Is Grab out to crash the ComfortDelGro, Uber party?

Singapore

A HEFTY rental discount offer by Grab to ComfortDelGro cabbies is being seen as a bid to "break up a marriage" between the land transport giant and Uber.

Ride-hailing company Grab on Sunday had enticed ComfortDelGro taxi drivers with a "S$50 rental discount per day" if they move over to Grab's taxi-fleet partners TransCab, Prime, SMRT or Premier between Sept 4 and 15.

Daily rentals for a Comfort or CityCab taxi can range from about S$80 to S$125.

The Grab offer, made by text message, also included a S$1,688 rental discount per month for drivers who switch to a GrabRental private-hire car.

Grab's carrots come after fellow ride-hailing heavyweight Uber and ComfortDelGro, Singapore's biggest taxi operator, announced late last month that they were in exclusive discussions regarding a "potential strategic alliance".

This tie-up may include "collaboration in relation to management of fleet vehicles and booking software solutions in Singapore", including ComfortDelGro's taxis also being made available on Uber's app.

There are currently 25,700 taxis in Singapore, with ComfortDelGro operating just over 15,500 or 60 per cent of that total, and the Grab taxi partners accounting for virtually the remainder.

The Uber-owned Lion City Rental company has a fleet that is almost as large ComfortDelGro's - 15,000.

With these three heavyweights slugging it out, one cab company owner called it a modern day version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The historical Chinese novel is a classic about three ancient states fighting for domination.

But Neo Nam Heng, chairman of the Prime Group of companies that operates about 700 Prime taxis, declined to comment further except to say that since the offer was made, "the response has been encouraging".