Taxi and private-hire car drivers are now allowed to make grocery and food deliveries. The purpose of this concession is to meet the increased demand amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, said Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan on Sunday (Mar 29).
In a Facebook post,
Mr Khaw said that “with tighter safe distancing measures, working from home and tele-commuting, demand for home deliveries, whether for food or groceries, has grown. Anecdotally, it has gotten difficult to obtain a delivery slot across the various online grocery platforms.”
“We are also observing a dip in the fulfilment rates for online food deliveries. The demand for home delivery will only increase in the upcoming weeks as we push for more people to work from home.”
There is currently a limited trial with ride-sharing company Grab to allow its drivers to also deliver goods and food, said Mr Khaw.
“We have therefore decided to expand the Grab trial and will continue to avail this option to taxi and other PHC operators to allow their drivers to participate in such delivery service, if they wish. This will also help supplement their income. This will be a temporary liberalisation of #P2P regulations, useful, to help our drivers supplement their income … and to help meet increased demand for home delivery.”
This takes immediate effect till end of June 2020.
Thumbnail Credit: https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/maximizing-home-food-delivery
