3.6 Cross-Border Services and Taxi Terminals

3.6 Cross-Border Services and Taxi Terminals

Cross-Border P2P Has Been Taxi-Only, With One New Exception

Singapore's P2P framework extends beyond its own borders through a defined set of cross-border services to and from Malaysia. For most of TDVL's history, LTA limited these cross-border P2P services to licensed Singapore-registered and Malaysia-registered taxis only, with private hire cars barred from cross-border commercial service. That changed on 30 April 2026, when LTA awarded GrabCar Singapore's first-ever cross-border Ride-hail Service Operator Licence (RSOL), valid for 3 years — a limited, named exception rather than a general opening of cross-border service to all PHCs. For a TDVL holder, the practical takeaway for taxis is unchanged: cross-border authority still attaches to the taxi-plus-licensed-operator combination described below, and an ordinary PHC booking outside this specific GrabCar exception is still not authorised for a cross-border commercial trip.

Singapore Taxis Travelling Into Malaysia

A licensed Singapore taxi may carry a passenger from anywhere in Singapore to a set of specified destination zones in Malaysia: Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri, Forest City, Kulai, and Senai. On the return leg, a Singapore taxi that has crossed into Malaysia can pick up passengers by street-hail, without any advance booking, at Johor Larkin Sentral — a recognised reverse cross-border street-hail point. For passengers who prefer to book a cross-border ride-hail trip in advance rather than relying on street-hail, three designated Malaysian pickup points are authorised: Toppen Shopping Centre, Mid Valley Southkey Mall, and Angsana Mall.

Malaysian Taxis Travelling Into Singapore

The arrangement works in reverse for Malaysian taxis: a licensed Malaysian taxi may pick up a passenger anywhere in Malaysia and drop them off anywhere in Singapore. On the Singapore side, street-hail service for these inbound cross-border taxis continues at the Ban San Street terminal, a dedicated cross-border taxi terminal. For ride-hail bookings, three authorised Singapore pickup and drop-off points serve inbound Malaysian taxis: near VivoCity (Harbourfront MRT), near Century Square (Tampines DTL MRT), and Joo Koon (MRT station).

Reference List: Cross-Border Pickup and Drop-off Points

• Malaysia-bound destination zones (from Singapore): Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri, Forest City, Kulai, Senai
• Malaysia street-hail terminal (Singapore taxis, return leg): Johor Larkin Sentral
• Malaysia ride-hail booking points (Singapore taxis): Toppen Shopping Centre, Mid Valley Southkey Mall, Angsana Mall
• Singapore street-hail terminal (Malaysian taxis, inbound): Ban San Street
• Singapore ride-hail booking points (Malaysian taxis, inbound): near VivoCity (Harbourfront MRT), near Century Square (Tampines DTL MRT), Joo Koon (MRT station)

What a Taxi Terminal Means in This Context

A taxi terminal, in the cross-border P2P sense, is a designated facility or area where cross-border taxis assemble specifically to pick up passengers under recognised street-hail arrangements — Ban San Street on the Singapore side and Johor Larkin Sentral on the Malaysian side function this way. A driver providing cross-border service needs to know not just that cross-border trips are allowed, but exactly which terminals and designated points on each side of the border are the legally recognised locations for picking up passengers — a driver cannot simply treat the entire destination country as open territory for pickups the way a local street-hail might work within Singapore.

Fares Are Different on Cross-Border Trips

Cross-border fares operate differently from ordinary local metered fares. As a general point of awareness (developed further alongside fare mechanics in Chapter 4), street-hail fares for the Ban San Street route have been reported in a range of roughly S$80 to S$210 per taxi, varying by vehicle category — a useful reminder that a cross-border trip should not be assumed to follow the same fare expectations as a short local ride.

Not Every TDVL Holder Provides Cross-Border Service

Cross-border service is an optional, specialised category of taxi work rather than a default expectation for every TDVL holder. A driver who never crosses into Malaysia is still fully compliant simply by operating within Singapore's domestic street-hail and booking framework covered earlier in this chapter. The reason cross-border rules still appear on the TDVL assessment is that a licensed taxi driver needs to recognise the boundaries of the service even if they personally choose not to offer it — for example, correctly telling a passenger that a PHC booking cannot legally continue across the border, or that a domestic taxi booking does not automatically include authorisation to cross into Malaysia.

Why This Matters for TDVL Holders

Cross-border taxi services still run through the same licensed Singapore taxi operators covered in section 3.5 — CDG Taxi, Prime Taxi, Strides Premier Taxi, Trans-cab, and GrabCab — with GrabCar now separately licensed as the first cross-border ride-hail booking operator from 30 April 2026. A TDVL holder offering cross-border trips needs to operate the correct, properly licensed taxi, respect the authorised terminals and pickup points on each side of the Causeway or Second Link, and recognise that cross-border P2P transport is a distinct, more tightly defined category than ordinary domestic street-hail or booking service.

Connecting to Route Planning

Because cross-border trips involve a fixed set of destination zones, terminals, and booking points rather than open-ended travel throughout Malaysia, cross-border awareness overlaps closely with the route-planning knowledge developed later in this study guide. A TDVL holder who can name the authorised Malaysian zones and the Ban San Street and Johor Larkin Sentral terminals without hesitation is demonstrating exactly the kind of location knowledge the assessment rewards, since cross-border questions combine regulatory recall (which vehicle type is allowed) with location recall (which terminal or point applies) in a single scenario.