Video: "Welcome to Chiang Mai" - tourists forced to leave GrabCar as tempers flare

[JimmyJ]

4 minutes ago, hobz said:

 

Hopefully grab will not start to behave like this.

 

It does state in Grab's policy that the fixed price does not include tolls and entrance/exit fees.

[cyberfarang]

On 10/2/2018 at 1:22 PM, Deli said:

 

It's not that the taxi mob wants to make a living, they are lazy, full of envy and wanna become rich, whilst sitting in their lazy arse.

Not a single Bath they make with me.

 

One of my good friends is a red songthaew driver. He told me that the taxi business in Chiang Mai has become cut throat. Many rules and regulations have been placed on them by the local authority, and they are competing against the new blue baht buses, the set route buses and songthaews, less tourists and now have GRAB to content with. My friend confided in me that his average profit per day after petrol expenses on average is 400 baht, maybe 500 baht on a good day. This does not include wear and tear on his taxi, maintenance, servicing, tax and insurance and license. So being realistic he probably makes about 300 baht per day after all his expenses.

 

For this his day begins at 7.00 in the morning often not arriving home till 8.00 at night, working 7 days a week. So I really do feel for those guys and can understand why tensions are high. 

[hobz]

9 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

 

It does state in Grab's policy that the fixed price does not include tolls and entrance/exit fees.

What happened to me was that the driver or grab added "airport fee" after the ride.... I'm not sure if it was the driver or the system... But grab support removed the fee after I complained.... Now imagine if I had used a cc and the support refused to correct it? Would be pretty annoying...

[JimmyJ]

Quote

 

In Kuala Lumpur I shared a ride from the airport to the city, driven by a guy who does Grab driving but was hustling on his own at the airport when we encountered him.

 

There were a number of tolls on toll roads and an airport fee at least one way, maybe both (entering/departing).

 

He told us that the Grab fee doesn't include that and adds something like $5 USD to the quoted Uber fare.

 

If he had been taking us via a Grab trip, I'd rather have the extra charge added to my cc rather than have to fork over cash without time to find out if I'm being ripped off or not, and with no proof of the extra payment unless he agrees to provide a receipt.

 

It would definitely be preferable though if Grab would calculate the fees and add them to the quoted price.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by JimmyJ

[hobz]

27 minutes ago, JimmyJ said:

In Kuala Lumpur I shared a ride from the airport to the city, driven by a guy who does Grab driving but was hustling on his own at the airport when we encountered him.

 

There were a number of tolls on toll roads and an airport fee at least one way, maybe both (entering/departing).

 

He told us that the Grab fee doesn't include that and adds something like $5 USD to the quoted Uber fare.

 

If he had been taking us via a Grab trip, I'd rather have the extra charge added to my cc rather than have to fork over cash without time to find out if I'm being ripped off or not, and with no proof of the extra payment unless he agrees to provide a receipt.

 

It would definitely be preferable though if Grab would calculate the fees and add them to the quoted price.

 

 

That's the thing, the adjustment happened hours after I had paid... Since I paid cash they tried to add it to my next trip.. if I had used CC they would have just charged me.

[hobz]

1 hour ago, cyberfarang said:

One of my good friends is a red songthaew driver. He told me that the taxi business in Chiang Mai has become cut throat. Many rules and regulations have been placed on them by the local authority, and they are competing against the new blue baht buses, the set route buses and songthaews, less tourists and now have GRAB to content with. My friend confided in me that his average profit per day after petrol expenses on average is 400 baht, maybe 500 baht on a good day. This does not include wear and tear on his taxi, maintenance, servicing, tax and insurance and license. So being realistic he probably makes about 300 baht per day after all his expenses.

 

For this his day begins at 7.00 in the morning often not arriving home till 8.00 at night, working 7 days a week. So I really do feel for those guys and can understand why tensions are high. 

I think that's a different problem.

The red cars are used mostly by school kids / poor ppl that can't afford any other transportation. And people that dont know that grab exists.. 

 

In Sweden the equivalent would be the public transport system. And the way it works is that drivers get a monthly or hourly salary and it follows minimum wage laws etc. It's also subsidized by tax money, because it's for the common good that such a thing exists. 

But tit.

Edited October 14, 2018 by hobz

[YogaVeg]

On 10/9/2018 at 1:47 PM, SpeakeasyThai said:

Did you pay income tax ?

 

8 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

 

Do you write your own traffic tickets?

????????The troll gets SPANKED ! ???????? nice comic relief????

Edited October 15, 2018 by YogaVeg

[YogaVeg]

7 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

One of my good friends is a red songthaew driver. He told me that the taxi business in Chiang Mai has become cut throat. Many rules and regulations have been placed on them by the local authority, and they are competing against the new blue baht buses, the set route buses and songthaews, less tourists and now have GRAB to content with. My friend confided in me that his average profit per day after petrol expenses on average is 400 baht, maybe 500 baht on a good day. This does not include wear and tear on his taxi, maintenance, servicing, tax and insurance and license. So being realistic he probably makes about 300 baht per day after all his expenses.

