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: 9 June 2017
Time: around 1 pm
Pickup Point: Junction 8 (Point A)
Destination: Junction Mawtin (Point B)
Distance: 11 km (according to Google Map)
Google Map Trip Planner
Our staff took a cab together from our office in Lanmadaw Township to Junction 8. Had lunch there. After lunch despite the many normal taxis waiting just outside Junction 8 (see pix below) our staff called an Uber, Grab, Hello & Oway each respectively via their mobile app.
Our staff recorded the waiting time, in-vehicle time and the taxi fare when they hailed the taxi from the taxi hailing apps. Similarly when they took the normal taxi to Junction 8 together they recorded the waiting time, in-vehicle time and the taxi fare as well.
Screen shots from Grab, Hello & Oway
See Chart A below. Our finding is that Oway is the fastest in response time as it only takes 3 minutes of waiting time to get an Oway taxi at Junction 8. This is followed next by Grab, Uber and Hello at 7,8 & 9 minutes respectively. However the overall response time of all 4 taxi companies have improved dramatically as the longest response time now is 9 minutes (Hello) versus 14 minutes (Oway) from last week’s measurement.
We had to cancel Grab booking the first time since we don’t know the driver’s where about and cannot communicate with him, but the second Grab driver arrived shortly in 3 minutes to the requested place. {Grab’s management should take note that ability to communicate with driver is very important especially if the driver is going to be late!}
In terms of travel time it is between 29 to 35 minutes as it is dependent on the traffic at that time of the day – so this is not differentiating.
See Chart B below. In terms of taxi fare Uber is again the most expensive at Ks 5,300 followed next by Grab, Hello & Oway at Ks 5,000, Ks 4,600 & Ks 4,600 respectively.
Our conclusion is :
- Oway has made the most improvements this week as their response time was the fastest at 3 minutes and their taxi fare for the trip was one of the cheapest at Ks 4,600 (a tie with Hello).Uber & Grab are in no man’s land at the moment as they are neither the fastest in terms of response time and yet they are more expensive than both Hello & Oway by Ks 700 (+15%) and Ks 400 (+8.6%) for Uber and Grab respectively. With normal taxis cheaply available at Ks 4,500 outside Junction 8 – I am not sure what their value proposition are?.
- The number of taxis that are shown to be cruising around you on the screen of your mobile phone is not relevant as it has nothing to do with how quickly the taxi will appear in front of you after you press the booking button on your apps! The standard that was set by Uber for response time is 3 minutes . As of today’s measurement only Oway met that acid test and the screen showed that there was only 1 Oway taxi cruising around versus 4 for both Grab and Hello!
We will be doing the same measurement test again next week when we 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/
