bolt taxi pattaya recent fare increase

[docinbangkok]

did anyone notice the  approximately one week old  40-60% Bolt taxi  fare increase in pattaya ?

does anyone know the reason ? Bolt  taxi fares have become very close to Grab taxi fares !!!

does anyone know of other options ?

[scubascuba3]

Costs me 40 baht from Pratumnak to Jomtien, that's not bad

[spongeworthy]

If true that would likely increase the number of Grab taxis and decrease wait times. ????

 

Good news for me, bad news for everyone else.

[Ralf001]

I grab a bolt every second weekend, Pattaya to Sriracha to attend my hospital appointments.

Just checked now, fare has increased from Bt.290 to Bt.308.

7% increase............. still not worth the hassle of me driving down and parking my car !!

 

[docinbangkok]

it used to cost me 90 baht to go from jomtien to bus station in North pattaya , now it cost 130-140 baht. it used to cost me 40 baht to go from jomtien to ratanakorn market , now it cost 60 baht .

it is a surprising jump in such a short time !!

[HauptmannUK]

Yes. Was going to use Bolt this evening and was shocked at the quoted price. A good 50% increase. We decided to walk and use a songtaew.

[kwilco]

So it's now 14 baht? That sounds a bit awkward

[treetops]

i've certainly noticed an increase but put it down to surge pricing, however going by the comments it may well be an across the board increase.

 

Not surprising IMO, as their cheap deals appeared to be get them into the market and were always going to increase over time.

[jacko45k]

I always suspected Bolt would one day bump up it's prices, it was simply too cheap. I suspect they were just establishing themselves, and let's be fair, it was the drivers who had to subsidize it. Covid delayed it a good while.....

[JimTripper]

11 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

I grab a bolt every second weekend, Pattaya to Sriracha to attend my hospital appointments.

Just checked now, fare has increased from Bt.290 to Bt.308.

7% increase............. still not worth the hassle of me driving down and parking my car !!

 

It is if you need to save every baht you can.

[Mike Teavee]

As well as the increase in fares I've noticed a lot more drivers cancelling (or not responding to) the booking, had 5 in a row when I wanted to go into town the other day & 2 drivers cancelled on route to pick us up from Makro (One was 1 minute away when he cancelled). 

 

Oh & a Taxi (booked via Bolt) kicked us out yesterday when he found out that we wanted to go from Wongamat to view some houses at Patta Element (approx 30 min drive) fortunately we managed to book an "Economy" car which turned up 2 minutes later & the driver was a really nice guy who waited 40 minutes for us & brought us back so we gave him 500b (IIRC the fare was listed as 161b one-way). 

 

All in all I still love the service (I don't have my own transport so wouldn't live out in Wongamat without it) but I am starting to look at Grab more when we can't get a Bolt. 

 

Airport runs I always use Nam or Cherry's taxi.

[Ralf001]

2 hours ago, JimTripper said:

It is if you need to save every baht you can.

Be a sad day when an additional 18b becomes a concern.

[HauptmannUK]

5 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

As well as the increase in fares I've noticed a lot more drivers cancelling (or not responding to) the booking, had 5 in a row when I wanted to go into town the other day & 2 drivers cancelled on route to pick us up from Makro (One was 1 minute away when he cancelled). 

Yes, noticed this too. Its very odd. You get a driver accepting and then 10 seconds later cancels. Same again and again (about 6 times) - this was for an evening pick up in central Pattaya. Not sure if its a software problem.  We're not dependent on taxis/Bolt because we have a car - but it is/was convenient to use a Bolt if going into town for the evening, rather than the bother of driving and parking. Based on my last few experiences the service is deteriorating.

[ed79]

Yep, I noticed the exact same thing.

 

I left Pattaya 6 months ago for Chiang Mai.  Bolt in CM is a waste of time (no cars available or 25 minute wait for them to arrive).  I was looking forward to returning to Pattaya and being able to use Bolt again.

 

I've been back a week and journeys that used to be 60 baht are now 100-120.

[treetops]

6 hours ago, Mike Teavee said:

As well as the increase in fares I've noticed a lot more drivers cancelling (or not responding to) the booking . . . . .

Yes, another common occurence nowadays.  I do a lot of slightly longer trips than just about town (~300 baht to Sri Racha) and thought it was they weren't guaranteed a pick up to come back, but now noticing it on shorter ones too.