The Uber-killer from Asia you never heard of

Since moving to Singapore 8 months ago, I have started taking more taxis for work meetings or simply make up for late starts. Given the size of the city, taxis are everywhere but horribly difficult to get during peak hours. Traditional booking services provided by taxi companies are unreliable at best. So there was a spot to take to make up for the abysmal service consumers where getting. Comes in GrabTaxi, the Malaysia-born booking app. They started by solving the same issue in Kuala Lumpur and naturally made their way to Singapore and the rest of the region. You can find details of their start with this article from Tech In Asia.

What made think that they have an edge versus Uber, Hailo and others is the way they are running their business. First, they are positioning themselves as a support for taxi drivers because they have understood that they are the best salespeople they can dream of. Driver have an obvious interest in the app being successful and won't go up in arms against it, the way they went against Uber which tried to bypass them. It is a really smart approach, though obvious in hindsight. Also, by doing that, they are taking a page from Charles Branson's Virgin philosophy (I am paraphrasing): treating your employee well motivates them and in return they are providing great products and services to your customers, making the company successful. If taxi drivers can get additional business (more rides), they will make sure the app is successful by providing great service to passengers. So GrabTaxi is treating taxi drivers really well, listening to them, helping them getting smartphones, welfare, keeping them updated on what comes next. They even regularly gather them for drinks to hear firsthand what they think and how they should improve the service. At the same time they will cut off bad drivers (ie rated poorly repeatedly) without a second thought. I heard this first hand from several taxi drivers themselves who are rooting for the service and making their outmost to be nice and asking for ratings. They got what was there for them and are making sure to get the best out of it. 

Sure, all taxi drivers are not perfect but by boosting the best, they are progressively changing the landscape and making trips much more enjoyable for riders.

As a user, I am impressed by the always evolving app, the precisions of it (compared to Uber) and the service I am receiving. In Thailand it has proven really useful to grab the taxi I needed without speaking any Thai. And the latest addition, Grabpay (basically paying by pre-registered credit card a-la-Uber) is very useful and appreciated by drivers, as they don't pay any commission like other booking services 

Finally, GrabTaxi is low key, humble, developing quickly without pushing too hard, the anti-thesis to Uber. And it is working perfectly well in South East Asia, having been born here and understanding the various traditions and business manners.

All of this, the focus on drivers, the humble approach, the level of service and constant innovation make me think they have a shot at overshadowing the competition in this part of the world. What do you think?

No, I don't need to own a car

As mentioned in my previous post, my home is in Tokyo where the cost of living is quite high (see the worldwide ranking for expats here, though I have been here long enough to qualify as a local).
Buying domestic car does not cost much but as you may know, it is only a fraction of the cost of ownership. What hurts particularly is that there is very little parking space and, if you are renting, you have to pay an ungodly amount of money to park you car. Given the fact that I drive only for getaways, to irregular shopping spree or family-related medical appointments, and mass transportation runs on time here, I don't really need a car.
Don't get me wrong, I love driving and powerful, beautiful cars. And don't get me started on automatic gearboxes! It just does not make any economic sense.

Car sharing
Talking with a colleague who is a frequent user, I decided to try out car sharing. Basically it is like renting a car, except that you pay a monthly fee and get to chose what to drive for an all-inclusive price. And as your information is already in the system, it is pretty convenient.
Many services are available in Tokyo and after a bit of research I chose "Times Plus" (details on the car sharing market in this recent article of the Japan Times). They have several stations around where I live and a good choice of cars.
The monthly fee is cheap (1,000 yen/ a bit less than US$10 that are given as a discount on your usage during the month) and there are packages and pays-as-you-go options. Registering took a few minutes online and all I needed is a scan of my driver's license and a credit card. Few days later I got my member's card and I was ready to go.

To select a car I just access the website (or use an app) from whatever machine I use and I can see which cars (small, vans, sports, hybrid, etc) are available where during the time I am interested and book them. What is really fun for a techie is how you get in the car. Your member's card has an embedded RFID chip that opens the car when you swipe it on the windshield!

and the car are easy to find in the parking lot thanks to those plastic banners in front of them

Experience
Then the actual car keys are in the glove box. So easy. Did I mention I could set up the GPS at the time of the booking so that the car is all ready for me when I get in? And the same GPS knows when the car is back at its spot, their big computer knows when the keys are back in the glove box and my card swiped to lock everything. And then I receive an email to confirm I gave the car back.
And the actual cost you may ask? For example a 30km round trip for running some errands taking 3 and half hours, costs a bit less than $30. Not bad, knowing we were 3 in the car.
And by the way, if you take some of your time to fill the tank (more than 20 liters) or get the car washed at one of their partner gas stations (using the loyalty cards available in the car) you receive discounts. How do they know that? Well sensors in the tank and the use of the loyalty card linked to their database. Spooky may be but the incentive is good (15-minute discount for each) and it makes sense for the company as users are helping doing the basic maintenance, lowering the overall cost of the service.

So...
I am really enjoying the service. The cars are new and well taken care of, the customer service responsive and the whole experience is smooth.
On one hand, where I went, from where, for how long, the type of cars I use is logged in their database. By cross referencing with my credit card company or my online social activities they would be able to have pretty good image of my habits. This could be a problem if it got stalked by someone who was after me and able to get to the data. It could always happen but the probability is pretty small (except if I become a very well known and important person but that's another story!).
On the other hand, all these technologies coupled together are offering me a good experience, a useful service at a reasonable price solving a logistical and economical problem I am facing as an urban dweller. And imagine the type of personalized offers they could provide me with if they were smart...

All in all, these new technologies used in a smart way are a boon for us, offering more convenience and lowering costs. Of course we are handing over some information, voluntarily, but the pay off is obvious. As I was mentioning in the previous post, we should remain vigilant of the laws of the land and the T&Cs of the companies to make sure we remain protected and our privacy respected to continue enjoying the benefits of technology. Which brings me to the "Reform Government Initiative" by some tech giants to get governments (especially the US one) to be more transparent, and that is great.
Let's continue enjoy technology but be informed and active citizens!