‘Too expensive’ or ‘fair price’ for convenience? Day 1 of cross-border taxi scheme elicits mixed reactions

Others, such as Malaysian taxi driver Tony, who only wanted to be known by his first name, expressed concern that the RM120 fare hike, which doubled fares to RM240, could deter Malaysian passengers, especially customers who are Malaysian workers in Singapore.

Singaporean taxi driver Sheikh Zaini, 62, welcomed the additional drop-off points in Malaysia for Singapore passengers, but lamented the restrictions preventing vehicles entering a foreign country with an empty car under the new enforcement will be a big hit to business. 

“In the past, after waiting four, five hours at Ban San (Street Terminal) and (if there are) no passengers, we could go into Malaysia with an empty car to take passengers there,” he said, adding that the increase of an additional 100 taxis in the Malaysia and Singapore fleets will cause more competition.

Sheikh added that while drop-off points are more flexible, restricting drivers to just four designated pick-up locations could pose challenges for regular passengers.

“Now we can send them to their home in Johor Bahru, right? But then once he reaches home, he might say, ‘I need to go back to Singapore in two hours, can you come pick me up?’ But we can’t do that,” he said.

“This is a big issue. Our regular customers will be unhappy.”