Chiang Mai set to be brought to a standstill: Rot Daeng vs Grab war hots up

[JulesMad]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

It's just not fair, he said. 

55555, it could have been a farang saying that...
What more can I say: Welcome to Thailand ????

[Bassosa]

1 hour ago, cmsally said:

Who is the franchise owner of GRAB in Chiang Mai? Personally I would rather they make an improvement in the emissions of the songtaew and have some available on an App.

It would be more sustainable and better for traffic to have a songtaew with approx 6-8 people , than have GRAB cars with only 1 or 2 people in each.

To assess whether the business model works you need details , which seem to be in short supply.

Problem is, to get to that point, having 6 passengers, means that songthaews ply the road empty or almost empty, spewing black smoke everywhere, blocking the left lane etc.

 

Grab cars aren't on the road unless they have a passenger or on the way to a passenger. 

 

In other words, very efficient.

[malibukid]

6 hours ago, DonDoRondo said:

They need to face up to the fact that a lot of people aren't interested in riding around in the back of

a windowless pick-up truck.  Also so many of vehicles are spewing out visible exhaust choking the air

in the old town.  Sorry boys, the times have changed.

perhaps they could be re-educated?  learn how to drive?

[Jane Dough]

I miss the rickshaws....and the days when you could leave a gold bracelet in the street and come back a year later and, of course, it was still there.

 

Rooster

[arithai12]

35 posts, not one word of sympathy for the red buses, I think this speaks volumes.

[malibukid]

4 hours ago, jonclark said:

As the old adage in business states - The customer is always right. Perhaps the red songthaws should consider this. 

sorry, since when did the customer is alway right matter in Thailand?????

[tabarin]

12 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

I miss the rickshaws....and the days when you could leave a gold bracelet in the street and come back a year later and, of course, it was still there.

 

Rooster

Big BS. Nowhere on earth you leave a gold bracelet for a year without being touched. Unless they sold it to you first and know its a fake.

[malibukid]

11 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

I miss the rickshaws....and the days when you could leave a gold bracelet in the street and come back a year later and, of course, it was still there.

 

Rooster

and the cute young girls would wai you. me too.  times have changed.

[Just Weird]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Now they are lucky if they make 200-300 daily, reported Sanook. 

 

He said that the rot daeng were legal and had to ply fixed routes. They paid their taxes. 

 

No, they're not paying their taxes, then!  Income tax rate for incomes less than B150,000 pa is 0%.

[ThomasThBKK]

2 hours ago, cmsally said:

Who is the franchise owner of GRAB in Chiang Mai? Personally I would rather they make an improvement in the emissions of the songtaew and have some available on an App.

It would be more sustainable and better for traffic to have a songtaew with approx 6-8 people , than have GRAB cars with only 1 or 2 people in each.

To assess whether the business model works you need details , which seem to be in short supply.

GRAB has nothing to do with franchise.

 

It's a peer to peer platform for ride hailing, everyone can signup there... so did most motorbike taxi and taxi drivers in bangkok. Why that doesn't work in Chiang Mai is beyond me. They could just drive on grab instead of their red bullshit cars...

[lordblackader]

Fake news. They never once said they were going to bring Chiang Mai to a standstill in the original Thai. 

[CGW]

1 hour ago, Sydebolle said:

Why can Grab Taxis transport people at tariffs which are not "possible" by the red pick-ups?

It's not sustainable, they consistently lose money, billions every year, guess when they have the market share they need they will increase prices, they can't continue with the fairy story money burn for ever.

[cmsally]

19 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

GRAB has nothing to do with franchise.

 

It's a peer to peer platform for ride hailing, everyone can signup there... so did most motorbike taxi and taxi drivers in bangkok. Why that doesn't work in Chiang Mai is beyond me. They could just drive on grab instead of their red bullshit cars...

From reading previous articles it seems GRAB started with the blue and yellow taxi company (Vhiang Ping). It then seems that GRAB "corporate" came in to the market. The GRAB taxi was a franchise according to articles so it gets quite confusing.

Assuming franchise is not now involved; what commission are the drivers paying to GRAB?

[ThomasThBKK]

5 minutes ago, cmsally said:

From reading previous articles it seems GRAB started with the blue and yellow taxi company (Vhiang Ping). It then seems that GRAB "corporate" came in to the market. The GRAB taxi was a franchise according to articles so it gets quite confusing.

Assuming franchise is not now involved; what commission are the drivers paying to GRAB?

