SOME of ComfortDelGro's 10,000-strong fleet of taxis will soon be used as RedMart grocery delivery vehicles.

Singapore's largest taxi operator and Lazada's online grocery arm are joining hands to expand the latter's fleet, in order to meet the surge in orders as more consumers stay home to comply with Singapore's safe-distancing measures during the Covid-19 outbreak.

More than 1,000 taxi drivers from the transport giant have indicated their interest to take on the temporary role, both companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Interested cabbies are being onboarded and will undergo training provided by the online supermarket.

They will then start their delivery jobs by the end of April. During this pilot, they will pick up orders from RedMart's warehouse at Alexandra Terrace and deliver to locations within the town areas.

The taxi drivers will also be trained to perform contactless deliveries and to deliver orders directly to a customer's doorstep.

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ComfortDelGro Taxi's chief operating officer Tommy Tan said it has seen "strong interest" among its drivers to participate in this initiative.

The partnership between the two companies comes as the Singapore government has temporarily eased point-to-point regulations, allowing taxi drivers and private-hire drivers to participate in delivery-service trials to help address the increase in home deliveries.

To stem the deluge of orders, RedMart previously froze new orders for two days. When it resumed taking orders on April 4, it temporarily reduced the range of products to prioritise daily essentials such as rice, flour and eggs.

The shift to focus on core necessities has enabled the online grocer to quadruple the number of orders it can take, according to the joint statement on Tuesday.

ComfortDelGro's Mr Tan said he is thankful for the new job opportunities for the company's taxi drivers from the RedMart tie-up.

Mr Tan said the Covid-19 pandemic has been "incredibly challenging" for cabbies, and their situation will worsen with the elevated safe-distancing measures.

"With the big mismatch in demand and supply for food and groceries, we reached out to RedMart," he added. "This will be a win-win-win situation not just for our drivers and RedMart but also for residents."

Lazada eLogistics Singapore executive vice-president, Jamil Khan, said the firm has been working to expand its logistics and delivery workforce since it began seeing a surge in orders in February.

"With ComfortDelGro, we are assured of a clean fleet of vehicles as well as a pool of drivers who can help ease the delivery capacity," Mr Khan noted.

In the meantime, the mainboard-listed transport group is also waiving rental for all its cabbies from April 7 to May 5. This full rental waiver is expected to cost ComfortDelGro Taxi about S$19 million.

Earlier this month, the ComfortDelGro group announced that its board and senior management will take a voluntary cut in directors' fees and pay respectively amid the coronavirus crisis.

ComfortDelGro shares gained S$0.06 or 4 per cent to trade at S$1.57 as at 3.44pm on Tuesday.