GrabTaxi App?

[BangkokRobert]

Uber - 5+ times, GrabTaxi - 1

My first 3 tries at GrabTaxi in July made me give up. Tried Uber. Uber showed up right at my door every time. But the July-August promo pricing must be finished. Last week Uber from MRT Rama 9 to Siam (Chula U) was 353 baht and the GrabTaxi back was 71+25= 96.

[bubba]

I tried out the app and it was rubbish. It recognised my current location but then the pick up point was about half a kilometre away. I didn't see any way of moving the pick up point to where I actually am (my apartment, which is accessible to taxis).

I'm using the iOS version, and there is a "From" drop down that allows you to select a location that is near you (from Foursquare data) and the selections show how far the location point is from your current location. Of course, to get an accurate current location, one needs to be outdoors to get an accurate GPS fix.

Works fine for me.

I thought the whole point was that it made it easier if you were down some obscure soi but if it doesn't recognise whatever obscure soi you're in then it's of no use. Also there's no way of changing the route and the route it chooses is right into traffic on the main road. If you know a shortcut or a route with less traffic can you tell the driver to take that route when he picks you up?

Good point - if there is not a Foursquare or Google point at your location, then the driver will not get a precise location. You can phone or text him after he accepts, as you get his mobile number. But then there could be a language issue for you.

Once you are in the taxi, a GrabTaxi is just like any other taxi. You can direct the driver to take any route you choose.

[AlexRRR]

Funny...with 30% of the cars on the road a cab in BKK about the only time you might need this app is if its 4 am in the morning.

[OMGImInPattaya]

I thought I would just update this thread a bit with my own experiences of using Grab Taxi. I've used it 3 times this week during a short stay in Bangkok and it works pretty well but there are a few rough edges people should know about. I used it for a couple test runs around Sukhumvit and for a run out to Swampy.

In general, the app works well and it quite polished. It usually determines your location with accuracy or you can search the databases of FSq., Google, and Google Maps" curiously, some major hotels don't show up in some of these databases. I was staying at the Hilton Sukhumvit on Soi 24 but this hotel is not listed. Their sister adjacent property the Hilton Doubletree is listed but it's entrance is on soi 26. This is not really a problem as you can select a nearby property that's listed and then call the driver to refine the pickup point.

In general, it is not too hard to communicate with the drivers, who do usually call you after the app has confirmed your booking. However, just be patient as it's not too easy for the drivers as the app face on their end seems to be in English and this of course is not their native language.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when booking with "Grabber." Allow plenty of leed time. The app is not very accurate in estimating the taxis arrival time. This is not surprising considering BKK traffic. If you want a taxi to arrive at a specific time, book it 20-30 minutes before. All my bookings took at least that much time to arrive. I think one problem is that the app lets any driver within a specific radius of your pickup point to take the fare...first come first served. However, it's not necessarily the taxi that is closest to you...maybe just the guy with he fastest fingers or can read English the best so knows where the fare is going. To use the pre-booking service, your pickup time must be at least 2 hours or more in the future.

I think for out of the way places where many taxis don't want to go or for trips to the airport like mine, Grabber is very good. For short hops around the central city it's not necessary. Price wise, my trip to the airport was down right cheap! From the Hilton on Suk 24 to Swampy was 210 on the meter. There is also the fee of 25 baht and I pre-tipped 100 baht to encourage someone to take me there...so my total cost was only 335 baht (plus 75 in highway tolls). All in about 400, which is 20% less than the "standard rate of 500 baht quoted by hotel booking desks.

The drivers I got we're all pleasant and all said they liked using grabber because they made more money with sit and spent less time and gas crushing for fares. I like it because I figure that a driver using Grabber is likely to be a younger and more polished (educated) driver and therefore I'm less likely to have any problems. I would recommend Grab Taxi for people going to out of the way destinations around the city.

PS: Grab Taxi gives your a 50 baht and 40 B discount on your first and second rides respectively.

