Motor-taxis (xe om) fake GrabBike to lure customers
Ever since the inception of GrabBike, a ride-hailing service using motorcycles in Vietnam conventional motor-taxis (xe om) are seeing the customer base shrinking.
Unable to compete, motor-taxi drivers choose to disguise as GrabBikers to take over the passengers.Nguyen Van Dan, a motor-taxi driver from Ha Dong said: “In the old times, I started my day at 6 a.m at Giap Bap bus terminal. Usually, I got around 15 to 20 customers asking for both short- and long-distance rides per day and earned a daily income of 300,000 to 500,000 VND (15 to 20 USD). During Tet holidays, I was able to make one million VND (45 USD) per day. However, since the day GrabBike has been on the scene, I have to start my work at 4 a.m. Still, my daily income is only around 100 to 200,000 VND (5 to 10 USD) per day. In some bad days, I can only earn a few tens VND.”
Fake GrabBikers hustled and pestered passengers in bus stations.
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After skirmishes and unsuccessful attempts to get customers, more and more motor-taxi drivers have chosen to “dress up” as GrabBike. Pretending to be a customer, a correspondent was told by a motor-taxi driver: “I disguise as a GrabBike driver, so if I get customers, I earn money. However, if I fail to please any passenger, he would think of me as GrabBike driver. If he hates Grab, he might return to the conventional motorbike taxis.”
In Giap Bat bus terminal, reporter witnessed a handful of motorcycle taxis in the uniform of GrabBike hustled and pestered passengers instead waiting for booking through the app. These motorcycle taxis called themselves GrabBiker when inviting passengers. Some explained: “Waiting for the call center is forever, so I just invite passenger to ride when not serving app order. In this way, I have additional income and do not have to pay fee for the call center”.
Nguyen Van Thanh, a passenger from Ha Nam province said: ”It is doubtful to hear this. Grab and Uber do not have call center, as passengers book their trips through the app.”
However, there are many people still believe what they said and choose the “fake” GrabBike. Usually, passengers are charged with double or triple the fee for the same trip booked through app. Eventually, they have to pay for the excessive fee with frustration or anger. Some want to complain to Grab but do not know who the GrabBiker was, only then they find out they were using “fake” GrabBike service. .
A majority of fake GrabBike are middle aged men, and although wearing the uniform and helmet of GrabBike, they have no knowledge about the company. In order to prove himself to be a “real deal”, one fake GrabBiker at Giap Bat terminal showed his old smartphone with the Grab app installed. However, he did not know how to use this app, and only when being confronted about this, he admitted: “Most of us are over 50 years old, hardship forces us to be motorcycle taxis. We do not know how to register with Grab, and it is difficult for us to compete with the GrabBike nowadays”.
According to GrabBike, GrabBikers are not allowed to serve passengers who have not booked the trip through app. l If we find GrabBikers violating our regulations, their accounts will be blocked permanently.
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