Smove Car sharing

Firstly, to clarify, this is not a sponsored post. Just want to share because i find it worthwhile. 

As with my previous post in March 2015 (view it here) , I never liked car sharing because of 2 main reasons, one - the limited free mileage and two - the need to return the vehicle to the same location.

Smove car sharing totally addressed this 2 issues spot on for me.

The company started out as with a pure electric car fleet before switching to the current fleet of hybrid Prius-Cs. Their system is simple. Pay a one-time fee of $19 (See how you can get a rebate to waive it off below) and start driving at $5 per 15 mins. No petrol or mileage or other hidden cost.

One of Smove Prius-C 

(Image taken from smove.sg)

So $20 per hour isn't exactly cheap...I hear you but it does offer you the flexibility of renting for less than an hour. Say half an hour or 2 hours 15 mins and you are really paying for the time you are in the car and not for time when the car is parked at the carpark.

I'll be honest with you, having joined a few previously, the above reason isn't enough to make me want to join another car sharing scheme. What's alluring me to join is this:

You can collect a car at a location and return it at another location. 

WOW! That makes sense for me. Let me tell you a place which I like to go but am always put off by taking public transport there > IKEA Alexandra. It's nowhere near a train station and for bus services only 2 comes from Redhill mrt and 1 comes from Queenstown mrt and they are not really frequent.

Now I can spend $5, take the car at Commonwealth MRT (one of their locations) and return it at Anchorpoint (another of their location). Then I just cross the road. I can even take up to 4 friends with me and I don't have to pay a single cent for parking. That's what I called flexible.

And, what's more I checked with Smove, as they are using very fuel efficient hybrid cars, the Prius C,

They does not have mileage limits on their cars

So no matter how far i drive,  my cost is fixed at $20 per hour.

Yes, I hear you say that how far can I drive in half an hour or an hour? But what about their 'package deals':

Weekdays (Mon till Fri): 10am to 5pm at $60. That's 7 hours for the price of 3 hours. 

Weeknights (Mon till Thu) 6:30pm to 8:30am at $40. Drive off from a station near your office and return next morning you come back to office.

On times like weekends starting from Friday nights and outside the above timings, it's still at an rather affordable $90 per 12 hours or $130 per 24 hours. Remember this is the actual amount you have to spend (except for ERP and carparks). No petrol cost, no hidden cost, no variable cost and comprehensive insurance is covered. 

Check them out their website at Smove.sg. Click on this link and get $20 credit from Smove while promotion lasts. That means its more than enough to offset the one time fee and there is no joining fee.

Something interesting - The whole time you have the car, there is no car key. To unlock the car, you simply tab your pre-registered EZlink card at the device next to the IU and the car will unlock itself. To lock, tab the card again. To end your trip, lock the car and send an SMS to Smove to end your booking.

Tab EZLink card to unlock and lock

(Image taken from smove.sg)

So far they have their locations mainly at the south-western side of Singapore but I was told that they will expand so we look forward to that.

Travel Smart Rewards - Improvements that I would like to see

I posted a few days ago on the Travel Smart Rewards scheme which manages peak period crowd and encourage people to travel earlier or later to work.

Read:
Public Transport made Interesting - LTA's scheme to manage morning peak crowd

Of course, the scheme is launched not too long ago and I think it's a fantastic scheme for people like me. Like many things, nothing is perfect, so I would like to suggest some improvements that I would like to see in the future.

Peak vs Off Peak
Peak trips and off peak trips current both earn the same number of points.. To encourage people to move out of peak, any time outside the peak period, more points should be given. Even a 2 points per km is double the points of the current 1 point per km.

Evening Peak
LTA may think it is not necessary at this time as people are more relaxed in the evening and have better flexibility of their time as it is after work. However, it is the  very same reasons that make people more willing to get out of peak period and travel in the decongesting evening period (maybe 4:45pm to 5:30pm and after 8pm to 930pm).

Buses
I am sure extending the scheme to buses is already in  LTA's planning and they are likely to extend it. However, to make people stop taking train and start taking buses, the scheme will have to be more attractive on buses and more services will be needed to do direct from the town to the city centre. There is a service to and from my town to the city centre but I do not take because 1) I have to take another bus to get to the bus stop which has the city-direct service and 2) there are only a few trips in morning and in the evening and also 3) they get very crowded and no seats are available.  

