Lite Beer Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 GrabTaxi Beta is now live in Phuket Tanyaluk Sakoot Vee Charununsiri, Deputy General Manager, GrapTaxi Thailand and Phuket Governor Nisit Chansomwong at this morning's launch. PHUKET: It was announced this morning (July 24) that GrabTaxi Beta is now fully active in Phuket. The launch of the smart phone application was officially announced at a press conference held at the Phuket Merlin Hotel this morning. More than 100 metered taxi drivers were in attendance at the seminar organised by the Provincial Land Transport Office (PLTO) to advise in the apps use.Speaking to the drivers at the launch seminar, Phuket Governor Nisit Chansomwong said, “Today I want all of you to understand that this new application will give you more choice for income.“You do not have to believe me, just think and decided for yourself.“At this time you have to accept that this system is now available and this will make it easier and safer for people in Phuket to find a taxi.“I do not want to force you to sign up to use the service, but you should consider it.“This application will not only serve tourists, it will also serve local people and it will help to increase your income,” he said.“However, here there are different groups and i donʼt want you to fight with each other,” he added amusingly.“Please explain to your taxi friends in a positive way. It doesn't matter who will win or lose income, the safety of our tourists must come first,” he concluded.Meanwhile in the launch event, Vee Charununsiri, Deputy General Manager, GrabTaxi Thailand said, “Thank you for this opportunity in Phuket. GrabTaxi is an opportunity to make the islandʼs taxi service more safe as passengers will know all the details of the taxi and its driver.“There are now 10,000 users in Bangkok but there are fewer taxis in Phuket. There are 10 calls per second on GrabTaxi in Bangkok. All that the drivers have to pay to us is B30 per ride.“We are only using metered taxis to begin with, others will be considered later.“Everything will be by meter using our service and to use our our application all drivers need to put on their meters.“This application is so easy for drivers to use and they can check all details on their smart phone. In addition, we also offer GrabLife insurance to all drivers who use the application as a benefit,” he said.Teerayut Prasertpol, Chief the Provincial Land Transport Office (PLTO) added, “The GrabTaxi application was considered for Phuket because they only accept meter taxis and black plate taxis cannot use it.“Green plate taxis are not currently able to use the app because they use different rates,” he said.Download GrabTaxi from an app store now.Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/grabtaxi-is-now-live-in-phuket-53344.php -- Phuket News 2015-07-24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kannikapor88 Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Wonder how the taxi-mafia is gonna react to that ... Have seen the violence they are ready to use before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlehead Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Sounds great. I'd keep the army on hand though in case it doesn't quite go as smooth as they expect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falkan Posted July 24, 2015 Share Posted July 24, 2015 Phuket Meter.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterphil Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 GrabTaxi is not as good as they make it out to be. The drivers only go where they want to go. If i try to book a GrabTaxi from Pattaya to home in Na-Jomtiem none of them will take me. Even if theres 20 taxis available in the area. They just want to stay in Pattaya and do short trips around town. I flagged a taxi meter down before. Once in the taxi the driver refused to take me all the way home and dropped me off on Thepprasit Road. I had to get a motorbike taxi from there. Taxi meter 250 baht Motorbike taxi 200 baht 450 baht from Pattaya to Na-Jomtien. Its only 800 baht from Pattaya to Suvarnaphumi airport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetsetBkk Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I saw a group of "pretties" (girls), all dressed up in uniforms, holding "Grab Taxi" placards near one end of Thalang Road in Phuket Town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dageurreotype Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Wonder how the taxi-mafia is gonna react to that ... Have seen the violence they are ready to use before ' we also offer GrabLife insurance to all drivers who use the application as a benefit,” he said.' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkeyrobot Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 About time when the drivers realise they will make more money than just sitting around charging inflated prices they will come on board. I use them all the time in Bkk and Pattaya never a problem. It will be interesting to see how the illegal taxies will complain about the registered legal taxis with meters. But then again this is Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lokie Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 I never knew there was a problem finding a taxi in Phuket? Just the Rip Off prices and knowledge that what ever you do, do not get in any altercation what so ever with this gang of Shysters as it will ruin your day/evening. Take it these Grab Taxi's have some sort of 'Klingon Cloaking device' which will enable them drive in undetected to go pick up punters from some of the high end hotels where the Taxi association boys lay seige to park up outside/across the road from... can not see how it will work on a closed shop island unless of course fares are set by the associations...