Coach operators & bus agencies fined S$1.69m for price fixing

Came across tis hot piece of news on channelnewsasia.com now, at marina square starbucks while doin ma revision.

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"Sixteen coach operators and the Express Bus Agencies Association have been fined a total of S$1.69 million for engaging in the price fixing of coach tickets.

The Competition Commission of Singapore said on Tuesday its investigations have revealed that the coach operators, together with the association, had agreed to fix the prices of coach tickets for travel between Singapore and destinations in Malaysia from 2006 to 2008.

The commission said that through meetings arranged regularly, the coach operators agreed to fix the prices in two ways.

First, they had minimum selling prices for the coach tickets, depending on the destination. At the last revision of the minimum selling price made on 4 March 2006, the coach operators increased the price of one-way tickets to between S$22 and S$39.

As a result, these coach operators adjusted ticket prices to either at, or above, the minimum selling price, resulting in higher ticket prices.

Fuel and insurance charges that were imposed across the board also marked up ticket prices.

The commission said during this period, it is estimated that the coach operators pocketed over S$3.6 million from the fuel and insurance charges."

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Tis is an example of a cartel under economics term? No wonder ma school is drilling so much on ethical conduct on us.

Come to tink of coach prices, it is oso no wonder they have been so expensive. To genting oredi costs almost 100 bucks. I might as well fly by budget airlines to kl for onli 60 bucks. Although from LCCT in kl, I still haf to take a bus to kl city centre by bus for an hour.

The hassle of having to fly, on the other hand, means that people who don't want to climb up and down flights of stairs would still choose to travel by coach, especialli for the elderly. For young people like mi, i juz cant sit still for 7 hours on de coach.

Thus in conclusion, it still boils down to individual preferences at de end of de day. And how best a business can meet de needs of its customers will haf to depend on its target market n positioning.