Singapore – The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) has announced that it is inviting public feedback on the recent merger of ride-hailing giant Grab and local taxi service Trans-cab.
It should be recalled that Grab had announced that it is acquiring Trans-cab via its GrabRentals arm last July. Through the merger, Trans-cab taxi drivers will be able to manage their earnings and receive bookings from the Grab platform as well as Trans-cab’s existing call centre, all through a single platform.
According to the CCCS, both parties have said that the proposed merger will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in the relevant markets in terms of lack of prohibitive barriers to entry, as well as the highly-fragmented nature of the rental car market.
Moreover, both parties have stated that Trans-cab’s workshop currently only serves its own fleet of taxis and private-hire cars.
“Even if GrabRentals fully relies on Trans-cab’s workshop following the proposed acquisition, third party workshops would still be able to service other rental fleets in Singapore, and private cars more generally,” a statement in the CCCS said.
The local watchdog has invited the public to submit their feedback in terms of rental of taxis to drivers for the provision of street-hail or ride-hail services; the rental of private-hire cars to drivers for the provision of ride-hail services; the provision of street-hail services by taxi drivers; amongst others.
“Grab will continue to be constrained by the strong competition posed by other technology companies and taxi operators in the platform market. Passengers are well-informed and use more than one ride-hail platform service, while drivers exhibit a high level of price sensitivity and are inclined to switch to rival operators when presented with more favourable fee structures, rates, or incentives,” the statement also added.