Going the extra mile: A taxi driver using the MyTeksi mobile app. MyTeksi is one of the earliest taxi mobile apps in the country.
Uber has created quite a buzz in the taxi industry in Malaysia. What are the other taxi mobile apps like MyTeksi and Easy Taxi doing to stay ahead in the game?
THESE days, taxi driver Cheng Kok Keong makes an extra RM40 daily because he has started using the MyTeksi and Easy Taxi mobile phone apps to get passengers.
That comes up to a much welcomed additional RM1,200 each month.
“The mobile apps save me time from driving around in an empty taxi looking for passengers,” says the personable Cheong who is in his late 50s.
Still, he says, of the 25 passengers he picks up daily, 15 are those who flag down the taxi by the roadside while the other 10 are those who use mobile apps to get a cab.
Yusri, a younger cabbie, says he relies more heavily on the mobile apps to get passengers and they make up 80% of his rides daily.
He believes in a work-and-family life balance and stops driving and heads home to be with the family when he meets his target of RM200 nett income a day. And the mobile apps help him get there faster.
Both Yusri and Cheong used to subscribe to the traditional radio call service offered by taxi companies where would-be passengers would phone the company for a cab and this information would then be radioed back to taxi drivers to find a possible match.
Taxi drivers had to pay RM150 each month to the taxi company for the service.
But with the advent of technology, Yusri and Cheong, like a number of other taxi drivers, have ditched radio call and opted for mobile apps instead.
Recently, there was a hue and cry when the Uber app made its debut here, offering better cars like Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Teana, with professional drivers who speak good English and top-notch service at budget taxi prices.
Understandably, this did not go down well with the regular taxi drivers who accused Uber of trying to undercut and wipe them out.
Authorities here too seem to have a problem with drivers using the Uber app. Describing them as “honourable teksi sapu”, they say these do not have the proper licences and are circumventing the law by using chauffeur-driven rental cars as taxis.
Easy Taxi’s Southeast Asia regional managing director Joon Chan thinks Uber should play by the rules.
He says Easy Taxi also wants to offer premium cars in its app, much like what Uber is doing with its Uber Black cars.
The difference, he notes, is that Easy Taxi wants it done properly, legally and with the approval of the authorities and all the appropriate licences and permits.
“Those guys renting out cars to Uber (partners to use the Uber app with) are my friends and I can ask them anytime ‘Give me a car. I want to do the same thing.’
“I can make it happen. It’s just a phone call away to start the same business.
“But we are here for sustainable business for the long run. And we don’t want to expose ourselves to liability and fights,” he adds.
But with Uber, he says, they just barge into any country, break the law, undercut the regular cab fares, then use social media to drum up public support by spewing “propaganda” that there is a big taxi cartel stopping them from coming into those countries.
“They are here to undercut prices that taxi drivers charge until the competition is gone and then they can charge whatever they like,” argues Chan.
Because of Uber, 80% of the taxi companies in San Francisco are in trouble and 30% have already shut down, Chan says.
And he questions how a Camry, with a higher rental and fuel cost plus a professional driver, using the Uber app is able to price its fare here at roughly the same rate as a regular Proton metered taxi.
“It is clear they are dumping their services here.”
MyTeksi’s global vice-president of Marketing Cheryl Goh, however, is unfazed by the Uber competition and its deep pockets.
She says that in Singapore, only 10% of commuters use a mobile app to get a taxi and she believes the number could be even smaller in Malaysia.
What this means for her is there is plenty of opportunity in the 90% of people who don’t call for taxis or don’t use the mobile app as yet.
“So we are very much focused on that opportunity rather than on the competition,” she says.
MyTeksi is one of the earliest taxi mobile apps in the country and Goh takes great pride on the fact that it is a South-East Asian company and that the founder, management team and development team are Malaysian and South-East Asian.
“We really are a South-East Asian company, so we understand the market best. And we are the champion in this region in terms of numbers and rides.”
She admits there are some features that MyTeksi does not have in its app that the other two taxi apps have, such as going cashless and using a credit card to pay for the ride.
“It is not that we don’t want it but we think there are other things that are more relevant and important to our customers such as security, so we do those things first.”
MyTeksi has a “share-my-ride” feature which allows passengers to share their exact location with friends and family while on the ride.
