No Grab, no problem: Woman shares hack for cheap travel in JB

It's only natural for Singaporeans to fall back on Grab rides when we are in Malaysia since we are used to it over here.

Plus, with $1 giving you three times the value (or RM3.33 currently) across the Causeway, the currency exchange rate is in our favour. 

That said, one woman shared in a Lemon8 post about how commuters can get rides that are cheaper than what Grab offers. 

Say hello to AirAsia Ride – yes, the budget airline company offers ride-hailing services in Malaysia. 

In the post, Celeste shared the difference in fares between Grab and AirAsia for the same destination. 

Her pickup location was at Kedai Bak Kut Teh Ah Soon in Johor Bahru and her destination was Re Patisserie, which was a six-minute drive away. 

She checked the fare on both apps at the same time and saw that AirAsia offered RM6 while Grab's fare was RM10 for the same ride in a four-seater car. 

She also highlighted the slightly higher commission rate that Grab imposes on their drivers. 

According to Grab Malaysia's website, the commission rate is 20 per cent, whereas AirAsia Ride takes only 15 per cent commission.

Thus, commuters end up saving money and the drivers of AirAsia Ride will likely have a higher net earning. 

Celeste also encouraged commuters to use the fare difference as tips for AirAsia's drivers. 

She also noted that one of the upsides of using AirAsia Ride is that it's easy to spot the cars as they have the company's logo on them. 

However, she claimed that one downside to their service was that their GPS apparently wasn't really accurate. 

AsiaOne had a look at the AirAsia Ride Driver app, and it seems that some drivers were also experiencing problems on their end.

Some of the feedback was that the GPS system was apparently not in sync with the app, and there were unnamed pinned locations as well as map routes that were allegedly inaccurate.

All these factors could potentially lead to longer waiting times. 

According to AirAsia's website, there are some standout features for their ride-hailing service. For example, there's the LadiesOnly service where female passengers are given the option to ride with female drivers. 

Another feature is the Allstar Ride option where you will be driven by AirAsia pilots and cabin crew. Pretty cool, if you ask us. 

AirAsia's Singapore food delivery service

While we might not have the budget airline's ride-hailing service here, Singapore once had AirAsia Food. 

The food delivery service was launched in March 2021 and delivered food from about 80 eateries across Singapore. 

AirAsia's food delivery service here had been off to a slow start, receiving only about 100 orders daily in its first four months of operations.

According to an article from The Straits Times, the service seemed to have ended last year, after they tried to place an order over 12 consecutive days, from Dec 20 to 31.

Experts pointed out that new entrants would find it difficult to gain traction, with big competitors like Grab and Foodpanda conquering the food delivery market. 

Existing food delivery companies have "built decent economies of scale and become quite entrenched with customers, restaurants and riders", hence the environment is tough for new entrants, added Dr Zafar Momin, an adjunct associate professor at NUS Business School.

READ ALSO: Car rental vs car sharing vs GrabCar: Which is the most cost-effective?

venkat.gunasellan@asiaone.com

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