Because of Covid19, I have been trying to find ways of reducing contact with other fellow human beings. Staying at home may seemed to be the perfect way but I do find myself having the need to travel out of my house to other places either for shopping for work. Since I do not have any car, public transport seem to be a must for me to do any form of travelling.
With this, I have explored for a few options that are available to me yet doesn’t cost as much and I have decided to try BlueSG.
The price of blueSG seemed to be just nice and it’s not exactly very expensive if I were to try it out for a few months. I signed up for $8 a month to give it a try.
Initially, during Covid19, there were relatively lesser cars on the road. This gave me the perfect chance to try to drive around Singapore and polish my “rusty” driving skills. On my first trip, it took me 1 hour to reach Jewel while my return trip only took 35 minutes. (I took a wrong exit, went to the wrong carpark etc). Nevertheless, this gave me more confidence to book the cars to continue to drive.
A trip to the airport generally cost $12 where a taxi cost around $17. This made BlueSG much cheaper. (Even cheaper if I can drive faster. I maintain around 70-80 km/hr)
Additionally, blueSG have introduced 3 hour package and 5 hour package at affordable rates.
3 hour cost $39.90 and 5 hour cost $49.90
If you rode with the package, 1 hour cost approximately $20. This makes the 3 hour package quite attractive. Additionally, the 5 hour package meant that it will only cost $10 per hour and you do not need to pump any petrol unlike tribecar, carclub etc. You rent the car and return back at the same spot.
With Singapore slowly opening up, it seemed that there are many people who decided to drive blueSG. You can generally see more of such cars on the road. Additionally, I believe that most of them are driving via the package as you will find that there are quite few blueSG cars in the stations.
If you follow the Facebook group, people have been sharing that most place is facing that same situation.
Additionally, even you have do have a car during peak hours, you may not get the car in the evening, after dinner where everybody is trying to return home.
The use of BlueSG is still acceptable to me. The car itself is not difficult to drive and the car is fairly clean enough for driving and I have been using it for a while and will continue if I can get the car. I have been struggling to drive using BlueSG or simply grab to the location.
The car do have some cons that’s mostly tolerable(Better than no car):
1. The car’s aircon is not cold at all. It is comparable to fan
2. The navigation is kind of lousy and you cannot rely on it to find other BlueSG station for parking.
3. The car has a large whining sound at high speed
4. The car’s body is light. This meant that any slight turn on the wheel will serve the car.
5. There is usually only 1 customer service officer. Any help will take a long time
6. Other drive are irresponsible drivers and may not use the car properly
Conclusion
Will I still continue with BlueSG?
I am considering not to continue with the membership as I have not been successful at getting any cars to drive during weekends. The nearest station is 8 minute walk from my home and there are no station at my office. I will give BlueSG 2 or 3 more months before deciding if I want to terminate the membership as I really could not get a car when I need. If so, it is really pointless to continue with the membership.
I am considering moving to other companies such as tribecar(Car availability on weekend is equally bad) or carclub (Slightly better) but I notice that the lack of cars with BlueSG during peak hour happens to them as well.
If you need a car, it also means that other people also needs the car
Hourly car sharing is not suitable in Singapore as there is not enough cars. Everybody will simply use the car at the same time during peak periods.
Life is Sinple 