First Grab Car Experience

My friend was in need of a taxi. I usually walk all the way to the taxi waiting area and this can take from five to ten minutes. But today, I decided to finally give the Grab Taxi app a try. After indicating my starting point and my destination, and seeing that the trip would cost somewhere between 120 and 200 pesos, the app started getting in touch with potential taxi drivers. Unfortunately, no driver was responding. The app suggested I try the Grab Car option instead.

I was curious on how much the Grab Car version would cost, since private cars don't have a meter. Within seconds, we already had a Grab Car driver responding to our request for service. The app even showed the driver's picture and the car's license plate, as well as the estimated time it would take for him to get to our position. It was nice to see his car progressing towards our location on the app's map.

And soon enough, we were getting a text message from the driver that he was already on our street. He overshot our location, but after seeing us waving frantically, he made a u-turn and drove back. My friend said that the driver was very cordial. And at the end of the trip, he was paid 200 pesos.

I must say that I am pleased with this first time experience with a ride sharing service. I hope that others will have the same experience I had.

Traditional taxi services have to learn to adopt with changing technology. There have already been services in the past where you could call a certain telephone number in order to book a ride. When mobile phones came out, I know of customers developed a connection with certain taxi drivers so that they could be the same driver to pick up the customer and bring her to work. Having a convenient way to connect with the customer is key, and even with ride sharing apps prevalent, I can see a taxi driver with a wide network of customers still surviving and earning money.

And private car owners shouldn't be quick to jump in the band wagon of ride sharing entrepreneurs. The government is now keenly looking for ways to tax these services. They are also making stricter measures to ensure the safety of customers such as having a real-time camera monitoring the entire ride, and perhaps, constant location tracking for all drivers by the government, not just the ride sharing company. As the government comes up with more and more hoops and hurdles, entrepreneurs might see their profit margins start to dwindle. And the subsidies provided as incentives for early adopters will not always be present.

Perhaps the biggest winner in this new environment is the ride sharing operator (Grab Taxi, Uber). In the past, you had to own your own fleet in order to have a taxi business, and that meant buying your own cars, and making sure that these are operated and maintained well. You also had to make sure you had drivers to handle these cars. Now, they have passed on the risk to car-owner entrepreneurs. The car owner now worries about the maintenance cost, the loss of income when the car has to be repaired, or if the driver is unavailable. If the car is wrecked, the ride sharing operator can simply look for a new car-owner who is interested in joining their fleet. I think that wanna-be ride sharing entrepreneurs have to weigh this matter carefully, before entering the ride sharing business.