Since June 2014, local and foreign passengers in Ho Chi Minh City have enjoyed the luxury and convenience of Uber, an American taxi service that offers expensive vehicles, which gives passengers the feeling of riding in their own lavish cars.
It only takes a few swipes on a smartphone for clients to start up their Uber app, pick a car, and select the location where they wish to be picked up.
The app instantly tells them that a car with a specified license plate will arrive in 10-15 minutes. A photo of the driver is also provided.
All a client has to do now is wait for the car to arrive. They can also track the car on their phone.
Uber cars have no markings on the outside to show that they are rented.
Though the service is new in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest metropolis, it has become quite popular in more than 150 major cities around the world since 2010.
Uber, which is based in San Francisco, was launched in 2009 and offers a mobile app connecting passengers and its cars.
The company has faced significant resistance from regulators in America and Europe, as well as protests from taxi operators, who claim the service is unfair competition and fails to meet the standards set for such services.
Uber operates in 36 countries in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia.
A.M., an Uber driver in Ho Chi Minh City, said that he had worked for a large taxi company, but quit after three months and switched to the newcomer two weeks ago.
He drives his car from 2:00 am to 6:00 am, and returns it to the company for another driver’s shift.
Each car is equipped with an iPhone, attached to the windshield, so that drivers can receive messages from clients, road directions, and calculate fares.
The fares are relatively low, compared to those offered by local taxi operators.
The minimum price is VND5,000 (US$0.24), plus VND600 per minute and VND10,000 per kilometer.
VND5,000 will be charged if a person cancels their ordered car, but are not charged if the cancellation is made within five minutes of ordering.
Some rates for reference are as follows: VND14,216 ($0.7) from Nguyen Hue Street to Ben Thanh Market in District 1; VND98,000 ($4.61) from Notre Dame Cathedral in District 1 to Phu My Hung in District 7; and VND115,000 from Diamond Plaza in District 1 to Riverside Apartment in District 2′s Thao Dien area.
One limit to the use of Uber services in Vietnam’s cash-preferring market is that fares are debited from clients’ credit cards, while cash is not accepted.
As soon as the car stops and the driver swipes on the iPhone to mark the end of the journey, an email with a bill and detailed record of the trip is sent to the clients’ phone.
Phan Thi Thu Trang, an office worker, uses the service almost every day to commute from home in District 7 to work in central District 1, which costs her VND100,000, some VND40,000 cheaper than with a normal taxi service.
Similarly, her cousin pays VND140,000 from downtown District 1 to No Trang Long Street in Binh Thanh District, a saving of roughly VND40,000 compared to taxi services.
According to Alan Jiang, CEO of Uber Vietnam, the company made its way to Singapore – its first destination in Asia – in February 2013, and to Ho Chi Minh City – its 19th Asian destination – in June 2014.
Quite a large number of cars, even luxury vehicles, are rarely used here, while their value keeps falling.
Uber thus makes agreements with car owners to make use of their idle time and tap into urban residents’ growing taste for lavish, trendy experiences when riding in the cars.
The American firm has signed contracts with car leasing companies throughout the city, and offers a wide range of brands including Toyota Innova, Toyota Fortuner, Mercedes-Benz E-class, and BMW 5-series, Jiang added.
His company receives some 20 percent of the bill, with the car leasing companies pocketing the rest.
Uber cars all use GPS, and they also offer several, including monitoring the journey and returning luggage in case anything is left in a car.
Ta Long Hy, CEO of Vinasun, a major Vietnamese taxi operator, and chair of the Ho Chi Minh City Taxi Association, says there has not been any sort of protest from local taxi drivers or other association members, as Uber’s activity has not really affected their business.
Uber’s lower fares may be the result of promotional campaigns as a newcomer to the Vietnamese market.
In addition, Uber mostly uses non-business, individually-owned cars, and thus cuts costs considerably, Hy explained.
| Taxi world in your hand Taxi-hailing apps, including GrabTaxi, Easy Taxi, Tappxi and myTaxiControl, are racing to lure clients in Vietnam. Taxi locater and booking apps allow people to find the nearest available cabs and arrange a ride with a driver based on information regarding the distance and fare calculated by software, thanks to GPS technology. The whole trip will then be constantly updated in real time via Google Maps on the app, erasing the fear of customers that they will be cheated by the drivers on longer routes. Taxi drivers also say they benefit from the apps, as they know where their customers are and do not have to worry about having them ‘stolen’ by other cabbies. Some drivers also say that with the apps, they have received more passengers than they did previously. |
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