transportation Archives | Page 2 of 2

How To Shield Yourself From Grab’s Surge Pricing

As a country whose location is near the Equator, Singapore experiences “dry and wet days” throughout the years. Generally speaking, the dry months last from March to August. While, the wet months typically span from September to February. Its tropical climate makes the weather unpredictable.

The most convenient way to travel while it is raining is through a personal or a public car. There is no denying that hailing a cab becomes difficult when it is raining! What’s more? You may experience surge pricing when hailing a cab or booking a Grab car. Surge pricing is the adjustment of ride prices to match driver supply and rider demand. During periods of excessive demand where there are not enough drivers on the road (i.e., rainy weather), Grab increases its normal fares.

To combat this issue, insurance cooperative NTUC Income launched the product Droplet last October. Droplet is a pioneer when it comes to protecting the commuters against unpredictable surge pricing on ride-hailing platforms. Further down the road, it aims to cover other platforms aside from Grab. Just wait for their announcements by the end of the year.

HOW DOES IT WORK

Reap the benefits of Droplet by purchasing the rainsurance at least a day ahead of your rides. The premium will be no more than S$9.60 for the day. You can submit as many ride receipts for claim and receive a maximum of S$50 in a day. Commuters who buy the Droplet coverage closer to the forecast of rain are likely to pay a higher premium that those who purchase the premium cover in advance.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

To buy the insurance, you must select a date range that you would like to receive coverage. Then, you must send your claims by forwarding your E-Receipt through email (to [email protected]).

As of now, Droplet only covers rides booked on the Grab app. It will pay up to 60% of your trip fare or the cancellation fee should it be raining at the point of pickup.

THE BOTTOM-LINE

This post shall end with a statement from NTUC Income.

“Droplet is a blue-sky response to consumers’ pain point – surge pricing due to rain – when they book a ride on ride-hailing platforms. In Singapore, where an average of 167 days of rainfall can be expected a year, consumers can now meaningfully address this pain point with insurance cover by Droplet.”

It is exciting to see how insurance products sync with the modern times. Hopefully, other insurers will be as innovative as this one for the commuters to enjoy the benefits of having options.

Sources: 1 & 2

4 Ways To Significantly Decrease Your Living Costs In Singapore

According to Investopedia, “Cost of Living” is the amount needed to sustain a certain level of living that includes basic expenses such as food, taxes, housing, and healthcare. This factor can make a difference especially if your salary is sustained in an expensive city such as ours. Your salary can go further at a developing city but it may barely go buy at a developed one. Logically, it is important to take measures that help you decrease the costs. Start with these four ways:

1. SAVE ON EDUCATION FEES

Aside from transportation, housing, and food, one of the family’s major expenses is the education fee. Childcare as well as tertiary education is costly for the parents especially if they have two or more students in the family. Topping the fees are the pile of miscellaneous such as school supplies, uniforms, camps, and other extracurricular activity expenses. Fortunately, there are some organizations that offer student grants.

The NTUC Bright Horizons Fund offers financial assistance to children from underprivileged families. The amount of assistance varies according to the gross household income or per capita income. Also, there is a minimum co-payment fee of 2% and an additional S$20 for Union Members.

While adults’ aged 35 and above that earn not more than S$1,900 can upgrade their skills with the Workfare Training Support (WTS) scheme. These adults can benefit from 95% course fee funding on various courses including part-time diploma or specialist diploma at the five local Polytechnics. Imagine how many opportunities you can get after!

2. SAVE ON TAXES

Each year, hundreds of tax deductions and credits may go unclaimed due to the lack of taxing knowledge. Be sure to maximize the tax reloads that are applicable to you by checking out the information provided by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, here.

3. SAVE ON TRANSPORTATION

The good news just keeps on rolling! Early commuters can board the MRT for free before 7:45 am on the weekdays (i.e., excluding public holidays)! The no-cost rides are available at 18 MRT stations namely: Somerset, Bayfront, Bras Basah, Bugis, Orchard, Chinatown, City Hall, Clarke Quay, Dhoby Ghaut, Downtown, Esplanade, Lavender, Marina Bay, Outram Park, Raffles Place, Tanjong Pagar, Promenade, and Telok Ayer.

If you missed the cut-off timing for a few minutes, fret not. You can still indulge on 50 cents off your fare if you exited the designated stations. To be eligible for these, you must not enter from the 18 stations mentioned above. Your savings on transportation can pile up as time goes by.

4. SAVE ON WATER

We cannot live without clean water. Therefore, you must employ saving habits to lower down your bills. Learn a thing or two from this illustration:

Image Credits: pub.gov.sg/CONSERVE/HOUSEHOLDS/Pages/Watersavinghabits.aspx

Sources: 1, 2, & 3

How To Not Go Over Budget While Traveling

After working tremendously for a year, a vacation is a well-deserved reward. However, it is easy to become complacent and carefree over your budget. Going over board your budget when on a relaxing getaway is simple, but there are many ways to save money too! Here are just some of them:

1. DO PRIOR RESEARCH

The places you can go to heavily depend on your travel budget. For instance, if you have a considerable amount of money then, go to Europe than limiting yourself to Southeast Asian countries. Choosing an affordable destination that is suited to your travel budget is the first step. Do your research by comparing the accommodations, activities, transportation, and food costs of two preferred countries. Then, narrow it down to one.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR BUDGET

Once you know where to go and how long you are going to be there, you need to figure out how much your travel budget is. Start by identifying how much your spending will be per day. Include unforeseen expenses as well as food and travel costs.

3. BE SMART IN GETTING CASH

If you are still torn between two countries, compare their exchange rates. Sometimes, they make the largest difference. Since some of the foreign exchange centers have poorer rates, it is better to get the currency at the airport or at the ATMs (e.g., in Taiwan and France).

