In light of the recent protests that KL taxi drivers are having now against Uber, I decided to write this from the point of view of someone who sometimes uses both services.
Just a few years ago KL was listed as one city that had among the 10 worst taxis in the world. As a local it’s hard to defend that. Taking a taxi is a painful experience and here’s why:
1) You have to haggle like a fishmonger for every ride you take.
Every time you go up to a cab there is constant haggling. You tell them where you want to go and you get thrown some high round number. Like RM30 (if you’re local)… or RM50 (if you look like a tourist). And then you have to haggle.
2) No matter how much you haggle you still overpay
Then you haggle all the way from RM30 to RM15. That’s a number you can probably live with and you accept it because you’re desperate. But you know even then you’re still overpaying. You know that if they had gone by meter, the ride would probably cost you less than RM10 instead. Nobody likes to feel cheated.
3) The condition of our taxis
As the article above rightfully said, many taxis in KL are old and in poor condition.
4) Drivers are picky with where they go. They don’t often want to go anywhere that has traffic.
That’s basically EVERYWHERE in KL especially during peak hours. It’s amazing how difficult it is to get a cab during peak hours. Not because there aren’t any but because they often refuse to travel to a certain destination during peak hours. Meanwhile the rest of us that need to get somewhere (and can’t help that it’s during peak hours) are stuck with few other options.
5) Safety
When it comes to safety I think our local taxis suffer from a rather negative perception because of high profile cases like this.
Enter MyTeksi
There are many taxi apps in KL (Easytaxi, Taximonger etc etc) but I’m gonna talk about MyTeksi here because it’s widely used.
I really like MyTeksi because they solved a real world problem for many of us KL people and they did it very vey effectively (making them in my opinion one of the most successful tech companies in the region). They effectively solved problem 1) and 2) above which is a huge part of the pains of taking a taxi in KL.
I don’t know any of the founders or owners of MyTeksi but I became an advocate for them. Every time a friend of mine from overseas came into town I got them to download MyTeksi and they all loved it.
Then came Uber
When Uber first came in I was impressed. What impressed me wasn’t really the app itself because I thought MyTeksi is already a really well made app. What impressed me was the service and of course the comfort of the newer and well taken care of Uber cars. Plus it charges everything to your credit card automatically so it’s a cashless system. No need to ruffle your pockets for change.
But here’s another thing that matters much more than comfort and convenience and that’s reliability. While MyTeksi solved the problem of haggling with taxis, another problem persisted and that’s problem number 4. Taxi drivers are picky about where they pickup customers and where they send them.
The past few times I have tried to get a taxi from MyTeksi I have failed. Sometimes even with an RM5 tip I don’t get any cars. Or sometimes I do get assigned a driver but the driver calls me 5 minutes later and tells me to cancel my booking because it’s too jam and he doesn’t want to come to where I am.
The thing I’m wondering is… if it’s too far for you why did you agree to it in the first place? Now I have to go through the whole process again of trying to put out another cab.
Uber totally solves this problem. When an Uber driver is coming.. he comes no matter what. It doesn’t matter if there’s heavy traffic, or if there’s an Alien Invasion and they blow a crater on Jalan Sultan Ismail… he will come.
But still… all these benefits of Uber have one downside. It comes with a price. It’s a lot more expensive than a regular taxi.
But then came UberX
The budget version of Uber that fetches you around in Toyotas or Nissans or Myvis and can cost you as much as half of what a regular taxi will cost you but has all the other benefits above from the good service to the everything else.
Why would anyone take a taxi now? I know I haven’t. I’ve seen been active on using UberX whenever I had to. So when I saw taxi drivers protesting about Uber and how it doesn’t follow regulations and all it baffled me. It baffled me because many of our local taxi drivers aren’t exactly known for following regulations. Look at how many of them refuse to use a meter?
Now I know not all taxi drivers are bad. I have met good ones who use meter without asking and I often give these ones a tip because I appreciate not being swindled in a city where it’s almost acceptable to not go by meter. After all, taxis are a service industry and in service industries it’s not all about price. People often don’t mind paying for good service.
So yes there are good taxi drivers. But the bad ones just really take the cake and I hope that Uber does bring one thing:
That the bad taxi drivers will know that people have options now and then perhaps… perhaps they will change their service levels. With that.. maybe one day KL taxis will be known as one of the best 10 in the world. In that world MyTeksi will prosper and taxi drivers in KL won’t have to worry about Uber.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space