11/17/2015

Highway robbery in Sin City


The entrance of Uber and Grabtaxi was supposed to bring in more competition to the local taxi industry and the immediate benefits taxi users are thinking off must be cheaper and better service. With more players on the road, these must be the case. After all the operating cost of these new players are very much cheaper than the traditional taxis.

There was this user who took a taxi at peak hours and hit by price surge. In the 27 minute trip, she paid $169! This is as good as a budget air ticket to Kuala Lumpur that is 500km away.  How could this happen? Sure it can happen and Uber explained how it works. The service has different rates for different level of services. The base rate or cheapest rate could be as cheap as the traditional taxi fare at $18 for a similar trip.

Taxi users better get use to this kind of cost for taking taxis. We are not the most expensive city in the world for nothing. The only think lacking behind is our taxi fares which is still very cheap compares to New York, Paris and London or other big cities. And many khongcums have been cheaping and cheaping and telling everyone our fares can go up higher to keep pace with the big cities. Cheap, cheap, cheap will soon be no more.

We are starting to see highway robberies on our roads when innocent taxi users could have their wallet emptied, legally.
 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...


The govt is looking at it.

HOpe any new policies introduced WILL benefit and fair to commuters
not just level playing field for the companies.

Cheers.

jjgg said...

" we are starting to see highway robbery on our roads..."... And what do you call the ERP system? More n more gantries going up..pricing increased at their whims and fancies...promises of clear roads n blue skies that never materialised.. Endless amount of road digging n re digging cos of the stupid policy of only doing underground cabling ..all this efficiency meh? At least with uber u have a choice.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

When I travel, I always use Über, as well as Grab Car/Taxi when in Singapore/Malaysia. Reason: much better service, cleaner vehicles, polite drivers and most of the time the vehicle's booked arrive FASTER than waiting for a taxi.

>> Highway robbery in Sin City <<

Über is CRYSTAL CLEAR about its surge pricing policy. BTW it is only ROBBERY if the party which is paying is doing it under threat. No one "forces" you to take Uber and pay the surge prices. You have YOUR RIGHT to not take Uber. So the use of the word "robbery" is not only WRONG but an outright LIE. (which is typical of redbean who is an inveterate LIAR, and has displayed his 'talent" on many occasions)

Disruptive technology strikes again!

Got creative disruption?

Anonymous said...

Only highway robbery in Sin meh.

Daylight robberies on highways, at hawker, shopping, tuition centres and even essential goods and services.

What about ERP when vehicle owners
had paid COE and Road Tax ?
True highway robbery ?