4. SET ASIDE MONEY FOR EMERGENCY

Speaking of unforeseen expenses, it is necessary to prepare for unforeseen circumstances too! If you have travel insurance then, this is only secondary. Money for emergency is important but try not to use it unless the situation absolutely requires it. You have to stick to your travel budget as much as possible!

5. SAVE ON FOOD

There is a greater chance that the breakfast from the hotel is expensive. So, it is better to walk out the door and find a nice local cafe in the mornings. You can immerse yourself to the place, the people, and the culture better by trying their local cuisine. Keep in mind that locally made food and beverage are often cheaper.

Alternatively, you may cook for yourself. Cooking in a new environment, even on a vacation, can be fun!

Image Credits: Nicole Abalde via Flickr Attribution-NoDerivs

Sources: 1 & 2

Save On Transport With The Off-Peak Monthly Travel Pass

Are you one of those people who are always on the go on weekends and public holidays? While on weekdays, you typically travel before 6:30am and after 7:30pm? Then, the new Off-Peak Monthly Travel Pass is the perfect public transport card for you!

The Off-Peak Monthly Travel Pass (OMTP) was implemented by the government to help reduce the citizens’ monthly transport expenditures. What is heavily attractive with the OTMP is that it offers UNLIMITED travel by bus and trains during weekday’s off-peak timings. And, the best part is you will have unlimited travels all-day long during weekends and public holidays.

The price for the OMTP is as follows:

S$80/month for Adults

S$40/month for Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PWD)

(Image: Ministry of Transport)

Aside from the prices, you must be aware that in order to buy your very own OMTP, you must first have or apply for an Adult Monthly Travel Card, a Senior Citizens Concession Card, or a PWD Concession Card.

Moving on to the exciting part, the weekday timings of the OMTP are before 6:30 am, between 9:00 am to 5:00pm, and after 7:30 pm. Surely, it is best suited for certain lifestyles such as people who work in hospitals or schools. Putting that into perspective, say Jane is a nurse and works an afternoon shift followed by a morning shift. Her afternoon shift will end at 9pm. So, she would travel after 9pm. Then, she must travel before 6:30 the next day as her morning shift starts at 7 am. This schedule definitely fits the weekday off-peak time scheme.

Image Credits: Walt Stoneburner via Flickr with Creative Commons License

To illustrate the savings, let us take teacher Josh as an example. Josh needs to travel before 6:30 am as the school starts on 7:20 am. If he lives in Toa Payoh and the school is at Clementi, his daily bus fare would cost about S$3.06-4.26 depending on which buses he takes. That is equivalent to S$67.32-93.72 a month, only during the weekdays! He will surely save a lot more with the OMTP scheme as it covers unlimited travel by buses and trains all day on the weekends and public holidays.

The savings of an individual depends on how far he or she commutes and on whether the OMTP fits his or her daily schedule. So, if you are eager to get your own OMTP…hold your horses! The pre-purchase at any TransitLink Ticket Office, MRT Stations, and Ticketing Machines starts on June 28 but it is available for use from July 5.

Image Credits: Screen-grabbed from www.youtube.com/user/LTAsingapore

Sources: 1 & 2

3 Tips To Reduce Your Transportation Costs

When calculating our monthly expenses, usually the first few things that would come to mind are your utility bills, your phone bills and perhaps the few big purchases you made during the month. What may not be so immediately obvious, are the transport costs you incur on a daily basis!

I used to be one of those people who didn’t really think much about my transport costs, and just topped-up my EZ-link card whenever I needed to. However, after a few months, I realised that there was something that was really burning a deep hole in my pocket. After some calculations, I realised how much transport was costing me each month! Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Here are a few tips to help you save on your daily transport costs

Take Early Morning Trains

If you take the MRT to work every day, why not wake up a bit earlier to enjoy free rides? If you tap out at certain selected stations (Bayfront, Bras Basah, Bugis, Chinatown, City Hall, Clarke Quay, Dhoby Ghaut, Esplanade, Lavender, Marina Bay, Orchard, Outram Park, Promenade, Raffles Place, Somerset and Tanjong Pagar) before 7.45am, your train ride is completely free! But what if you missed the cut-off time by a few minutes? It’s alright, you’ll still get 50 cents off your train fare if you tap out between 7.45 and 8.00am. For you to eligible for this fare rebate, the tap-in station cannot be any of the 16 stations that were listed.

Besides getting a free ride, you’ll also be able to enjoy less crowded trains, and be able to grab breakfast at a nearby bakery or coffee shop before stepping into the office! With this scheme, you could potentially shave off almost half of your entire transportation costs each month. Imagine all the things you could do with the money you saved on MRT rides alone.

Get A Concession Card

“Wait, aren’t those just for students?” you might ask. Well, now there’s also a concession card for working adults. While this concession card is certainly more pricey that that of a student concession card ($120 for the adult card), you will definitely save in the long run if you use public transport on a heavy basis. This concession card applies to both trains and buses, so you’re able to take as much public transportation you want without worrying about topping up.

Carpool

If you have colleagues who live in the area, and all of you drive, why not carpool? Each of you can take turns to be the driver, and pick everyone up to go to work together. Not only is this more fun than staring into space on the MRT or bus every morning, you also get to save on your fuel, as you won’t be using your car every day.

If you don’t have any colleagues who live in the area, why not using carpooling apps and sites, such as Tripda and Ryde. With these carpooling apps, you can find people who are going in the same direction and are willing to carpool with you. If you’re a driver, you can also find people who need to go to areas near where you’re going, then they can contribute a token sum to help you offset your transportation costs!

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