Are Grab taxis to cheap?

[u/ADYWOD24]

I’ve been on holiday in Bali for the last 4 days & have used the Grab app to organise a couple of taxis.

However, the prices seem far too cheap?

For example a taxi from Canggu to Medewi came out to 400k IDR.

This is a 2 hour (+) drive & the driver can’t guarantee a job back to Canggu. He rang before the journey and said he would do the journey for 600k which seemed much fairer so i gladly accepted.

How are the drivers able to earn a living that allows them to support a family with these Grab prices? The costs in Bali close to the tourists areas must have risen significantly & running a car isn’t particularly cheap.

[u/Ok_Object7636]

Do you have any idea what people with basic jobs earn in Indonesia? Where I live (not Bali though), the minimum monthly wage is 2.3 million idr per month for full time, and many places, don’t even pay that.

[u/initrunlevel0]

If you feel thats too cheap you can tip whatever amount you want, Non of my business.

Butplease with due respect I hate your audacity telling others that "h0w ThEY goNnA e4rN a LiVInG" without knowing that Grab user is not exclusive for tourism. Monthly salary for most worker here barely reach 3 million a month. Daily worker, local tourist, any tourist who have similar or lower income than Balinese do uses Grab. You making these people life worse because Grab driver will likely to take these outside-apps transaction rather than to cater regular in-apps users.

[u/BapakGila]

Just give them a decent tip. They really appreciate that.

[u/i_dont_wanna_sign_up]

Average salaries, cost of living, etc, are all much lower than whatever country you come from. Just look up where Indonesia ranks for GDP per capita.

[u/sitdowndisco]

400 for 2 hours is expensive compared to most places in Indonesia. Drivers do this work because they can earn a decent living compared to whatever alternative they have.

That’s why you see a lot of drivers from Java. The alternative might be working in the rice field for 100k per day in the beating sun manually till the fields…

[u/KearnyMesa → u/sitdowndisco]

Mostly from East Java. If you ask your driver if he's from Banyuwangi (the easternmost spot in East Java), you get 50/50 chance.

P.S. Which is not good unfortunately, traffic there is a disaster, people don't seem to care about their and their passengers' lives. And these drivers from Java brought with em their driving habits...

[u/joeyali26]

The bikes are worse man, they earn like 15-20k for a 20 min bike ride, daily they’re averaging about 300-400k on a really good day (I asked a driver)

I would tip what the journey cost 9/10 times

[u/pieterpiraat → u/joeyali26]

Even if they make 200k a day, they work 6 days a week usually if not 7. That is a decent salary to be honest. They do, however, pay 20% off their fee to grab/gojek.

[u/joeyali26 → u/pieterpiraat]

It’s a terrible salary, £10-$14 a day is not a decent salary

[u/One_Pangolin_999 → u/joeyali26]

What's the average salary in Bali.

[u/joeyali26 → u/One_Pangolin_999]

Formal worker (office job, management role etc) - 3.4m IDR (average p/m)

Informal worker (bars, restaurants, shops etc) - 2.8m IDR (average p/m)

Lowest average wage is 1.5m IDR (p/m) for agricultural workers, which is out and out the lowest paying job (rice fields, etc)

[u/Effective-Stress-781 → u/joeyali26]

Agree, to add, 5jt a month is considered a good wage

[u/Smashedavoandbacon → u/joeyali26]

Was a few years ago but a worked at the hostel we stayed in made 1million per month. Pretty chilled job though plus went out and parties with us. Cool hostel, was like a little family.

[u/joeyali26 → u/Smashedavoandbacon]

1m IDR per month nowadays isn’t enough for a person to live on, you had to have been subsidising that income to survive

[u/joeyali26 → u/One_Pangolin_999]

I see my point has been proved wrong

[u/One_Pangolin_999 → u/joeyali26]

Now do these workers have any other source of income? That's what these kinda businesses rely on, no minimum wage and people who are desperate enough to work for pittance because the pittance is better than 0

[u/joeyali26 → u/One_Pangolin_999]

Yeah but I guess that happens to a degree everywhere. I did however meet a bunch of drivers all from Lombok who had come to Bali to study or for their wives to study, and they were working to subsidise

[u/Ok_Object7636 → u/joeyali26]

If they really make 200k a day, that’s a lot. More than many others earn. But there’s a cut of I think 30 or 40%, and there’s a cut even for tips, so better to in cash.

[u/joeyali26 → u/[deleted]]

The app will get a % of anything we pay via the app, I would tip 20k cash 9/10 times

[u/Ok_Object7636 → u/[deleted]]

Ah, you are right. Looks like they changed it. I just searched for it and a Grab driver in 2019 said there was a 10% cut. But it seems now at least in Indonesia, there’s no cut for tips in Gojek and Grab, as Indonesian drivers posted.

This summer, there were plans by the government to restrict the promotion fee (for the ride, not tips) to 15%, but I don’t know if that went through.

[u/sitdowndisco → u/joeyali26]

Sounds like they’re making bank at over 6th/month.

[u/joeyali26 → u/sitdowndisco]

In theory, but when a drive is 20-30 minutes (canggu, ubud, uluwatu) it’ll easily take much longer cus of traffic, I doubt a driver would do anymore than 2 journeys in an hour

[u/Kimimott_1118]

Yes, grab is cheap. Sometimes there are promo code, cheaper. Try maxis I heard also cheap.

[u/abittenapple]

I saw a grab taxi only full up 50k petrol 

[u/GaryVantage]

Petrol is cheaper than water.

[u/JakartaBeatz]

Grab takes 25% of all fares

So tip your drivers

[u/littleday → u/[deleted]]

Grabs no longer in the burn stage. It’s in the profitability stage. Grab and Gojek just fuck drivers.

[u/kulukster]

Yes petrol prices are going up and cost of living in general is getting tough for indonesians (as it is globally). I don't know about all app drivers like Grab and Gojek but for many they got wooed into renting cars to be drivers and then are stuck with the car payments so might be desparate to get enough passengers every month so will take rides even if it doesn't net them much. I know of one guy who worked for a month and ended up owing Grag 400,000 as he didn't get enough in fares. ( hopefully he got some tips so it wasn't a total loss) Just for perspective, a full day tour with private driver is in the area of 600,000 to 800,000 or more, so it was very nice of you to be generous and I'm sure it was very appreciated by your driver who did have to deadhead back.

Also many drivers from other islands are migrating to Bali (complicated issue) so there is a lot of competition amongst drivers.

[u/uceenk]

actually, they would earn decent income if they get customers all the time (eg for straight 8-10 hours)

too cheap if the routes are between city (like your example), that's why the most drivers would ask for more

gasoline price in Indonesia is pretty cheap because of subsidize, you can't compare with another country

[u/Appropriate_Ly]

Yeah. And Grab/Gojek take a massive cut, I saw the difference in price between my screen and theirs.

I just tip heaps.

[u/Effective-Stress-781]

I always tip quite significantly, frequently take rides for 60 and don't let him give me change from a 100 for example. unless the driver does something stupid. Basically always tip to make up for the stupidly low prices.