Public Transport made Interesting - LTA's scheme to manage morning peak crowd

(Image credits to its owner)

Taking the train to work every morning?? Read on.

Travel Smart Rewards - Earn rebates while doing (really) nothing when you travel on trains

It has been about 1.5 months since I joined Travel Smart Rewards - TSR (www.travelsmartrewards.sg).

In brief, this programme is LTA's move to encourage people to adjust their travelling schedule and move out peak period and into the less peak period. You get points for every km travelled. The incentive is that when you travel in one of the less peak period they designate (they call it decongesting period), you get your points multi folds to up to 8X. These points can either be used to redeem for cash at a very low rate: 1000 points = S$1 or they can be used to play their Spin to win game and win cash along the way. 1000 points can win you a few dollars (up to $200 as the say) depending on your luck. [You can set it in your settings page -See below]

(Screenshot from www.travelsmartrewards.sg)

The amazing thing about this is that there is an automatic spin feature which they will help you play the game every week and what you need to do is really NOTHING except to wait for the winnings to come in, and they will email you every week if you have a $1 or more winning(s).  Even crediting the cash out of the programme doesn't take you any effort. They will just credit your winnings into your EZlink card which you can use to offset your future trips.

(Screenshot from www.travelsmartrewards.sg)

I am not sure if I can be considered lucky compared to others out there who has been using this scheme but to have a rebate of $8 for 1.5 months into the programme, I am rather pleased. Of course, I travel a considerable distance from home to my work (about 20km) and I travel at the time the TSR people encourages us to travel every week day (ie: 8:45am to 9:45am), hence i believe I get more points than many people. 

As comparison, my sis whom I encouraged, has enrolled herself into this programme. She also travel 20+km everyday but she doesn't have the opportunity to travel many times in the decongesting period, hence her points is much less. Her winnings is about $2 for about a month of travel. Actually that's not bad at all in terms or rebates. Here's why:

Considering credit card rebates which is one of the other programmes which give you rebates back from your spendings on public transport. Citibank SMRT credit card gives $0.60 rebate but charges you $0.25 transaction fee for every auto-reload of $30 (default I think). Hence, the net rebates is $0.35. On a $90 or 3 reloads basis, the rebates for the month is $1.05. 

Hence even if winnings is $2 from TSR, the rebates is already double of what the credit cards are offering. What's more, the money savvy people will register and use their Citibank SMRT cards into the TSR programme and earn rebates from both sides. (It's allowed)

So start register yourself into the programme and start earning the rebates. Anyway, all the effort you need is the registration process and everything afterwards is automatic - no effort required.

(This is not a sponsored post and I just want to share my experience on something that's I feel is beneficial to me and I would like you, my readers to know about it and take advantage of it)

Perfectly Timed Military Photos

Some military photos that are taken just at the exact right moment.

Here are some that I specially like...

(Photo via imgur, photographer unknown)

（Photo embedded via @CuriousMsMeg on Twitter 

photographer Visual Information Specialist Jason Johnston）

(Photo embedded via navsource.org, photographer PH3 Brad Dillon, USN)

(Photo via imgur, photographer unknown)

(Photo embedded via popsci.com, photographer Scott Trebble)

(Photo via imgur, photographer unknown)

(Photo embedded via Today.com | Photographer: Baz Ratner / Reuters)

(Photo taken by White House photographers,by way of latimeblog.com)

(Photo credit: Brennan Linsley / AP and embedded from NBC News)

All photos and sources taken and seen on The Roosevelt 

See more at: http://www.rsvlts.com/2015/03/31/perfect-timed-military-photos/

Walking on Footpath...

(Image credits to its owner)

Updated April 2015 - FOUND the picture of the scene :p

(Image credits to its owner)

In Memory of Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Photo taken from the internet with slight editing. Credits to its owner

Today is a very sad day for most Singaporeans, with many waking up to hear that our first prime minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, has passed away in the early hours of the morning.

Most Singaporeans have already considered him to be the founding father of Singapore, for he had given his whole life in exchange to be what is Singapore today. In a totally different light of beauty pageants of Mr and Miss Singapore") he is the one and only truly Mr Singapore in our hearts.

