Taxi Apps in the Philippines

With perennial flooding and stressful traffic in Metro Manila streets, are "taxi grabbing" apps even worth downloading? Here's a list of what apps you can consider


There are couple of taxi-grabbing apps being used by Netizens in the Metro today, let's take a look at each

• EASY TAXI - Easy Taxi was developed in Malaysia and was launched in the Philippines sometime in August of this year (2013). From the looks of it, it appears promising as  " it covers 41 cities in 14 countries, with 45,000 taxi drivers in its network and 1,500,000 downloads." wrote this report in Yahoo. It's straightforward - download the app, look for a taxi and via GPS, track where it is. I have yet to try this and see if it works

Image Credits: Apple iTunes

• GRAB TAXI - According to some friends, they tried downloading this and swore that it doesn't work. Well, consider the facts: heavy rain washes down on rush hour. You want to get a taxi - so do millions of other commuters. The driver CANNOT possibly reach you because of either; a) super heavy traffic or b) impassible roads. Sigh. What else is new?

Image Credits: Apple iTunes

• MyTAXI.PH - When I checked out the Google Play link, it was dead. Meanwhile, for more details of this, you can click the "review" here.

So, how do these companies make money? They charge an extra fee - along the lines of P70 or more. As a driver, you might get a small cut of the pie, so to speak. But what's stopping you from NOT flagging down the app call? Hell, drivers often charge about the meter rate anyway! So it's a business breaker there.

I think there is a demand and a yes, a business opportunity, for these service. But business owners should've done their homework first. Manila taxi drivers are monsters! They will either charge you extra and. depending on their mood, will not even hesitate to run off and avoid your fare.

I've been to other countries and I can dare say that Philippine taxi drivers are the rudest and apathetic of all (well, maybe sans Davao - but that's another blog story).

Meanwhile, the good senator - Meriam Defensor-Santiago has proposed a new bill called the "Taxi Passengers Bill of Rights". 

This is a good start.

And it's about 'effin time!

IMAGE CREDITS

• Apple iTunes
• Weebgeek
• Flickr