 

If you book grab taxi you pay a booking fee, that fee mostly goes to Grab, a bit goes to the driver too. Then they just turn on the meter and charge you like every other metered taxi. You basically pay a bit more for the convenience and security. So basically taxi drivers make a bit more money then they would usually.

 

For normal drivers that aren't with a taxi company it's different, they pay 10-20% afaik in comission, but the fare is usually also higher than a metred taxi.

[Sparkles]

Never any mention of where, and how, the exhaust emitting older Songteaws manage to get through the yearly emission tests.      Obviously authorities who approve their ongoing licences dont care and they wonder why they don't get public sympathy.

They are obsolete means of transport and need to face up to their inevitable demise

[Bassosa]

These days surely no one in their right mind would invest in a songthaew? I notice most drivers are pretty old.

 

Fingers crossed they will basically eradicate themselves by not keeping with the times.

[connda]

Can't wait for the taxi wars.  That should just be dandy for tourism, especially when the first Chinese tourist gets mowed down in the cross-fire.  

[lucky2008]

if you can't beat them, join them

[PingRoundTheWorld]

Aaaaaaaaand just like that I want to visit Chiang Mai even less... Let them choke on their turf wars without tourists.

[Jazz5555]

Make up the price as they go, Grab nice new cars, aircon and you know how to pay 

 

[Rockhopper]

What happened to Thailand 4.0?

[moe666]

8 hours ago, Happy Grumpy said:

Time to increase the price. 

They have increased the price of the grab a trip that cost 80 baht a few months ago now cost 100b times re a changing if the red bus goes out people will be screaming because the grab is to expensive.

[moe666]

4 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

GRAB has nothing to do with franchise.

 

It's a peer to peer platform for ride hailing, everyone can signup there... so did most motorbike taxi and taxi drivers in bangkok. Why that doesn't work in Chiang Mai is beyond me. They could just drive on grab instead of their red bullshit cars...

Yeah sure Uber sold there business in Thailand and South East Asia to Grab which is a Singapore Company. They are just a ride hailing company sure that is why some of the drivers in Chiang Mai bought new cars drove up to Chiang Mai from Bangkok to make money. That peer to peer ride hailing was the bulls--t that Uber used to avoid having to pay there employees a wage and benefits. Just another big business scam

[ThomasThBKK]

19 minutes ago, moe666 said:

Yeah sure Uber sold there business in Thailand and South East Asia to Grab which is a Singapore Company. They are just a ride hailing company sure that is why some of the drivers in Chiang Mai bought new cars drove up to Chiang Mai from Bangkok to make money. That peer to peer ride hailing was the bulls--t that Uber used to avoid having to pay there employees a wage and benefits. Just another big business scam

Whats your point?

 

31 minutes ago, moe666 said:

They have increased the price of the grab a trip that cost 80 baht a few months ago now cost 100b times re a changing if the red bus goes out people will be screaming because the grab is to expensive.

Should increase far further, taxis are way too cheap in Thailand. Not surprised no one can really life from that job.

[Hanuman2547]

I was in Chiang Mai last December.  Used the rot daengs a few times but sometimes they had to wait at stops to long.  I also didn't like having to negotiate prices for longer trips.  Mostly I used Grab taxi as it was easier, faster, and more comfortable.  I'd use taxi meters if they were around.  Rot daengs are old like dinosaurs.  Time to move on.

[Peterbkk99]

So Phuket is next?

[jonwilly]

Grab is far from perfect. Compared with Uber their map is poor.

However I do prefer the comfort of an air con saloon with a driver who usually has a reasonable command of English to a songthew.

 

john

[Uptooyoo]

25 years ago, why didn't the mail carriers shutdown the city when the internet and email came along? They need to adapt to the free market...become Grab drivers.

[SABloke]

19 hours ago, Vacuum said:

You're right of course, but you're talking about tourists. 90% of the rot daeng users are local Thai, are you suggesting that they should use "an airconditioned modern car with a pre-arranged price"?  That would mean they must introduce thousands of these grab taxis in the city.

So if the 90% (Probably higher I reckon) of the users are locals, then the Rot Daeng crowd have nothing to complain about. Unless, of course, they make such a killing by illegally fleecing tourists that it is cutting into their profits. So screw 'em.

[Hanuman2547]

2 hours ago, Peterbkk99 said:

So Phuket is next?

Hopefully Grab, Uber, Lyft, etc. all invade Phuket and take the taxi mafia out of the equation.