Grab vs Red Song Thaews in Chiang Mai: War goes on

[JimmyJ]

12 hours ago, donnacha said:

For me, however, nothing beats Mobike, best way to get around Chiang Mai - except, obviously, during the smoky season, but no-one with options sticks around for that anyway.

 

 

 

You are referring to the Mobike app - "Smart Bike Sharing" - I assume.

 

Never heard of it but have now looked at reviews.

 

Don't know if I would ride a bike in SEA due to safety concerns, but I like the idea of bike sharing. (There should be something similar with cars ideally).

 

Looked at reviews - I had to go thru about fifteen 1 star (5 is the highest) reviews before I found 1 person rating them higher, then back to many more 1 star reviews.

Seems like you've been atypically fortunate in not having problems with it.

Edited May 23, 2019 by JimmyJ

[donnacha]

9 hours ago, JimmyJ said:

Seems like you've been atypically fortunate in not having problems with it.

My theory is that those complaints, although they dominate the app's reviews, represent the tiny fraction of users who made the relatively expensive mistake of not locking the bike when they were finished, which you need to do to end every ride. It is VERY easy to forget to do this. You have to train yourself to double-check.

When it happened to me, I only realized the next morning that I had racked up an additional bill of around 400 baht. My immediate, hungover, reptile-brain reaction was rage, and to find some way to deny responsibility. Then I took a breath, remembered I was an adult and accepted that I had made a mistake, and that the 400 baht was a fraction of what I had spent in the bar that night. It mainly stung because my original fee for 3-months of unlimited 2-hour rides (you must end the ride within 120 minutes, but can then immediately start another ride on the same bike) had cost less than that, I think around 300 baht.

Having ridden all over Chiang Mai every day for 3 months, on dozens of different mobikes, I can say that it is a terrific scheme. It made living in Chiang Mai significantly better for me. I never felt unsafe, they are far safer than mopeds as cars have plenty of time to see you. You just have to avoid the bear trap of forgetting to end your ride and return it to communal use, which is only fair. That 400 baht sting meant that, from then on, I always double-checked and never again made that mistake.

So, I reckon the people posting those complaints went in the opposite direction and made a conscious decision to trash the company, rather than accept that they made a mistake.

If you think about it logically, there are not really any problems that can happen. If a bike has problems, you pull over, end your ride, and take a different bike. If the app has some malfunction, such as not ending your ride as these guys claim, you simply email support from within the app and send them a photo of the locked bike or broken lock or whatever it is that is preventing you from ending the ride. If you do this within a few hours of your ride, no problem, that is clearly a genuine fault, they'll cancel any charges. If you just forget about it until the next day, however, it is pretty clear that you simply forgot to lock it and are not pretending you didn't.

Few people bother to post reviews when they are happy with a service. Sadly, this means that, very often, a good service will get shellacked by a small but vocal minority. It is a damn shame, people are missing out as a result, and I believe this will play a role in making these incredibly cheap schemes financially unviable.

[Johnnyngai]

On 5/22/2019 at 7:28 AM, csmith said:

Why no mention of the excellent public buses in Chiangmai … that even have their own App that tracks the buses in real-time.......

 

 

 

On 5/22/2019 at 11:09 PM, AAArdvark said:

I use the bus all the time.  However, I have used three different apps and find none of them are reliable.  The bus icons on the maps very often do not move or I have to close and reopen the app to get a decent idea of where the bus actually is.  The other issue is that some bus stops are a little hard to locate and the old bus stop signs from the previous bus system are still out there.  But all in all, I use the bus frequently with my Rabbit card.  I even use it to go to immigration although I don't think there is an official stop there.  I ask to be let off at immigration and on the way back I walk 5 minutes to the airport.

I like to use them around the tourist areas,  but they do not go to all places like the Grab. 

[Johnnyngai]

23 hours ago, donnacha said:

The red bus mafia damages the reputation of a generally decent city. I have come across several situations in which they blatantly rip off groups of Chinese or Koreans, particularly female groups. You can bet those stories travel back to their home countries, and carry more weight than all the millions spent advertising Amazing Thailand.

Grab has become more expensive over time, but the convenience and not having to haggle against farang prices still makes them better value overall.

For me, however, nothing beats Mobike, best way to get around Chiang Mai - except, obviously, during the smoky season, but no-one with options sticks around for that anyway.

 

" Chinese or Koreans, particularly female groups. "  

I don't think those groups know what the fair price should be.  

They work such long hours, all they know in life is work, work, work.      

 

[Sparkles]

The blue buses have been around for some time no and in my observations are poorly supported except when they leave the airport.

I rarely see a Thai person on board. Breaking their habit of using songteaws and tuk tuks, might be a step too far.

I said from day great idea but why such large buses ? buses half the size with double the frequency of use might have helped

[No1]

What holds the songtaew drivers up from simply installing the Grab app and becoming a Grab driver themselves? ????????

[sunnyboy2018]

On 5/22/2019 at 12:43 PM, Topdoc said:

Like Airbnb, a foreign company has come along and grabbed market share. This is going to be very difficult for many here to accept. 

The grab drivers are Thai!

[AAArdvark]

4 hours ago, Sparkles said:

such large buses

They are large but they don't carry many people (seated).  It is something like 25.

[bacwan]

I was in Malasia  recently where grab works seamlessly along side taxis. While in Penang, I never waited more than three minutes.

