Comparative Analysis of Uber, Grab, Hello & Oway versus a Normal Taxi i.e. the traditional taxi that you can find along the street and who are not Uber, Grab, Hello or Oway driver.
Our methodology is very simple. 4 of our staff go for lunch together – they each take an Uber, Grab, Hello & Oway cab separately from Point A to Point B using their mobile app at about the same time.
Date: 2 June 2017
Time: around 12.19 pm
Pickup Point: Junction Mawtin (Point A)
Destination: Myanmar Plaza (Point B)
Distance: 8.3 km (according to Google Map)
Google Map Trip Planner
You can see some of the screen shots below from Uber and Grab. Despite the many normal taxis waiting just outside Junction Mawtin our staff called an Uber, Grab, Hello & Oway each respectively via their mobile app. After lunch our staff took a normal taxi together that they found just outside Myanmar Plaza and came back to Junction Mawtin in one car.
Our staff recorded the waiting time, in-vehicle time and the taxi fare when they hailed the taxi from the taxi hailing apos. Similarly when they took the normal taxi back to Junction Mawtin together they recorded the waiting time, in-vehicle time and the taxi fare as well.
Screen shot from Grab & Uber
See Chart A below. Our findings is that Uber was the fastest in response time as it only takes 4 minutes of waiting time to get an Uber taxi at Junction Mawtin. This is followed by Grab, Hello & Oway at 6,10 & 14 minutes respectively.
In terms of travel time it is between 30 to 40 minutes as it is dependent on the traffic at that time of the day.
See Chart B below. In terms of taxi fare Uber was the most expensive at Ks 4,700 followed next by Grab, Hello & Oway at Ks 4,400, Ks 4,200 & Ks 4,000 respectively.
Our conclusion is that currently as Yangon City is flooded with normal taxis especially at major shopping malls – it is faster to just hail a normal taxi from the kerb as there is an abundance of taxis just waiting outside major shopping malls. The 2 minutes it take my staff to hail a normal taxi from outside Myanmar Plaza was because they were bargaining for the best price!
We are surprised that both Uber and Grab are not aggressively subsidizing their ride as I would expect them to aggressively subsidize the ride at the initial stage to buy market share..
We will be doing the same measurement test again next week when our staff go for their lunch and we will keep you posted on our findings.
If you want to be informed when we post our measurement result each week – just fill up the subscription form below and we will send you an email as soon as we post the result on our website.
To learn more about the challenge the Uber and Grab will face in the Myanmar market go to https://consult-myanmar.com/2017/08/14/the-road-to-taxi-reform-can-ride-hailing-apps-help-fix-the-market/
