More needs to be done

But is that enough? Unfortunately, not.

Singaporeans love their cars too much, and just want to drive their cars at every instance they can. So even with the changes, some might still opine that a normal plate car is still the way to go.

How about allowing OPC owners to purchase half-day e-Day Licence then? If a single day's cost $20.00, then it can probably be broken down to this manner: $10.00 for usage from 7.00am to 1.00pm, and $10.00 from 1.01pm to 7.00pm. That will be added flexibility for OPC owners.

Let us study this case: Matthew stays in Tampines and works in Jurong. His working hours are 9.00am to 6.00pm, and driving a normal-plate four year-old Toyota Vios, he usually leaves home at 8.00am, drops his wife off along the way and will reach the office by 9.00am. He will then leave the car parked the whole day, before leaving at, say, 7.00pm after doing some extra work (most of us do that as well, don't we?).

Now lets think of this: If a half-day license is introduced, Matthew will be more than happy to convert his car into an OPC - after all, he only needs to pay $10 to drive his car in the morning. On top of that, he will get a cash rebate of up to $1,100 for every 6 months' of registration as an OPC (until the car reaches 10 years old). Or alternatively, he can opt to trade-in his car for a brand new OPC instead. So if he decides to do the former, he will enjoy the cash rebate, and if he does the latter, he gets to buy a new car, enjoy the one-time $17,000 rebate and pay cheaper monthly instalments.

Either ways, he will still save a significant amount of money on the yearly road tax.

But if that is still not enticing enough, then what the LTA can also do is to relook at the restricted usage hours. Currently, an OPC must be off the road from 7.00am to 7.00pm if the driver wants to avoid paying the $20.00 license. How about re-timing it to, say, 7.30am to 7.00pm instead? Or better still, 8.00am to 7.00pm? That difference in timing actually plays a big role.

So my point here is this - what the LTA's doing is in fact a laudable effort in making owners choose the OPC route, and take cars off the roads. However, there are still improvements that can be done - namely the ones I've mentioned above. I might sound like I'm asking too much, but if the OPC scheme needs to be more attractive, those are some effort that should be considered.

This, coming from an OPC owner himself...

Credits: Story & pictures by Azfar Hashim