Then 2 days ago as i was departing Sukhumvit for Suvarnabhumi soi 8, I again used Grab which arrived at my hotel in minutes. Total charge was 368 baht as opposed to the starting price of 500 baht (plus tolls) from the taxis.

The Grab car was new and clean and the driver was polite.

[ZeVonderBearz]

On 5/22/2019 at 6:28 PM, csmith said:

Why no mention of the excellent public buses in Chiangmai … that even have their own App that tracks the buses in real-time.......

 

 

Can't make sense of this app at all. What are the route names of the buses in CM?

[ZeVonderBearz]

On 5/24/2019 at 3:08 PM, No1 said:

What holds the songtaew drivers up from simply installing the Grab app and becoming a Grab driver themselves? ????????

There are certain rules and regulations set by grab, such as age of car, that no songtaew would ever be able to follow. 

[Small Joke]

The red buses, and the invisible army of taxis sat at the airport, can take their whiny little bitch problems to the temple. 

As many have said, grab is worth every satang, and was desperately needed in CM.

 

So they can either reorganize into a timetabled and fixed route service, or sell the stinky old cattle bus, and be a grab driver. 

It's 2019, and the party is well and truly over, shinybums.

[AAArdvark]

17 minutes ago, ZeVonderBearz said:

Can't make sense of this app at all. What are the route names of the buses in CM?

There are multiple apps (unfortunately).  You should be able to set the app to english.  The default for the app is to show all routes but there is a place to deselect all the routes.  That allows you to view one route at a time name and where it goes.

Also there is this:

https://www.chiangmaitraveller.com/chiang-mai-public-bus/

[JimmyJ]

6 hours ago, AAArdvark said:

There are multiple apps (unfortunately).  You should be able to set the app to english.  The default for the app is to show all routes but there is a place to deselect all the routes.  That allows you to view one route at a time name and where it goes.

Also there is this:

https://www.chiangmaitraveller.com/chiang-mai-public-bus/

https://www.chiangmaitraveller.com/chiang-mai-public-bus/

is a great article - just what is needed as it explains all with illustrations.

 

I just downloaded the app they mention - "CM Transit by RTC" although looking at the reviews they are mostly 1 star (5 being the best) and the overwhelming consensus seems to be "useless".

The most positive I noticed said "It gives you some idea of the bus routes...".

Still, at least they are trying. Now they just need someone competent to get it to be useful.

Edited May 26, 2019 by JimmyJ

[whimsy]

That's a real shame. A motorcycle taxi for short hops would prove very convenient for me in Chiang Mai.

Grab just launched motorcycle taxi service in Chiang Mai yesterday and Get (Go Jek) is rumored to be coming to CM soon too.

https://chiangmaione.com/grab-launches-new-services-in-chiang-mai-bike-food-and-express-3713

[AAArdvark]

4 minutes ago, whimsy said:

 

Grab just launched motorcycle taxi service in Chiang Mai yesterday and Get (Go Jek) is rumored to be coming to CM soon too.

https://chiangmaione.com/grab-launches-new-services-in-chiang-mai-bike-food-and-express-3713

 

I have seen the motorcycle taxi on my app for a while now.  What is Get (Go Jek) going to be doing that is better than Grab?

[whimsy]

I have seen the motorcycle taxi on my app for a while now.  What is Get (Go Jek) going to be doing that is better than Grab?

 

We don’t really know yet, but more competition should be good. FWIW I tried both Grab and Go Jek in Jakarta and preferred Grab.

[banagan]

On 5/24/2019 at 3:08 PM, No1 said:

What holds the songtaew drivers up from simply installing the Grab app and becoming a Grab driver themselves? ????????

Grab has safety standards.

[AAArdvark]

1 minute ago, banagan said:

Grab has safety standards.

They already have Grab Bike.  I don't know who would use Grab songtaew.

[jackdd]

54 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

They already have Grab Bike.  I don't know who would use Grab songtaew. 

In Chiang Mai they actually have Grab RodDaeng, which is the name for the Songteaws here. Costs about 50% more than Grabcar, but can of course make sense for larger groups.

For a bit more than Grab RodDaeng you can also get a van, but for a van usually the waiting time can be longer and a van has "only" 10 seats, a RodDaeng can carry more than this.

I would also expect that if a group of 10-15 people approaches a RodDaeng on the street for a ride accross the city, the driver will ask for more than they would have to pay through Grab RodDaeng.

Edited May 29, 2019 by jackdd

[AAArdvark]

3 minutes ago, jackdd said:

In Chiang Mai they actually have Grab RodDaeng, which is the name for the Songteaws here. Costs about 50% more than Grabcar, but can of course make sense for larger groups.

For a bit more than Grab RodDaeng you can also get a van, but for a van usually the waiting time can be longer and a van has "only" 10 seats, a RodDaeng can carry more than this.

I would also expect that if a group of 10-15 people approaches a RodDaeng on the street for a ride accross the city, the driver will ask for more than they would have to pay through Grab RodDaeng.

I am in Chiang Mai looking at my latest updated Grab app.  I see Car, Bike and Delivery.

[jackdd]

3 minutes ago, AAArdvark said:

I am in Chiang Mai looking at my latest updated Grab app.  I see Car, Bike and Delivery.

 

Click on car, choose your destination, and then click on the "JustGrab" panel above the panel where it shows the price, then you see all options