Over the past few months, the transportation industry around in Southeast Asia has seen quite a few innovation: notably by GrabTaxi (also known as Myteksi in Malaysia) and Uber.
Originally launched in Malaysia, MyTeksi / GrabTaxi is a simple taxi booking app where you can enter your pick up location and request for taxis to pick you up. The added convenience of the taxi booking app is that you can have a live view of where your taxi is. The app also allows you to check your taxi booking history as well as rate your experience with your taxi driver.
Uber on the other hand, is a on-demand private chauffeur app that allows you to flag down a premium ride at your pick up location. It also has a cheaper UberX option for customers looking for a cheaper alternative than the luxurious Uber rides.
But exactly how cheap is “cheaper”?
Well apparently, “insanely” cheap, according to a recent happy customer Timothy Tiah, also the co-founder of Nuffnang.
According to his personal blog entry on Dayre, while regular taxis estimated that the rate of his ride would be between RM5 to RM8, he ended up paying less than RM3 while using UberX.
Here’s part of his blog entry taken from his Dayre account:
For UberX, The base fare starts at RM1.50 and for every kilometre, it charges RM0.55 and RM0.20 for every minute. The Malay Mail Online also did a fare comparison for UberX and found that it is the cheapest option to get around in Kuala Lumpur:
UberX officially launched in Malaysia early last week, and its vehicles for Kuala Lumpur will include Perodua Myvi, Nissan Almera and Toyota Vios in a variety of colors and styles, seating up to four passengers. To use UberX, users simply have to download the Uber app onto an Android or Apple smartphone, complete the free registration process with a credit/debit card, swipe and select UberX in the Uber app.