4.2 Time-of-Day and Location Surcharges

Surcharges Add to the Base Metered Fare

The base metered fare calculated in Section 4.1 is only the starting point. Depending on when and where a trip happens, LTA's fare rules allow two further categories of surcharge to be added: time-of-day surcharges (peak-period and late-night) and location surcharges (tied to specific pickup points). Both categories can apply to street-hail trips, taxi-stand trips, and metered bookings alike.

Peak-Period Surcharge (+25%)

A peak-period surcharge of 25% of the metered fare applies during the following windows:

• Weekdays: 6:00am-9:29am (morning peak) and 5:00pm-11:59pm (evening peak)
• Weekends and public holidays: 10:00am-1:59pm (midday peak) and 5:00pm-11:59pm (evening peak)

Notice that the weekday morning peak window (6:00am-9:29am) does not apply on weekends; weekends instead use a midday window (10:00am-1:59pm). The evening peak window (5:00pm-11:59pm) is the same on both weekdays and weekends.

Late-Night Surcharge (+50%)

A late-night surcharge of 50% of the metered fare applies every day from midnight to 5:59am, regardless of whether it is a weekday, weekend, or public holiday.

Because the peak-period evening window ends at 11:59pm and the late-night window begins at midnight, the peak-period and late-night surcharges never overlap on the same trip based on time-of-day alone - a trip is charged one or the other, or neither, never both.

Location Surcharges

Separately from time-of-day surcharges, LTA's fare rules add flat location surcharges for pickups at specific high-demand locations, regardless of the trip's distance:

Location surcharges are flat dollar amounts, not percentages, and they stack on top of any applicable time-of-day surcharge - a trip that both starts at a surcharged location and falls within a peak or late-night window can carry both charges at once.

Two More Flat Surcharges: Resorts World Sentosa and Seletar Airport

LTA's fare rules add two further flat location surcharges not always remembered alongside the more commonly cited ones above. A pickup at Resorts World Sentosa carries a $3.00 surcharge, applying anytime - the same amount and "anytime" structure as the Gardens by the Bay surcharge above. Separately, a pickup at Seletar Airport - Singapore's smaller general-aviation airport, covered further in Chapter 7 - carries its own $3.00 surcharge, also applying anytime, which is a simpler flat structure than Changi Airport's surcharge above (which instead varies by time of day, not by day of the week). As with the other location surcharges, a TDVL holder should treat each of these as a specific, named charge tied to a specific pickup point - never as a general excuse to add an unlisted extra fee at a different location just because it is a popular attraction.

Surcharges Apply to the Metered Fare, Not to Flat Fares or Booking Fees

Both the peak-period and late-night percentage surcharges are calculated as a percentage of the metered fare itself - not of a booking fee, and not of an upfront flat fare. Section 4.3 covers upfront flat fares in detail, but the principle matters here too: if an operator uses an upfront flat fare for an app booking, that flat fare already stands in place of the metered fare plus its surcharges, so a driver does not separately apply a 25% or 50% surcharge on top of an already-confirmed flat fare. Surcharges are a metered-fare concept; flat fares are priced differently from the start, and the two calculation methods are never combined on the same trip.

Worked Example 2: Combining a Peak Surcharge and a Location Surcharge

A standard taxi trip covers 5km with no waiting time, has a base metered fare of $7.00 (flag-down $4.40 + distance charge $2.60, using the method from Section 4.1), and is picked up in the city area at 6:00pm on a Tuesday.

Applying This to TDVL Scenarios

Scenario questions on this topic typically give a pickup time and location and ask which surcharges apply, or give a base fare and ask for the surcharged total. The reliable method is always the same: (1) identify the base metered fare, (2) check whether the pickup time falls inside a peak or late-night window and apply the correct percentage, (3) check whether the pickup location carries a flat surcharge and add it, and (4) total the result. A TDVL holder who explains surcharges this way - by time window and by location, rather than as a vague extra charge - gives passengers a transparent, defensible answer and avoids the overcharging risks discussed in Section 4.5.