FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Most Bangkokians don't use ride-hailing apps, study finds

Most Bangkokians don't use ride-hailing apps, study finds

A survey by Assumption University has found that one-third of Bangkokians have never tried a ride-hailing app as consumers are looking for options, the institution said in a press release issued on Friday.

Assumption University’s Institute for Research and Academic Services in collaboration with GET, an app for two-wheeled ride-hailing, courier and food delivery services, conducted a research in November 2018 to survey the satisfaction and perception of users and service providers of Bangkok’s two-wheeled ride-hailing industry. 
According to the survey involving 1,234 Bangkokians and 605 legitimate motorcycle taxi drivers, the majority of consumers and motorcycle taxi drivers never tried a ride-hailing application for motorcycle taxi booking and they are looking for new and more applications to allow them to have more choices, healthy competition for better prices and services and to eliminate monopolisation.
According to the survey, 79 per cent of Bangkokians use motorcycle taxi to commute. Females use the service more than males and younger generations use the service more than older ones.
When inquired those who use motorcycle taxi service, 68 per cent of them use the service more than once a week and 23 per cent use it almost daily. The problems commonly found are long queue in rush hours, no service available in nearby areas, customer rejection, and no service during early morning and late night.
At the same time, the study found Bangkokians would like to see improvement on safety, driver behaviour, and standardisation in price for motorcycle taxi.
In the modern days when technology has stronger presence on everyday lives, 72 per cent of Bangkokians are aware of motorcycle taxi booking applications. However, despite the awareness that such applications can help make life more convenient, as high as 65 per cent of the people have never tried the service.
The survey points out that if there’s a new application available in the market, most of Bangkokians up to 65 per cent are willing to try. Most of the interviewees provided the reasons that more choices in the market will benefit users as it will provide users with more options, competition will result in better prices and promotions and it can help improve the service.
The main reasons to attract Bangkokians to an application are fares, speed, easy-to-use experience, insurance, good service and others.
On the supply side, almost all of motorcycle taxi drivers, 96 per cent, are aware of motorcycle taxi hailing applications. But only 15 per cent have joined an application or applications. The reasons for not joining were there’s nothing attractive and they don’t know how to use an application and their jobs are already good.
From the survey, a number of motorcycle taxi drivers thought that more applications in the market could be good for them as it would offer them more choices to join, eliminate monopolisation, encourage competition to help drivers gained more income and better benefits, as well as help expanding the market to get more customers.
Good income and reliability are what drivers want in an application…
The reasons to convince a driver to join an application are good income, reliability, life and accident insurance, and other factors like bonus or incentives and good treatment for drivers.
Pinya Nittayakasetwat, GET Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, said: “GET has carried out various studies and surveys in order to truly understand Bangkok riders and drivers and how we can fulfil their needs. The survey conducted by AU Poll helped reaffirm many of our hypotheses. Ride-hailing application adoption here is growing but not as fast as it could due to a lack of choice in the market. Our arrival will help expand both the demand and supply side and promote healthy competition that will benefit both riders and drivers here in Bangkok.
“Since our beta launch in December, we have proven that licensed ‘win’ drivers are eager to partner with a company that understands their needs. We are operating in 29 districts in Bangkok with many win drivers and our fleet continues to grow. We’re excited to fully launch in Bangkok within the coming weeks as we seek to provide another choice and make life easier for both riders and drivers in Bangkok.”

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