As the saying goes 虎死留皮，人死留名，when we die, we want to leave our name behind for future generations to remember. In this respect, I think Mr Lee had done that amazingly well, with himself having led a fulfilling life till 91(and still activates in his high 80s), left his name that not only Singaporean but the whole world would not forgot. What more can one ask for. To me, he is the most successfully individual of my time.

Rest in peace, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, for we will always be grateful to what you have done for Singapore and Singaporeans.

I would like to share some videos of Mr Lee brilliance below:

1984 National Day Rally (Incomplete)

Mr Lee's famous "I'll get up"

Various clips of Mr Lee

(All videos credits respective to their owners)

The usefulness of Starbucks...

Seen somewhere over the internet: 

(Image credits to its owner) 

Idea hor!!!

What you do if you cut your long hair off and regret it....

(Image credits to its owner)

Man vs Woman 7

(Image credits to its owner)

Man vs Woman 6

(Image credits to its owner)

Man vs Woman 5

Man vs Woman 4

(Image credits to its owner)

Man vs Woman 3

(Image credits to its owner)

Car Sharing in Singapore

I am not a big fan of car sharing after signing up for a few scheme a few years ago. And the reasons are obvious.

1) First, it is the limited mileage - Most, if not all, car sharing scheme pay for your petrol but limit your mileage to like around 10km per hour or 30km per overnight. For people like me, if I want to use a car overnight, a trip from my home in the north to town and back will be more than 30km. That's excluding running other errands (and of course you would when you have a car at your disposal)

What happens after you exceed the limit, you are charged $0.40 per km. So either you just drive your car around the neighbourhood, which is kinda impossible for me, or pay an additional fold for the 'optional' mileage charge.

I give you an example.  Say a particular car sharing scheme I am enrolled in offers me overnight usage for $30 per night from 6pm to 8am and give you 30km free mileage, thereafter to be charged at $0.40 per km.

Say collection at Toa Payoh. So i drive from Toa Payoh to Tiong Bahru (12km) to pick up my wife. Then we go City hall for dinner (4 km). Then after that we go pick up something at MBS (5km) and then we head home to Woodlands (30km). Next morning, I drive from home to return the car to Toa Payoh. (15km). Total 66km. Exceed: 36km. Cost: $14.40. Total Cost: $44.40

Trust me, that's a typical night mileage and not exaggerated. When you have a car, you may want to go a few more places like our parents house, more errands and such. That's because there are some things that you will leave to do when you have a car and in the end you may even plan a trip from town to Punggol to collect something from a friend before you head home.

2) Returning at the same location -  As with all car rentals, due to logistic arrangement, for car sharing, we need to return the car back to the same location. It's fine for rental because you have at least 24 hours to run your errants and return the car. For car sharing, you have an hour or two and you have to do your stuffs and get back to your location where you took your car. Doesn't make sense right?

Although it is a norm for car rental companies and car rental companies usually have staffs to receive you when you return the car (the staffs need to check for damage as well). However, for car sharing, as most of the system is computerised when returning the car is nothing more than sending a message to the system, why can't something be done to improve on this?


Update: 27 April 2015

Read my new post on Smove car sharing, a totally new concept that redefine car sharing in Singapore.

The quiet King....

The king is of course....Burger King. In my opinion, I think it went from being par with the likes of McDonalds and KFC (no subway last time, sorry) to being one fast food chain with just a few countable outlets in Singapore.

I still insist that they have one of the best (and relatively inexpensive) chicken burger around. Their flame cooked tendergrill chicken burger, which is the reason why I still patronise them occassionally.

While their menu (aka value meals to most of us) stayed stagnant for a long period of time, I noticed that they introduced some sides at very affordable price....perfect for people like me who do not want to eat too much yet want to have some snacks, yet don't want to spend too much.

Here's some of their 'star buys': 

Though you may argue that the cheese fries may not be as tasty as KFC or nuggets not as nice as McDonalds, but again, their price is almost half of that of their more reputable competitors. So much so that when they advertise on TV that their BK Fish n Crisp is $2, some of the McDonalds outlets reduced their price of their fillet-o-fish to $2. Coincidence, anyone think?