My Grab ride this morning literally cost more than what my parents used to pay for a week’s worth of petrol.
I’m sitting in the back of a Premium ride right now, watching the meter—or rather, the fixed fare app screen—and I’m just feeling completely sick to my stomach.
I had to book a ride from the East side to a morning meeting in the CBD because the MRT line had a major disruption during peak hour. The final damage? $54.00. And that’s before adding the ERP charges that are going to hit when we pass the gantry.
While staring at the receipt receipt on my phone, a random memory hit me. I remember my dad complaining in the early 2000s when 95-octane petrol crossed something like $1.30 or $1.40 a liter. Back then, pumping a full tank for our family’s Honda Civic cost maybe $45 to $50 max, and that single tank easily lasted him a full week of driving to work, sending us to school, and doing weekend grocery runs.
Let that sink in. A single, one-way, 25-minute commute in 2026 now costs more than an entire week of vehicle utility just a couple of decades ago.
How did we even get to this point? I know the standard macroeconomic explanations: inflation, soaring COE prices breaking the $100k barrier repeatedly, platform fees, driver shortages, and tech companies finally needing to show actual profit margins to their investors instead of subsidizing our rides with venture capital. But knowing the theory doesn’t make the practical reality any less insane to swallow.
Private hire transport went from being an affordable daily luxury during the Uber/Grab price war days to becoming an absolute luxury tier service that actively drains your disposable income.
It makes you look at the broader cost of living in Singapore and just feel completely weary. When one transport hiccup or a sudden downpour forces you into a surge-priced ride that wipes out a significant chunk of your daily earnings, the math of living here starts to feel completely broken. We optimize our expenses, budget strictly for local food, and try to invest every spare dollar, but a few unavoidable platform rides a month can easily kill your entire monthly savings goals.
Just needed to vent this out while stuck in CTE traffic. Is anyone else looking at their ride-hailing history lately and realizing it’s becoming completely unsustainable to survive here without relying strictly on the feeder bus?