Grab Buys Uber’s Southeast Asia Business, Ending Service in Thailand in Two Weeks from Today

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

9 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Well this sucks. I like GRAB alot, but used Uber as price compare and backup. Last month found Uber to be the better deal by B100 on one occasion. Also, GRAB has been very slow to find a driver lately...and none available has become quite common.

 

Competition and choice are good for the customer. Sad to see Uber go. 

 

As I posted in the other thread, every time I've tried to use Uber for a taxi trip in Central BKK, it's been no problem to get a driver, and the rides have been smooth, the drivers unfailingly polite, driving in their own personal cars.

 

Every time I've tried to use Grab for a taxi trip in BKK, usually the 4-6 km variety, the app shows a dozen plus taxis available in my neighborhood, and not a single one willing to take the trip.

 

To me, Grab is just the same old taxi mafias with a smartphone app front end.

 

And then I read something like this in the OP article, and it just reinforces that perception:

 

Quote

Grit Sripaurya of Jed Yod Brothers, Grab Taxi Chiang Mai’s franchise owner,

 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[Justfine]

Just now, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

As I posted in the other thread, every time I've tried to use Uber for a taxi trip in Central BKK, it's been no problem to get a driver, and the rides have been smooth, the drivers unfailingly polite, driving in their own personal cars.

 

Every time I've tried to use Grab for a taxi trip in BKK, usually the 4-6 km variety, the app shows a dozen plus taxis available in my neighborhood, and not a single one willing to take the trip.

 

To me, Grab is just the same old taxi mafias with a smartphone app front end.

 

Too bad. Uber is dying or dead.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

8 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

No one holding guns to the heads of the drivers. They choose to be a GRAB or Uber driver. Can part ways anytime. Big difference 'tween exploitation and underpaying. If they are, indeed, the same...well hell, most of Thailand's workforce is being exploited. 

 

For all the Uber drivers I've encountered here in BKK, they've been very polite and not grumpy or snarky.

 

So if they're feeling abused and exploited, they're doing a darned good job of hiding their feelings.

 

I would assume they're driving in that manner because they feel, or know, they can earn a better living doing that than the other things that might be available to them.

 

BTW, on a parallel issue, UBER the company based in the U.S. is a TERRIBLE company along with the guy who founded it. Just read up on all the B.S. they've been involved in, and a lot of terrible human relations issues involving treatment of their employees (not drivers, but the company staff members). That's part of the reason there's a newish CEO now presiding over the selling off of their various geographies.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 hours ago, MaxLee said:

The Taxi Mafia will be happy........ 

 

I'm guessing, from the OP, that that's exactly who is the Grab franchise holder for CM.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

3 hours ago, Justfine said:

35,000 less

22,500 fuel

5,000 car finance

2,000 maintenance

5,000 commercial insurance

 

Net 500 baht

 

If that were accurate, then the streets of Bangkok wouldn't be flooded with thousands of cabs, including many who won't take a fare even when offered to them.

 

[JimmyJ]

27 minutes ago, Justfine said:

Too bad. Uber is dying or dead.

 

Do you still drive a taxi?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Quote

the Grab platform that will take over ride-sharing in two weeks and food delivery in late May.

 

It would be nice if some of the reporting on this was more clear what's going to happen with UberEats in the short term.

 

The taxi handover to Grab is supposed to be early April, and the regular Uber taxi app is to stop working then. So what happens with UberEats between early April and late May -- do they continue in the interim until late May, or just go dead between early April and late May.

 

So far, I haven't seen anything that addresses that inbetween period for UberEats, and their customer service staff have been totally MIA for the past two days.

 

[Justfine]

23 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

If that were accurate, then the streets of Bangkok wouldn't be flooded with thousands of cabs, including many who won't take a fare even when offered to them.

 

They wouldnt pay all the costs.

[Justfine]

16 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

It would be nice if some of the reporting on this was more clear what's going to happen with UberEats in the short term.

 

The taxi handover to Grab is supposed to be early April, and the regular Uber taxi app is to stop working then. So what happens with UberEats between early April and late May -- do they continue in the interim until late May, or just go dead between early April and late May.

 

So far, I haven't seen anything that addresses that inbetween period for UberEats, and their customer service staff have been totally MIA for the past two days.

 

You get takeaway deliveries every night? Given they are ripping off restaurants be good if they folded too.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 minutes ago, Justfine said:

You get takeaway deliveries every night? Given they are ripping off restaurants be good if they folded too.

 

So that's why UberEats probably has a roster of 100+ restaurants all over BKK who deliver their food, from the cheapest street stall Thai places to expensive 1000 or 2000 baht sushi places?

 

Again, your argument falls flat. There are taxi drivers on the streets because they've chosen it as their way of earning a living. And there are restaurants that sign up with UberEats and continue to use them for the long term because they obviously calculate they're making money, one way or another. If they weren't, they wouldn't continue affiliating with a delivery service.