For some reason, the drivers seem to prefer Grab to Easy Taxi. I talked to them about it and I guess they get more of a cut with Grabber. Maybe Easy being a Thai company, like most things in LOS, they put the screws to the little guy, in this case the drivers, so they end up with the short end of the stick for doing most of the work.

[OMGImInPattaya]

A quick update. I have continued to use the Grap Taxi service with mostly good results. I like being able to electronically "hail" a taxi and not have to stand out in the hot sun asking multiple lazy sods if they'll take me to my destination.

However I did have a negative experience today (but maybe not or I wouldn't have met the delightful Khun Chaiyos). I tried to Grab a taxi from my hotel deep in Suk soi 39 to the Sheraton Grande Hotel. On my firat try the app showed plenty of taxis in the general vicinity but none took the fare. Thinking the app maybe just malfunctioned, I entered the booking again...same result...the app said they couldn't get me a driver. I tried two more times with the same result.

This left me a little puzzled as drivers appeared to be available traffic was normal, and soi 39 is a pass through soi from Petchaburi Road to Sukhumvit so it's not that hard to navigate. I guess the takeaway is that your can't always count in Grab Taxi getting you a cab even on a working day in the morning. It was not a problem as I went out and got a street hail but I'd I needed to get to the airport or an important meeting I could have been put-out.

Also, the charges are now a 20 baht general surcharge and a 5 baht "software" charge; so a total if the meter plus 25 baht.

[bubba]

OMG: I think the reason is that when you submit a request from GrabTaxi, that request goes out to nearby taxis and they can elect to accept the request or ignore it. That's what you see in the app for a while after you submit your request and it says "bidding". In your case, probably none of the nearby taxis elected to accept your request, for whatever reasons they may have had. This has happened to me a couple of times, but not very often.

[balo]

Uber - 5+ times, GrabTaxi - 1

My first 3 tries at GrabTaxi in July made me give up. Tried Uber. Uber showed up right at my door every time. But the July-August promo pricing must be finished. Last week Uber from MRT Rama 9 to Siam (Chula U) was 353 baht and the GrabTaxi back was 71+25= 96.

Maybe you should try it again ? They are more established now with more cabs working for them.

[OMGImInPattaya]

OMG: I think the reason is that when you submit a request from GrabTaxi, that request goes out to nearby taxis and they can elect to accept the request or ignore it. That's what you see in the app for a while after you submit your request and it says "bidding". In your case, probably none of the nearby taxis elected to accept your request, for whatever reasons they may have had. This has happened to me a couple of times, but not very often.

I think you're right there Bubba. I was just surprised at the lack of takers for what I considered an "easy" run. I should add since I considered it a desirable run, I didn't pre-tip any amount (all other times I did)...maybe that's why no takers. Maybe the Bangkok Grabbers are "teaching" riders "no tip...no taxi."

[bubba]

OMG: I think the reason is that when you submit a request from GrabTaxi, that request goes out to nearby taxis and they can elect to accept the request or ignore it. That's what you see in the app for a while after you submit your request and it says "bidding". In your case, probably none of the nearby taxis elected to accept your request, for whatever reasons they may have had. This has happened to me a couple of times, but not very often.

I think you're right there Bubba. I was just surprised at the lack of takers for what I considered an "easy" run. I should add since I considered it a desirable run, I didn't pre-tip any amount (all other times I did)...maybe that's why no takers. Maybe the Bangkok Grabbers are "teaching" riders "no tip...no taxi."

I have never pre-tipped on GrabTaxi. Out of principle, I will not. What is a "tip" when it is rendered before the service is provided? Particularly if it's a long trip, I am more than happy to leave a good tip if the driver and car were good, but that is at the end of the trip.

Pre-tipping is sort of like walking into a restaurant, and tipping a waitress before you are seated and served. If you do not pre-tip, you may or may not get a table, and the service might be crap.

