be said that the taxi industry of Singapore has the potential to
revive and regain its previous stature in the Singaporean economy. The foreign cab
organizations have been successful in enticing customers with their uniform pricing system
and convenience and ease in accessibility. To beat this cut throat competition, Comfort make
immediately take the initiative to implement and modify changes in the organizational set up
and activities.

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR COMFORT
References
Agarwal, S., Diao, M., Pan, J., & Sing, T. F. (2013). Labor Supply Decisions of Singaporean
Cab Drivers. Unpublished manuscript.
Agarwal, S., Diao, M., Pan, J., & Sing, T. F. (2015). Are Singaporean Cabdrivers Target
Earners?.
Artz, M., Homburg, C., & Rajab, T. (2012). Performance-measurement system design and
functional strategic decision influence: The role of performance-measure
properties. Accounting, organizations and society, 37(7), 445-460.
Frenken, K. (2017). Political economies and environmental futures for the sharing
economy. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 375(2095), 20160367.
Gaididei, Y. B., Gorria, C., Berkemer, R., Kawamoto, A., Shiga, T., Christiansen, P. L., ... &
Starke, J. (2013). Controlling traffic jams by time modulating the safety
distance. Physical Review E, 88(4), 042803.
Gallois, C., & Giles, H. (2015). Communication accommodation theory. The international
encyclopedia of language and social interaction.
Kaushal, L. A. (2017). The Rise in the Sharing Economy. Global Entrepreneurship and New
Venture Creation in the Sharing Economy, 113.
Litman, T. (2015). Evaluating public transit benefits and costs. Victoria Transport Policy
Institute.
Markoff, J. (2012). Incentives for drivers who avoid traffic jams. New York Times, 06-11.

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Yew, L. K. (2012). From third world to first: The Singapore story, 1965-2000 (Vol. 2).
Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd.
Yuan, J., Zheng, Y., Xie, X., & Sun, G. (2013). T-drive: Enhancing driving directions with
taxi drivers' intelligence. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data
Engineering, 25(1), 220-232.
Zeng, W., Fu, C. W., Arisona, S. M., Erath, A., & Qu, H. (2014). Visualizing mobility of
public transportation system. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer
graphics, 20(12), 1833-1842.