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ComfortDelgro Taxi Launches New Taxi App, But Will It Beat GrabTaxi?

GrabTaxi has stolen ComfortDelgro Taxi's booking thunder since the app came into Singapore around April 2014. Comfort Taxi has launched a new app and will make this new app the de factor app by early March 2015.

Can a new design alone help ComfortDelgro Taxi kick GrabTaxi off its pedestal and regain its number one spot?

Comfort Taxi new app, ComfortDelgro Taxi Booking App, has a major design improvement from its predecessor. After you signed in, you will see the skyline of the Marina Bay area with different positions of the sun to show the various time of the day.

Though the booking feature is quite standard, it is an improvement from the previous design.

If you do decide to cancel, there is an option to feedback to ComfortDelgro the reason for the cancellation.

The new ComforDelgro Taxi app also has a menu button to select several options and the one that I liked most is the e-receipt option.

This eReceipt breaks down the various components of the taxi fare and you can email it to keep a permanent record of it. This is directly linked from the meter and as such only ComfortDelgro Taxi will have direct access to this.

I have received emails from GrabTaxi before but it doesn't break fare and can only give an estimate of the fare.

The new ComfortDelgro Taxi app is indeed a well done refresh to its previous app, which looked liked it was stuck in the 2000s with the advent of the smartphones. However, GrabTaxi has done more to disrupt the taxi booking scene that it will take more than just a new design to topple it.

From my discussions with taxi drivers using GrabTaxi, there are more benefits to using GrabTaxi than to get a booking from ComfortDelgro.

One of the benefits is that GrabTaxi charges a lower booking fee to taxi drivers than ComfortDelgro. Each booking from GrabTaxi costs the taxi driver about $0.20 while a booking from ComfortDelgro costs $0.30 with the 7% GST.  7% adds 2 cents to the total booking cost but a difference of $0.12 per booking will push drivers to use GrabTaxi.

Halio costs taxi driver $0.40 per booking and you can see why taxi drivers are not using this app.

GrabTaxi also has a "rewards" programs for drivers where a certain number of bookings a month qualifies the taxi driver for a reward, ranging from free credits to even mobile devices and tablets. Such "rewards" program was said to be non-existent with ComfortDelgro.

However, the race to be the number one Taxi Booking app will benefit both consumer and the drivers. Without the entry of GrabTaxi or the other taxi booking apps, ComfortDelgro would have continue to rest on it laurels and kept its year 2000ish app entering into the second decade of 2000.
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