 

Take-out/delivery has its advantages from a restaurant's point of view -- expand your geographic customer base, find new customers for eat-in based on delivery business, produce meals without the same kind of service staff and clean-up/dish washing expenses, etc etc.

[Rawnthai]

What a sad situation. Uber was far from the best service in the world, compared to GRAB,  it was world class. GRAB was worse than just walking to the corner and hailing a cab.  No advantage what so ever. I even had experiences where I called GRAB to a major downtown hotel and when the taxi arrived it wanted to charge me a flat fee about twice the quoted price because I live in Pakkret. I have complained to GRAB via phone and told the woman to fly to Singapore or Hong Kong and see how GRAB is supposed to work. She said “Thai taxi drivers are lazy and not as smart as drivers in other countries......”.

This last week I met friends downtown for dinner. As called for a GRAB to go downtown, the accepting driver was 12 minuets away.  It made good time but when it 2 mins away or obout 100m, it canceled the trip. My experience coming home was just as bad, if not worst. I called a GRAB, it accepted, and the spun in circles for 10 plus, so I canceled. I called another which headed my way, almost made it, but took a wrong turn and 10 minutes later, it was 20 minutes away, it started at 8 mins. I walked to the main road and in 5 minutes found a taxi that took me to my out of downtown home.

 

In my many years of experience, GRAB SUCKS.

[Justfine]

Their platform says 25 to 50 mins for delivery. That's useless in Bangkok. You can walk 5 mins to get a better meal. No wonder the SEA business failed.

[Trouble]

13 hours ago, Justfine said:

Not correct. All those other businesses have bookings online and local companies covering costs.

 

The difference is a foreign company is taking money outside the country and passing off the costs to people. They are exploiting people who are out of work or in between jobs.

 

It's a network marketing setup.

Look, the model is simple, technology hooks up drivers and vehicles with riders.  If the drivers find that expenses, wear and tear on vehicle, maintenance, etc. are not economical they won't enter into the service.  Many will be fooled into thinking they are making good money without thinking of the expense side.  Well, they will figure it out eventually and drop out if the program doesn't work for them.  Uber is quite popular but I personally would never do it as putting yourself on the road like that increases risk of liability.  My biggest concern here in the USA is whether these people driving have the proper liability insurance.  Let's face facts, Uber drivers are not the most sophisticated business people and most are just trying to make some extra money.  I certainly hope it pays the operator, after expenses, to do the work. Time will tell.

[hobz]

2 hours ago, Rawnthai said:

What a sad situation. Uber was far from the best service in the world, compared to GRAB,  it was world class. GRAB was worse than just walking to the corner and hailing a cab.  No advantage what so ever. I even had experiences where I called GRAB to a major downtown hotel and when the taxi arrived it wanted to charge me a flat fee about twice the quoted price because I live in Pakkret. I have complained to GRAB via phone and told the woman to fly to Singapore or Hong Kong and see how GRAB is supposed to work. She said “Thai taxi drivers are lazy and not as smart as drivers in other countries......”.

This last week I met friends downtown for dinner. As called for a GRAB to go downtown, the accepting driver was 12 minuets away.  It made good time but when it 2 mins away or obout 100m, it canceled the trip. My experience coming home was just as bad, if not worst. I called a GRAB, it accepted, and the spun in circles for 10 plus, so I canceled. I called another which headed my way, almost made it, but took a wrong turn and 10 minutes later, it was 20 minutes away, it started at 8 mins. I walked to the main road and in 5 minutes found a taxi that took me to my out of downtown home.

 

In my many years of experience, GRAB SUCKS.

There's grab taxi and grab car.

 

Grab taxi is just the regular taxi mafia with an app. They will scam and do their usual shenanigans.

 

Grab car is like Uber.

 

I think you selected grab taxi without realizing it. I've made the same mistake.

You need to try again with grab car. 

 

That being said. The grab app has terrible user interface compared to Uber. It sets the location and destinations wrong. It can't be set to a specific GPS location, it needs to find an address, and that fails miserably sometimes setting the location kilometers off sometimes.

[hobz]

Beware when you try grab!!

 

Make sure you set it to "Grab Car" ! 

 

Not "grab taxi" !!!

 

Grab taxi is just the usual taxi mafia scammers.

 

 

Grab car are regular folks driving their private vehicles! Like uberx.

[Just Weird]

16 hours ago, ExpatOilWorker said:

Will Uber simple cease to exist in Thailand or will they run it in parallel with Grab? 

CityNews – Uber has today confirmed speculation that they will be selling their Southeast Asia business to ride-share rival, Grab and have announced that they will end service in Southeast Asia in two weeks from today.

[hobz]

15 hours ago, Justfine said:

The local "mafia" arent making millions of dollars from driving drunk people around. Just a reasonable amount.

 

Sad that people care more about 50 baht than people.

 

Nothing reasonable about their prices.

[Bang Bang]

5 hours ago, Justfine said:

Your opinion means nothing to me. Bangkok has thousands of restaurants so if only 100 signed up that's rather poor.