[OMGImInPattaya]

OMG: I think the reason is that when you submit a request from GrabTaxi, that request goes out to nearby taxis and they can elect to accept the request or ignore it. That's what you see in the app for a while after you submit your request and it says "bidding". In your case, probably none of the nearby taxis elected to accept your request, for whatever reasons they may have had. This has happened to me a couple of times, but not very often.

I think you're right there Bubba. I was just surprised at the lack of takers for what I considered an "easy" run. I should add since I considered it a desirable run, I didn't pre-tip any amount (all other times I did)...maybe that's why no takers. Maybe the Bangkok Grabbers are "teaching" riders "no tip...no taxi."

I have never pre-tipped on GrabTaxi. Out of principle, I will not. What is a "tip" when it is rendered before the service is provided? Particularly if it's a long trip, I am more than happy to leave a good tip if the driver and car were good, but that is at the end of the trip.

Pre-tipping is sort of like walking into a restaurant, and tipping a waitress before you are seated and served. If you do not pre-tip, you may or may not get a table, and the service might be crap.

I can see your point about pre-tipping and in most cases I would agree. However, if it serves my purpose in securing me a Grab Taxi I don't have a problem with. If ride is a bad experience, I can always refuse to pay the tip or lower it as I see appropriate. (May have to put on my Jetsen shoes and scram, however.)

I'm still a little confused as to why no takers for my run.

[elliottm]

Yeah, I use it.

Can you share any details? How many time have you used it? In which general areas? How does the driver know where/how to find you?

Is there any additional fee, like the 20 baht fee for radio-dispatched taxis, for using GrabTaxi?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.grabtaxi.passenger

I guess Uber just launched here in Bangkok as well, but maybe just over the past day or two so maybe not a lot of user experiences so far?

I've used it six times I think. General areas were Sathorn to Sukhumvit areas.

It works like this- you put in your location (you've got a chose of two location finders to go through- default is Foursquare which works well, or you can use google maps, plus there's options to use locations you've been to before. You can also favourite locations.) Then you choose where you're going.

A map shows marking where different taxis that have GrabTaxi installed are. I just tried it now (you can set up a taxi route and check it out- but it won't call a taxi until you hit the final confirm button so you can mess around with it if you want before, which is nice). Anyway- right now it's telling me there's 53 driver nearby. Looking at the map some are about five or ten minutes away, some are further.

You hit book now and it gives you a ten second countdown timer to change your mind. You can skip that if you want, if you're sure.

Then it sends out messages to all the drivers and you want for a confirmation (in my experience that's taken under a minute usually). Taxi drivers tend to call you just to double check but that doesn't always happen. I prefer when it doesn't- the taxi has a GPS anyway showing your location.

You can then follow the taxi's progress to your location on the map in the app, which will inform when the taxi has arrived. And, yes, there's a 25 baht surcharge.

It's free to download anyway and you can muck around with it and try it out without hitting that final confirm button. The last taxi driver I had was quite interested in how often I'd used it and how many other people I know used it. He seemed to think it was a good idea- took a lot of the hassle out of finding condos and arranging pick-ups.

I did try out Easy Taxi but it's got a much less accurate map facility- I couldn't get it to actually choose my location, just the soi I was on- which wasn't much help. The great thing about GrabTaxi is that I've yet to find somewhere which isn't on FourSquare (and if it wasn't I reckon it'd be on Google Maps) so I can pull up my condo building, pull up my friend's condo building, and be in a taxi on my way in a short space of time. Wasn't able to do that with Easy Taxi.

So yeah... I think it's great. One of the hassles of Bangkok has been finding a good, reliable taxi call-out firm. With GrabTaxi there's no confusion over where you are or where you're going because both you and the driver are working from the same map.

Bloody hell, I sound like a GrabTaxi evangelist. I'm not- but I will say it's well designed, and it works.

Thanks for this feedback

[elliottm]

Unless you live in a really isolated place it's always easier just to get on street and flag one down.

