Motorcycle taxi riders, cabbies petition officials, parties over Grab legalisation

[yokat]

Seeing the number of grab taxi around I think they would benefit from embracing the change instead of trying to go against technology.

 

If those complaining cab drivers are the ones refusing passengers and negotiating high prices then even regular cabs are bad for them.

[lesmac]

order a taxi and the price is fixed before you accept the car. Hmm can't have that because there is no way to rip off farang

[phkauf]

Sorry these guys made their bed a long time ago, now they have to sleep in it. If they were honest and provided decent service, GRAB and the like would not have become as popular. I use GRAB all the time in Vietnam, which also was notorious for overcharging, and it's great. You see the price (it's the normal local price) before you decide to take it. In Saigon, there is so much competition it's rare that I can't find a ride even in the rain. 

But these entrenched monopolies are hard to break up. Same thing in NYC with the yellow cab industry fighting back against Uber and Lyft.

[scorecard]

14 hours ago, Benroon said:

I downloaded the Grab app - only it appears in thai. You can change the language each time you use it (in parts) but it reverts back when you leave the app so its a <deleted> nuisance. When I raised it with them they replied saying they are aware and are working on their 'valuable international customers' - until they do its next to kin useless!

 

Same for everyone ?

 

Staff at a small hotel I use in Bangkok installed the app for me, it's total English, no Thai language appears at all.

 

 

[Moti24]

I'm fed-up reading about these winging motorcycle/taxi drivers!  If they smartened themselves up, turned-on the meters, stopped the scamming and acted like they should, they wouldn't find the competition such a problem.  They even fight between themselves.  I don't use either, and haven't done for a long time; as far as I'm concerned, the majority are just a bunch of scumbags, and deserve the comeuppance.

[e2x10]

Tough S_ _ _ Boys...

[pierrenoel]

it is not against you taxi,it is for peoples,but it is something you cant understand,but i understand you 

[boonrawdcnx]

Sorry these guys made their bed a long time ago, now they have to sleep in it. If they were honest and provided decent service, GRAB and the like would not have become as popular. I use GRAB all the time in Vietnam, which also was notorious for overcharging, and it's great. You see the price (it's the normal local price) before you decide to take it. In Saigon, there is so much competition it's rare that I can't find a ride even in the rain. 
But these entrenched monopolies are hard to break up. Same thing in NYC with the yellow cab industry fighting back against Uber and Lyft.

Talking about monopolies - Central Group acquired a major stake in Grab Thailand - so just wait until they control the market totally then they will charge what they want - only the people who do the actual job will work more and earn less - why would I need a “middle man” like Grab to call a ride?

What Thailand needs is a European Taxi system with taxi cues and on-call / online taxis - not this stupid driving around by 10.000’s of taxis wasting energy and poisoning the air! Small independent taxi companies with clean cars, friendly competent drivers but not another monster. Once they control the market they don’t give a damn anymore - same mafia different name.
When visiting Vietnam it was well known and published online on travel sites to only go with certain taxi companies who where not cheating and they always got our business. In today’s world the information is there instantly and one can avoid the crooks and give business to the honest companies who take action against cheating drivers.



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[paulbrow]

I have trouble sympathizing with a group that refuses 80% of the possible trips. I truly do not believe I have ever successfully gotten a taxi before being rejected by the first 4 or 5 attempts. Grab weeds out that 80% and I get the first taxi that wants to actually make a living, not just collect for the 2 block or airport runs. Maybe my experience is unique?

[paulbrow]

1 hour ago, lesmac said:

order a taxi and the price is fixed before you accept the car. Hmm can't have that because there is no way to rip off farang

In my experience it is the same for Thais. Not exclusive to farangs.

[hotchilli]

18 hours ago, bluesofa said:

So is he saying that Thais are gullible and easily manipulated, in order to create disunity amongst themselves?

It's Thais who are doing the all the driving, operating the vehicles and the booking system. No one's forcing them into anything are they?

They don't like the monopoly interfered with !

[petedk]

2 hours ago, redsongthaew said:

I really don't think these people know what is going to happen when disruptive technology such as driverless vehicles, robotics and AI are rolled out in a big way in the next 10-20 years.

Maybe sooner than that.

[ben2talk]

Given that they still don't have proper driving schools or licencing structures I'd say that the idea of 'legal' driving is pretty moot.

 

As long as there is some kind of 'official' licence, and insurance cover for grab drivers, then surely they're as legal as any other taxi service.

 

Personally, given the choice, I always go for Grab Taxi (as opposed to 'Grab Car' which brings an entirely new breed of Thai drivers to your door). Grab taxi drivers are generally much more professional than general drivers, and mostly better than regular non-grab taxis.

[fab99]

My last visit in Bali, I was very impressed by bluebird, a taxi company that is famous for always using the meter. They have an app that works really well to book a cab and give you an estimation (reliable) of the fare. Only had great experiences. But you have to leave the main touristic places to take these cabs, the taxi mafia is quite unhappy with them. I didn't use grab once and my only bad experience was with a trip on a fix price basis because there was no other choice (in Padang Bai, no meter taxi and forbidden to grab and bluebird...). I wish there was a taxi group in Thailand that would do the same but it would be attacked by the mafia as an unfair competitor... I don't care so much, in 10 years I can count on my 10 fingers the number of times I used taxi and most of them was not a good memory. They deserve to disappear, if competition was real, they would have already... 

[Galactus]

totally support those legal taxi drivers and motrobike taxi guys in their ordeal.

for some farang here, with no idea about the realities, they basically dont care.

you should be aware of the fact that to get a taxi plate or a motorbike taxi vest, you need to invest money!

it is like a million baht for a taxi plate plus others expenses on top.

whereas, a grab taxi guy can do the same work with no investment. just a car.

this is why these people protest grab! bc grab is playing with their bread and it is not fair to them.

believe me, you do the very same in this situation. be frank to yourself.

hence gram or uber is banned in some countries due to that.

 

on top of these, grab is half Singaporean and this statement is sooo true: “Instead of enforcing the law on the wrongdoers, the LTD went ahead to amend regulations to benefit the foreign investors who broke the law and created disunity among Thais,”

some money you spend on grab goes to singapore and this creates problems among thais.

 

moreover, just be smart! grab fares are rising. once they become a monolopy, those fares will rise more and more as for all your rides or drives, you need to pay grab s cut!

same happened when hotel booking sites like agoda or booking. com appeared many years ago. I strongly resisted on these websites as i was seeing the big picture that all hotel prices will rise bc they will form some sort of monopoly and control the prices by forcing hotels.

basically we need to pay for agoda for its cut for every hotel transaction. Most slammed me saying it is very convenient and like they dont believe the room prices will rise.

now all room prices went up in a high rate in the last 5 years!

 

if grab forms its monopoly, believe me, we all miss the normal taxis and motorbike taxis when prices will be quadrupled.

 

[dcnx]

On 6/24/2019 at 6:30 PM, snoop1130 said:

and created disunity among Thais,”

Oh please. There’s no such thing as unity here. They can’t even hold a government together.