Here is a short tale of three taxis and the error of believing supply and demand explains supplier-buyer dynamics.
I am in Bangkok where transport options are many and and probably more varied than most cities: Skytrain, metro, water taxis, ferries, express tourist boats, Khlong taxis, road taxis, Tuk-Tuks, motorcycle taxis. And Uber is here too. So, logic says to me that, given all this competition, (traditional car) taxi drivers would be beating the competition off by being happy to run the meter or by knowing their city.
The first cab I waved down didn’t know where my hotel was and the second refused the run the meter (which seems to be a well-known behaviour) and wanted a flat fare. The third, however, was my Goldilocks man, and was just right: he looked the destination up on his SatNav app and took the fare. It seems to be that Bangkok taxi drivers are still in a position where demand or delusion allows them to refuse fares if a high flat rate isn’t accepted.
- Demand: Having spent the day on the various other systems of transport, taxi is definitely the most pleasant of all of the experiences, primarily because it is easy to understand and air-conditioned, unlike most of the other options which lack at least one of those attributes, sometimes both. So I can kind of understand that tourists would opt for this over other forms of transport, particularly if it’s raining or they are feeling the effects of the humidity, even if it is not exactly a frictionless experience.
- Delusion: The only other thing that I can come up with as an explanation is that Bangkok taxi drivers have their heads in the sand and aren’t paying attention to the heightened expectations good Uber experiences in crowded metropoles like Lima and Bogota are doing to a consumer like me when it comes to hailing a cab in Bangkok. And I cannot be alone in this reaction? Uber has normalised good, traceable taxi experiences and created a feedback loop which was a big missing the old taxi paradigm.
As much as I would like to put my money entirely in the pockets of a Bangkok taxi driver, I am pondering Uber for tomorrow’s roster of about town-gadding.