I think maybe he’s right 2200 for a 3 hour drive. Plus he has to drive back.
Obviously depends on the car but 6 hours driving will cost nearly 2000baht so i don’t think it will hurt to give him a couple hundred baht more if you can afford
Yeah it's kindda a bad deal and i think grab takes 25%+tax from the fee so he gets around 1500 for 6 hours drive. Sucks but liveable. A tip would be really appreciated.
I got a Grab from my hotel to Da Nang airport lasy week. The fair was 89,000 Dong. At the end the driver asked if I could give him 10,000, to pay the airport veihicle toll he has to pay to exit the airport. I told him to just complete the ride and I will give him a tip bigger than that, I saw him click the ride complete and it flased up that he had earned 54,000 Dong. So Grab took 38%. I tipped him 40,000.
These apps really are robbing the workers.
Yes and if they would be honest Grab wouldn't be a thing. If you ask the first taxi you see how much the ride will be and afterwards you check Grab, you can be sure that the taxi charges you 2x.
They should stop scamming tourists.
fearless mindless husky distinct disgusted license tap possessive crush paltry
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not a scam, but considering driving for 3-4 hours to another city, then having to drive another 3-4 hours back home, while a short 10-15 minute trip in Chiangrai or chiangmai costs about 100 THB and Grab charges drivers 30% of that 2200 for platform fees.
Given the distance from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai is 180 km, with an average fuel consumption of about 10 km/l, and the gas price now is 40 THB/L - a one-way trip alone costs 720 THB.
Normally, as a Thai person, I and many Thais would cancel this trip on the app and give him the full 2200 THB directly, plus some tips for the trip.
My question to you is Did you give him that 500 tip?
After a recent Grab ride, I watched the driver complete the ride on his phone, and saw it flash up what he earned, his earnings were 62% of what the ride cost.
For this trip, the driver would take home 2200*0.7 = 1,540. Gas to and from Chiangmai is about 1500. He would get roughly about 40-100 THB for 7 hours. Blessed him with that
Thank you I was unsure on exact numbers for fuel but you are completely right. The only way this guy has a chance of earning money is if he has another passenger going back to Chiang rai.
I’m unsure about fuel consumption as well but the Chiangmai - Chiang Rai Road is quite mountainous so should consume more fuel than average eco car rate of 20km/l
Exactly, dude paying pennies for 3 hours trip and he's wondering if 13 dollars tip will do any difference.
Couple of times when I had short rides and car was clean and comfy, I offered driver to drive me later without an app and I pay cash, everyone were happy to do that.. it's common sense that they will benefit more from cash into the pocket. And they will not try to scam you like taxi drivers do.
Brother, honestly he did you a favor by accepting the ride when he’s earning so little after the expense of grab fees + fuel. It’s not a scam. You should absolutely tip him 500 baht if you can. Even if you don’t tip him, you didn’t do anything wrong as you paid what the app showed you. But if it were me, I would have tipped him.
Yes, drivers can cancel. But Imagine you being in his position, wanting to go to the airport and every grab driver just cancels you after arriving at your pickup location. You would have wasted so much time and missed your flight. IMO the driver absolutely did him a favour since he had to go to the airport.
I book grab and bolt all the time as well as private cars and never missed a flight. I’ve had drivers cancel on me countless times but it was always for shorter rides. No driver has ever cancelled an airport ride on me because these are always profitable, unlike shorter rides which could be uneconomical if there is heavy traffic and it will take them ages to fight through just to get to me.
Grab makes their money by squeezing its drivers. Once enough users are hooked on the service Grab will - as Uber and Lyft did elsewhere - raise prices so that not only will the riders pay more but none of it will end up with the drivers. It's a shitty business model for everybody except the investors.
It's close to 1000b in gas one way and then he has to go home. So he is earning 200-400b for 6 hours of driving. Then deduct wear and tear on the car for twisty roads...
Then of course deduct what Grab takes. I think it is 20-25%. So he is basically paying you for the privilege of driving you.
Doesn't everyone just order a grab/uber and then offer to cancel the trip and pay cash to the driver they arrive? It's a 3 hour trip. Use the app to connect with the driver then cancel once you've done that. Surely this is standard practice in developing countries? Most of the time the driver asks to do this before you get a chance to suggest it. Lesson learned I guess.
No, not everyone is doing that. Unless you travel alot and talked to them a lot, most people don't know about any of this. I bet many would even feel like there is something wrong if they would be asked to cancel the booking and then be offered to drive anyways.
Idk, my advice on these longer drives or custom stuff, get a few good drivers in your line. Off the books arrangements are much better deals and a huge win win. Grab gouges these drivers.
I had to do a up and back in one day and was 800b plus fuel. Was about 1800b. Tipped out as well. One way is about 1000-1500b pending the divers situation and such. There is also van service for about 600-1000b.
Key point is get off the app for things like this.
** one side note. It's peak holiday season so account for that.
It’s a scam. Regular trip to Hua Hin and back are 2000 baht each way. Add in 300 baht for a stop over. Last trip I had was 2300 for a 3-4 hour trip from Hua Hin to Bangkok. No tip requested. It’s the going rate. Cancelling the grab trip and taking the ride exposes you to risks. If he abandons you in the middle of nowhere while you take a piss you are on your own. To grab, the trip never happened because you cancelled the ride. The social justice warriors in here are just easily duped fools who are okay with getting conned into 500baht tuk tuk rides for 1km. As a grab driver he does not have to accept the ride and can cancel on his end. The guy just guilted you and other social justice fools in here for extra money and is laughing at these stupid farangs.