 

The delivery market is mostly junk food anyway. Fine dining it ain't.

 

Billions in losses, no ethics and on the way to total sell off. Those are the facts.

 

 

 

 

 

Uber Eats is a terrific service. I order dinner all the time. The variety on offer is endless. I am not sure how many restaurants but does the exact count matter? Mexican? check. Pub? check. Fast food? check. Japanese? check. Healthy? check. Greek? check. And it goes on. And you can expect to get the order pretty much within the estimated time.

 

Before Uber I tried for long periods of time each Food Panda and ChefXpress. Uber's a zillion times better. I just hope Grab doesn't screw it up.

[George FmplesdaCosteedback]

These app blood suckers wouldn't be necessary if the regular taxis stuck to the rules.

But as normal nobody enforces them as there's no money in it.

 

A new license for shove-halfpenny and skittles next week?

[Justfine]

4 hours ago, hobz said:

Nothing reasonable about their prices.

150 baht isn't a lot of money.

[gusincebu]

No but when you use the Grab app there is an estimation of the coast as using a Grab meter taxi.So me also I use grab in Philippines no fight for meter or itinerary and I always tip the Grab driver 

Thanks I'm a regular user of Grab .. I know how it works ..
I love it ...No Meter !

Sent from my SM-T535 using Tapatalk

[gusincebu]

Of sorts! The pre-agreed fixed fare. 

No meter ... I use Grab regularly ..which surprised me when that poster mention ..meter !
The pre- agreed fare , on the app is just that !
A meter estimates the fare as the journey progresses .

Sent from my SM-T535 using Tapatalk

[anto]

On 3/27/2018 at 8:02 AM, harrycallahan said:

In Philippines I use Grab and am driven by guilt to tip at least 20% more than meter price. It's ludicrously cheap. 

Here in Chiang mai Uber is often free for short journeys ,with the many B50 off discount codes  offered through the App.Great for the customer ,but it can not last long term.When there is only Grab there will be no need for discounts .

[Top man]

On 26/03/2018 at 11:40 PM, ExpatOilWorker said:

I know one happy Uber driver. He can work whenever he wants and the pay is reasonable, compared to other jobs he has done.

 

Will Uber simple cease to exist in Thailand or will they run it in parallel with Grab? 

Yeah hope so. 

[hobz]

15 hours ago, Justfine said:

150 baht isn't a lot of money.

Have you tried to get a real cab in Chiang Mai at night?? Not tuktuk or red car.

 

If you can find them at all at night it's gonna cost u way more than 150.

And I've yet to even hear of one using the meter.

Edited March 28, 2018 by hobz

[chubby]

it gets quite time consuming to wait for The taxi that will accept where you are going , and time of the day , I always thought Grab was less exploitive than Uber, and refused to ever use Ubers, despite Barrow's  fascination with them ..... as I think Lyft is less exploitive than the Uber ,  'you are the product, get used to it'  ethos

[HidyHo]

1 hour ago, chubby said:

it gets quite time consuming to wait for The taxi that will accept where you are going , and time of the day , I always thought Grab was less exploitive than Uber, and refused to ever use Ubers, despite Barrow's  fascination with them ..... as I think Lyft is less exploitive than the Uber ,  'you are the product, get used to it'  ethos

Come on ... at least keep the topic Thailand-centric.  Lyft isn't in Thailand!!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I would say my earlier predictions here re UberEats are proving to be correct:

 

Prior to the Grab buyout, UberEats basically had been offering a free delivery promotion every weekday via their app from 5-9 pm, and then once a week on Thursdays, offering a 30-40% off (max 60-70b) promotion for any of their restaurants.

 

Since the day the Grab deal was announced, UberEats hasn't offered any free delivery promotions during the evening period, and today, the first Thursday since the deal was announced, there is no 30-40% off promotion, a promotion they'd offered pretty much every Thursday for the past year or more.

 

Welcome to the loss of competition.

 

[Justfine]

9 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

I would say my earlier predictions here re UberEats are proving to be correct:

 

Prior to the Grab buyout, UberEats basically had been offering a free delivery promotion every weekday via their app from 5-9 pm, and then once a week on Thursdays, offering a 30-40% off (max 60-70b) promotion for any of their restaurants.

 

Since the day the Grab deal was announced, UberEats hasn't offered any free delivery promotions during the evening period, and today, the first Thursday since the deal was announced, there is no 30-40% off promotion, a promotion they'd offered pretty much every Thursday for the past year or more.

 

Welcome to the loss of competition.

 

Welcome to reality. Businesses can't run at a loss for long.

 

 

[Takeprofit]

Uber takes 25% comission from its drivers from the cost of every trip.

It is a crazy deal for the drivers but local people dont think about this kind of things.

I even used to ride on premium cars cost more than 1 million baht (like Camry, Fortuner) for the trip price of peanuts (around 40-50 THB).

Finally, they use their cars as a "slave car" without any profit.

Big profit goes to IT-owners only.