 

For this his day begins at 7.00 in the morning often not arriving home till 8.00 at night, working 7 days a week. So I really do feel for those guys and can understand why tensions are high. 

It's a saturation problem. All those vehicles just lined up everywhere you look, no limits to the amount of them.

A lot of those drivers don't look very happy sitting around...

[cyberfarang]

15 hours ago, hobz said:

I think that's a different problem.

The red cars are used mostly by school kids / poor ppl that can't afford any other transportation. And people that dont know that grab exists.. 

 

In Sweden the equivalent would be the public transport system. And the way it works is that drivers get a monthly or hourly salary and it follows minimum wage laws etc. It's also subsidized by tax money, because it's for the common good that such a thing exists. 

But tit.

The red taxis are not mainly used by school kids and poor people. Red taxis in Chiang Mai are part of the public transport system. It could be said that they are equivalent the to black cabs in London and the Yellow cabs of New York. If you really want to know how it feels to be ripped off by taxi drivers with attitude, try using the London black cabs.

 

A few examples of what red songthaew drivers have to deal with:

 

Red songthaews can be hired for tours and private parties. My friend told me that on 3 occasions Farangs have hired him to take them to the Doi Suthep temple. After waiting for them for several hours he became aware that something was not right. When he tried to find them, they`d done a runner and disappeared. Wasted a whole day, had to buy his own lunch and no payment of fares, including the fuel costs for taking them there.

 

Both Chinese and western tourists agree a fare. At the end of journey refuse to pay for full fare and offer 50%, take it or leave it. Tourists hail his taxi. Ask a fare to a destination. whatever my friend quotes they try to haggle down the fare to ridiculously low rates. So my friend just has to drive off, not viable taking them. This is only some of the crap they have to deal with.

 

You obviously have no idea how the transport system works in Chiang Mai.

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by cyberfarang

[hobz]

2 minutes ago, cyberfarang said:

The red taxis are not mainly used by school kids and poor people. Red taxis in Chiang Mai are part of the public transport system. It could be said that they are equivalent the to black cabs in London and the Yellow cabs of New York. If you really want to know how it feels to be ripped off by taxi drivers with attitude, try using the London black cabs.

 

A few examples of what red songthaew drivers have to deal with:

 

Red songthaews can be hired for tours and private parties. My friend told me that on 3 occasions Farangs have hired him to take them to the Doi Suthep temple. After waiting for them for several hours he became aware that something was not right. When he tried to find them, they`d done a runner and disappeared. Wasted a whole day, had to buy his own lunch and no payment of fares, including the fuel costs for taking them there.

 

Both Chinese and western tourists agree a fare. At the end of journey refuse to pay for full fare and offer 50%, take it or leave it. Tourists hail his taxi. Ask a fare to a destination. whatever my friend quotes they try to haggle down the fare to ridiculously low rates. So my friend just has to drive off, not viable taking them. This is only some of the crap they have to deal with.

 

You obviously have no idea how the transport system works in Chiang Mai.

 

Reread my post carefully. 

School children, poor people AND people that dont know that grab exists. 

 

[sanemax]

3 minutes ago, cyberfarang said:

A few examples of what red songthaew drivers have to deal with:

 

Red songthaews can be hired for tours and private parties. My friend told me that on 3 occasions Farangs have hired him to take them to the Doi Suthep temple. After waiting for them for several hours he became aware that something was not right. When he tried to find them, they`d done a runner and disappeared. Wasted a whole day, had to buy his own lunch and no payment of fares, including the fuel costs for taking them there.

That quite probably wasnt deliberate , outside Doi Suthep are lots of red cars and its not easy to tell the difference between them and to locate your red car .

   They all look the same and you wouldnt recognise the driver , having just seen him  for a few seconds

[The manic]

9 minutes ago, hobz said:

Reread my post carefully. 

School children, poor people AND people that dont know that grab exists. 

 

In Pattaya Grab taxis are the same price as local rip off taxis. 

[hobz]

58 minutes ago, The manic said:

In Pattaya Grab taxis are the same price as local rip off taxis. 

Yeah! I noticed that in Phuket as well! In Chiang Mai grab prices are really good! 

[YogaVeg]

18 hours ago, hobz said:

The red cars are used mostly by school kids / poor ppl that can't afford any other transportation. And people that dont know that grab exists.. 

You are dead wrong. The red trucks are the main public local transit in CM. Thai working class folks, familys, tourists, shoppers... and fyi the school kids are the minority. 

 

What is obvious: you haven't been on the red trucks much.