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NamKangMan Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 "Grab Taxi Beta is now live in Phuket" - this is a totally misleading statement. NOTHING "lives" that benefits ANYONE requiring public transport on Phuket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siam2007 Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 GrabTaxi is not as good as they make it out to be. The drivers only go where they want to go. If i try to book a GrabTaxi from Pattaya to home in Na-Jomtiem none of them will take me. Even if theres 20 taxis available in the area. They just want to stay in Pattaya and do short trips around town. I flagged a taxi meter down before. Once in the taxi the driver refused to take me all the way home and dropped me off on Thepprasit Road. I had to get a motorbike taxi from there. Taxi meter 250 baht Motorbike taxi 200 baht 450 baht from Pattaya to Na-Jomtien. Its only 800 baht from Pattaya to Suvarnaphumi airport. GrabTaxi is absolutely great, as long as you have honest drivers who adhere to the rules and system. It is highly successful in Bangkok, and in Kuala Lumpur, where it all started a few years ago (they operate under the name MyTeksi there, when I first used it in 2012 or so, it was like a surreal experience to enter a Cab in KL and the driver would just switch on the Meter and not say a word). In Kl it was virtually impossible to get a Cab using the Meter ten years ago, GrabTaxi changed everything. Nothing but good experiences, and even many Indian drivers in KL, who were and are infamous for their extortionate behaviour, use Grabtaxi/MyTEksi now and will switch on the Meter with not starting any fare negotiation whatsoever. Used it again in KL last week. In Bangkok I only used it once, because where I live there are plenty of decent Cabbies waiting at the entrance door to our housing estate 24 hrs a day, and in downtown I prefer BTS/MRT anyway. It did not work in Pattaya - as I predicted - due to the attitude of the drivers, and for the same reason, it will not work in Phuket either. Which has nothing to do with the actual APP, but rather with the greediness of the Cabbies there. Good luck finding a Phuket GRABTAXI using the Meter. I wanna learn about the experiences made, pls post it here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterphil Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 GrabTaxi is not as good as they make it out to be. The drivers only go where they want to go. If i try to book a GrabTaxi from Pattaya to home in Na-Jomtiem none of them will take me. Even if theres 20 taxis available in the area. They just want to stay in Pattaya and do short trips around town. I flagged a taxi meter down before. Once in the taxi the driver refused to take me all the way home and dropped me off on Thepprasit Road. I had to get a motorbike taxi from there. Taxi meter 250 baht Motorbike taxi 200 baht 450 baht from Pattaya to Na-Jomtien. Its only 800 baht from Pattaya to Suvarnaphumi airport. GrabTaxi is absolutely great, as long as you have honest drivers who adhere to the rules and system. It is highly successful in Bangkok, and in Kuala Lumpur, where it all started a few years ago (they operate under the name MyTeksi there, when I first used it in 2012 or so, it was like a surreal experience to enter a Cab in KL and the driver would just switch on the Meter and not say a word). In Kl it was virtually impossible to get a Cab using the Meter ten years ago, GrabTaxi changed everything. Nothing but good experiences, and even many Indian drivers in KL, who were and are infamous for their extortionate behaviour, use Grabtaxi/MyTEksi now and will switch on the Meter with not starting any fare negotiation whatsoever. Used it again in KL last week. In Bangkok I only used it once, because where I live there are plenty of decent Cabbies waiting at the entrance door to our housing estate 24 hrs a day, and in downtown I prefer BTS/MRT anyway. It did not work in Pattaya - as I predicted - due to the attitude of the drivers, and for the same reason, it will not work in Phuket either. Which has nothing to do with the actual APP, but rather with the greediness of the Cabbies there. Good luck finding a Phuket GRABTAXI using the Meter. I wanna learn about the experiences made, pls post it here. Its not great at all. In fact its shit in Pattaya and Ive deleted the App from my phone now because of the bad service. I had the same bad experience with it in Singapore too. Same shit, Taxi drivers available but only wanting to go around the city centre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenl Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 So how does the app work? I presumed give your location and destination and they come and collect, but looking at the above comments that can't be the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenl Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 "Grab Taxi Beta is now live in Phuket" - this is a totally misleading statement. NOTHING "lives" that benefits ANYONE requiring public transport on Phuket. So you're saying they're not coming to collect you at your location for meter taxi prices? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Big Mango Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 (edited) Well i downloaded the app and tried to book a taxi yday It picked up my location correctly ( bar on viset road rawai ) put my end destination in as Thalang. Approximate price quoted as 350-550thb . Availiable taxis 0. And that was for around an hour of confirming the trip. Load of crap , and for the quoted price of 350 to 550 think better to take that with a huge dose of salt. Edited July 26, 2015 by The Big Mango Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NamKangMan Posted July 26, 2015 Share Posted July 26, 2015 (edited) "Grab Taxi Beta is now live in Phuket" - this is a totally misleading statement. NOTHING "lives" that benefits ANYONE requiring public transport on Phuket. So you're saying they're not coming to collect you at your location for meter taxi prices? I'm saying, ANYTHING that benefits the consumer, in relation to public transport on Phuket, is killed off, therefore, does not "live." Edited July 26, 2015 by NamKangMan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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