Drivers on the MyTeksi network are also able to communicate directly with the police to report a crime or theft which gives them a sense of responsibility, Goh says.
“It is not just about making public transport better but cities safer as a whole too. Safety is something that matters a lot in the places that we operate in,” she says.
As for the outcry from the taxi industry over Uber circumventing the law and purportedly running a service illegally, it is a little surprising that Goh comes to the defence of the competitor (Uber).
She believes the service Uber is offering is legal, adding that MyTeksi also offers its app GrabCar, which is “a commercial Uber like service” using premium cars.
Goh says this was launched a few months ago “to keep a pulse in understanding consumers” and to see which segment of the market is interested in it.
“We don’t call them taxis. They are chauffeur-driven cars and considered a limousine service,” she says, adding that rates are about 30% higher than a regular taxi.
However, she notes, “the economics of it is a bit of a struggle” at this point in time and the fee they charge is small.
She says a lot of the noise over Uber is not so much about their use of exclusive or expensive cars but their use of private cars and drivers who do not have a commercial licence.
She believes SPAD (Land Public Transport Commission) is only going after personal cars being used as taxis and not the chauffeured cars which have commercial permits and licensed professional drivers.
“I don’t think SPAD is going to go after the chauffeured cars (on Uber or GrabCar) because these are generally used to ferry CEOs and it will be hard to argue that it is illegal. They would need to amend the legislation to do that.
“At the end of the day, what matters most to society is public safety and protection. The drivers ferrying CEOs are trained and have a very tight medical test and eye test so they don’t pose any threat to public safety,” she says.
Goh seems comfortable with MyTeksi having to compete with Uber.
“Competition is always going to be there because where there is no competition, it would mean operating in a non-lucrative market,” she says.
She points out that in some markets like Singapore, Uber was there before MyTeksi came in.
“We came into Singapore later, yet we are the biggest player there now. Competition is part of any business and you need to manage it like any other part of your business.”
Goh believes competition for MyTeksi is fine but what is needed is a bit more clarity with regard to legislation and regulations.
“We are not afraid of competition. There is no reason to think that we can’t compete because we know this market a lot better. We just need to know what the regulation is so that we can then decide what is the best way to compete.”
On the undercutting of prices by Uber, Goh believes it is temporary and they are doing it because they need to buy market share.
She says the business model Uber is using now with limo drivers and charging the same rates as regular taxis is not sustainable in the long run. At some point, someone is going to ask how Uber is really going to make money, she says.
“If it is sustainable, then we’ll play the same game. If it is not, then we know that the price will have to go up to the real price. And when this happens, people will just go back to taking regular taxis.”
Goh says that while there is a demand for premium cars, MyTeksi’s main business will still be taxis because it is “one business that is big, meaty and audacious enough”.
She reckons that in five years’ time, the taxi app market here will grow to 30% to 40%. The future for us is to look at taxis and see how to improve, how we can change the taxi drivers to be as good as a limo driver and how we can shape their behaviour.
Easy Taxi has already started on its project to improve taxis and the service.
Chan says Easy Taxi has fixed and upgraded 350 cabs so far. And each day, he says, they are upgrading another 30 to 40 taxis. It costs about RM500 to upgrade each taxi and Easy Taxi is bearing that cost.
“We also give the taxi drivers allowances to keep their cabs clean and magazines for passengers to read. And when you get into these upgraded taxis, the driver will even ask you what kind of music you would like to listen to. That is how we compete.”
Chan says they also offer a “Super Easy Taxi” reward plan for drivers. Here, drivers can get a bonus of RM200 to RM1,500 a month if they hit their target, give good service and get good ratings from passengers.
He estimates that over 8,000 taxi drivers in Klang Valley use the Easy Taxi app and, on average, over 2,200 get a bonus from them.
“We believe that if a driver is good, he should be rewarded. For a driver to get the RM1,500 bonus, he has to be in the super tier. He has to have done at least 150 jobs a month of which 90% of the rides have to be rated good.”
Chan says Easy Taxi also kicks out drivers who are rude and do not charge fares according to the meter, and they are banned from using the mobile app to get passengers.
All this, he believes, is changing taxis for the better.
A year from now, he says, taxi operators in the country would have improved their service in order to survive.
“Uber will still be in Malaysia. And it will be much easier to get around and car ownership will decrease because there would be less need for a car.”
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