 

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by YogaVeg

[YogaVeg]

2 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

A few examples of what red songthaew drivers have to deal with:

 

Red songthaews can be hired for tours and private parties. My friend told me that on 3 occasions Farangs have hired him to take them to the Doi Suthep temple. After waiting for them for several hours he became aware that something was not right. When he tried to find them, they`d done a runner and disappeared. Wasted a whole day, had to buy his own lunch and no payment of fares, including the fuel costs for taking them there.

 

Both Chinese and western tourists agree a fare. At the end of journey refuse to pay for full fare and offer 50%, take it or leave it. Tourists hail his taxi. Ask a fare to a destination. whatever my friend quotes they try to haggle down the fare to ridiculously low rates. So my friend just has to drive off, not viable taking them. This is only some of the crap they have to deal with.

 

Wow. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. That sucks.

 

I use them all the time. It's crazy that people would rip them off, they work for peanuts. 

 

I do haggle with them if they want more than 30 baht and I am not going far. The Thai price seems to be 20 baht, and 40 I'm happy to pay. But when I'm at the Maya and I'm just going to Old City and they already have people aboard and tell me 80, then it's negotiation time because I'm getting a falang price.

But I do it respectfully with smiles and they can always say no...

 

Anyways, thanks for mentioning the other side, the human side, of this equation. Those folks are trying to feed their families and certainly the profit margins are slim...

 

I think I'm gonna be a little more generous with them now...

Edited October 15, 2018 by YogaVeg

[hobz]

38 minutes ago, YogaVeg said:

You are dead wrong. The red trucks are the main public local transit in CM. Thai working class folks, familys, tourists, shoppers... and fyi the school kids are the minority. 

 

What is obvious: you haven't been on the red trucks much.

 

 

It's clear you've been on them too much breathing in all those exhaust fumes.. hehe kidding aside, I haven't used one in 5 years... nobody that can afford or know about alternative uses them. 

[how241]

On 10/2/2018 at 11:10 AM, Thian said:

Well they did the same in Pattaya.

 

Welcome to Thailand...

Yes they did.  Nothing new here.

[sanemax]

21 hours ago, cyberfarang said:

My friend confided in me that his average profit per day after petrol expenses on average is 400 baht, maybe 500 baht on a good day. This does not include wear and tear on his taxi, maintenance, servicing, tax and insurance and license. So being realistic he probably makes about 300 baht per day after all his expenses.

How much money would they save on fuel and wear and tear , if they didnt spend so much driving around without any customers (also clogging up the roads and causing pollution )

[hobz]

7 minutes ago, sanemax said:

How much money would they save on fuel and wear and tear , if they didnt spend so much driving around without any customers (also clogging up the roads and causing pollution )

Also they are really unsafe,,, no seat belts etc... and the black smoke the spew out is just disgusting.. they should all be replaced by a more modern public transport system.

[Classic Ray]

Grab, Amazon, Netflix etc are “disruptor” apps that bring new ways of doing business harnessing technology. No point in complaining, their success shows that they are what the customer wants. They all have competition which will make sure they maintain high standards. Complete contrast to mafia taxis, rude shop assistants, rip off TV packages most of which you don’t want. I will continue to support these new ways as they give me secure transactions, no surprises or scams, and great service. And I’m nearly 70 and fed up with being scammed.


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[hobz]

16 minutes ago, Classic Ray said:

Grab, Amazon, Netflix etc are “disruptor” apps that bring new ways of doing business harnessing technology. No point in complaining, their success shows that they are what the customer wants. They all have competition which will make sure they maintain high standards. Complete contrast to mafia taxis, rude shop assistants, rip off TV packages most of which you don’t want. I will continue to support these new ways as they give me secure transactions, no surprises or scams, and great service. And I’m nearly 70 and fed up with being scammed.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Well put.

But Amazon, grab are not completely scam free. Nothing is perfect. But they have good counter measures so it's definitely improvement!

[JimmyJ]

On 10/15/2018 at 10:59 AM, hobz said:

Also they are really unsafe,,, no seat belts etc...

This is why I refused to take the songthaews.

 

I took a tuktuk once in Chiang Rai because I was stuck at a tourist trap and annoyed at myself for going there (the Blue Temple) and wanted to escape asap, but it was totally unsafe.

 

Perhaps someday someone will invent seatbelts.

[hobz]

Another good thing about grab is that the rating system goes both ways. 

So if the passengers treat the drivers bad they Will get negative ratings and then they will be matched with lower rated drivers and/or get less rides / have to wait longer. I'm not sure exactly how it works but it gives incentive to both drivers and passengers to be nice to each other and that's a damn good thing for everyone involved.

[wcoast]

A bit off topic question...
I recently installed the grab app and chose English as my language. But the app/grab sends me promotions, notifications and emails in Thai, any way to get these in English?
Their help/support doesn't address this and trying to find a support form etc on their website is an exercise in futility as I haven't been able to find a real link to submit a support request. Thx

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