r/bali • u/ADYWOD24 • 3d ago

Trip Report Are Grab taxis to cheap?

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.

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6

u/joeyali26 3d ago

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

3

u/pieterpiraat 3d ago

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.

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u/joeyali26 3d ago

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

6

u/One_Pangolin_999 3d ago

What's the average salary in Bali.

4

u/joeyali26 3d ago

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)

2

u/Effective-Stress-781 3d ago

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

1

u/Smashedavoandbacon 3d ago

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.

2

u/joeyali26 3d ago

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

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u/joeyali26 3d ago

I see my point has been proved wrong

1

u/One_Pangolin_999 3d ago

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

1

u/joeyali26 3d ago

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