• Have you tired to flag down a cab in a "soi maze" in the middle of BKK?
• Have you tired to direct a cab driver over the phone to a specific spot in a "soi maze" in the middle of BKK?

There are always motos lurking at the corners of these "soi mazes" that take you to the nearest thanon for 10 baht. How did people survive before smartphones?

Sounds like a farang price, should be 5bt max.

[hawker9000]

Any updates? Uber seems wildly overpriced for routine/sgl rider transportation. Regularly hailed taxis more & more refusing to use the meter. 'Plan to give Grab Taxi a try.

[YeahSiam]

GrabTaxi works very

well especially if you

speak Thai. The app

now offers GrabBike

and GrabCar which

are both cheaper.

[SoiBiker]

Uber wildly overpriced? UberX costs around the same as a taxi.

[hawker9000]

Could get no takers on Grab Taxi - tried offering tips. Gave up. Finally had to agree to a hailed taxi for a fixed fee (none willing to use the meter - NONE!!!).

Raise taxi rates?? Bah! They simply won't play by the rules any more.

[farang1979]

Yeah used it very useful app. You only need basic Thai to confirm your address. Good if you live away from main road or taxi pick up point.

[Aussieroaming]

We use it a lot...occasionally nobody accepts the destination but normally pretty reliable.

[ricklev]

UberX is by far the best service available. I think that anybody that actually uses it understands. Almost always normal people driving decent cars at slightly lower than taxi prices.

I would be happy to pay extra just for the quality and decency of the drivers. But I don't have to!

It's not a 100 percent. It's maybe 99 percent normal and that's a hell of a lot better odds than any other option.

[impulse]

I hope Uber works out, because I would be happy to have the option of a higher quality experience even at a higher price.

My apologies, but I had to chuckle at your sentence.

I can just imagine the same hopeful anticipation when 4 wheel taxis first came to Bangkok... No more nasty Tuk-Tuks. We'll have clean cars with air conditioning, seat belts, safety and licensed, polite drivers!

Almost 60 years on the planet, the last 15 years in Asia, and I'm convinced there isn't a program out there that can't be goobered up when there's money involved and cops that look the other way. Years ago, this stuck in my mind (About China. I wish I could claim it):

First come the innovators, then the imitators, and then the idiots.

My guess, Uber's between the innovators and the imitators. When the idiots figure out how to game the system, we'll be having thread after thread about those darn Uber enabled thieves.

(BTW, I have no clue whether Tuk Tuks came before or after 4 wheel taxis)

[impulse]

I hope Uber works out, because I would be happy to have the option of a higher quality experience even at a higher price.

My apologies in advance, but I had to chuckle at your sentence there.

I can just imagine the same hopeful anticipation when 4 wheel taxis first came to Bangkok... No more nasty Tuk-Tuks. We'll have clean cars with air conditioning, seat belts, safety and licensed, polite drivers! And no more getting screwed because they'll all have meters.

Almost 60 years on the planet, the last 15 years in Asia, and I'm convinced there isn't a program out there that can't be goobered up when there's money involved and cops that look the other way. Years ago, this stuck in my mind (About China. I wish I could claim it):

First come the innovators, then the imitators, and then the idiots.

My guess, Uber's between the innovators and the imitators. When the idiots figure out how to game the system, we'll be having thread after thread about those darn Uber enabled thieves.

(BTW, I have no clue whether Tuk Tuks came before or after 4 wheel taxis)

[ricklev]

In fact, Uber and UberX have worked out much better then expected. It seems unlikely they will devolve into something corrupt but I remain hopeful.

Grabtaxi is a distant second and I've used it many times.

I use Uber at least 10 times a week and I'm a critical consumer.

[impulse]

I hope you're right, but give it a year or two.

The idiots are slow on the uptake, but they make up for it by being impossible to get rid of once they have figured how to game the system(s)...