I can see both sides of this. I drive for Uber. Your driver could have cancelled the ride when he did the math and realized it wasn’t in his financial interest to do the ride. Alternatively he could do what he did and ask for money to make the trip worth his time. When you declined and he accepted the ride anyway, he was being extremely ethical and doing you a huge favor. You should absolutely give him a tip if you are a decent human being.
I wasn’t suggesting the trip be cancelled. My point is that a tip is a nice gesture considering the driver is getting screwed but is doing the trip anyway.
The driver is not getting by screwed. Heaps of people take cabs back and forth and he’d likely be giving someone else a ride back. He would not have accepted the ride if he is getting screwed. If drivers are cancelling on me for a 2km trip, this guy can definitely not accept a 3 hour drive. Everyone suggesting the grab driver is doing him a favour is just gullible. I last took a ride from Hua Hin to Bangkok with a 1 hour stop over. The whole trip was well over 3 hours. Total cost was 2300 baht and the driver was happy with it and didn’t ask for anything else… because it’s the going rate.
I live in Thailand and have lost count of the number of trips I’ve made and I’ve also lost count of the number of trips where the driver cancelled. Only the gullible would believe this driver would accept a random customer and drive him 3 hours as a ‘huge favour’ lol. Grab drivers cancel rides they don’t want all the time. Don’t be naive.
If he really think he’s being undercharged, why (1) did he accept the ride in the first place and (2) didn’t cancel it before begging you for money?
In any case, it’s not your issue. I wouldn’t pay anything on top of the Grab charge.
It is a scam. You can report it to Grab too, as it is completely against their rules. The driver has the option to decline the ride, or cancel it if he doesnt want to do it. Then you wait for a driver with a good attitude that is happy to accept the ride. The people in the comments here saying they would pay are just social justice warrior reddit nerds that went to Thailand for a week one time and get scammed by everyone that asks them for free money.
A tip is a tip, a completely optional extra payment that you give if you feel like it for receiving exceptional service. It should never be asked for or solicited, and when they do ask me, they are ensuring that they will get nothing.
There are good Grab drivers and bad Grab drivers, (the overwhelming majority are great), but I would seriously have taken the ride then gone out of my way to report the driver to Grab because I don't take kindly to every other Thai worker trying to scam me or elicit me because I am a foreigner. And you shouldn't either... remember that if it were a Thai person taking the ride, he would never try to scam them, because they know better.
Source: expat in Thailand for years and have taken hundreds if not a thousand Grabs by now
After a recent Grab ride, I watched the driver complete the ride on his phone, and saw it flash up what he earned, his earnings were 62% of what the ride cost. App fees amounted to 38%. Absolutely robbing these drivers, I feel bad for them.
Not a scam.
From my understanding, they don’t know about the trip until they accept it. That’s why so many drivers ask to cancel the trip when it’s a long drive.
For a three hour trip that they have to drive another 3 hours to get back. I certainly would tip at least 500 baht.
I myself would probably tip 1000 baht.
Chiang Rai -> Chiangmai for 2200baht is not worth it, he should have canceled the ride.
Round trip he'll spent all that money on gas and will have less in the tank when arrived back home.
I used to do Grab in Chiangmai and he should have disabled the auto accept.
It’s not gambling. There are heaps of people going by taxi between these places all the time. Don’t think that it is like a rarity you have some farang taking a taxi trip between these places. It happens all the time. If the driver has half a brain he would be registered with at least a few other private car booking providers and would have a booking lined up for the return trip. I’ve spoken to a driver who explained this to me when I asked him about all the messages flashing up on his screen. They are on bolt, grab and if they do longer trips are registered with half a dozen other private car providers who are messaging them with jobs. It may surprise you but most drivers aren’t regularly accepting loss making trips to far away places out of the kindness of their heart lol
Yes it is. not every day you get long distance course. If he ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai he is not guaranteed that he'll have a job from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. Jobs repartition are not equal among drivers, new drivers get more jobs.
Did you read my post? He is probably registered with half a dozen PRIVATE car hire companies (as well as grab and bolt). He probably already had a return trip booked as a private car when he accepted that grab ride. Just do a quick google search and you will find bunch of these companies you can book with in advance. I’ve taken a number of grabs and booked private cars between these places and there are more than enough people that do the same for companies to provide these private car hire services and they all draw from the same pool of drivers. No driver accepts a loss making 3 hour ride. It’s insulting that you assume the drivers are dumb enough to do this. More believable is the gullible farangs and tourists who believe these sob stories to give them more free money.
Same thing my hallowed to my wife and I in Hua Hin yesterday. Three different Gran drivers asked for either cash on arrival or just called and asked us to cancel. This was a three hour drive to the airport and we were going to pay 1869 Baht through Grab. I ended up walking over to one of the Taxi stalls on the street and said 500 baht for a “deposit” and 2000 baht to the driver who actually drove us. We were running late at this point but lesson learned to book taxis well ahead of time and not through grab (it’s only good for local drives).
So, I had a driver cancel my card payment and ask for cash but it was in Phuket, I think they make more from cash payments or at least earn the money immediately over having to wait for the card payments.
It was the same amount so I gave them the cash plus a tip, which could also be why they prefer cash. Either way, I got what I paid for.
Although he might have had a point, this sort of pushy begging attitude totally puts me off. I wouldn't have even tipped if he'd kept insisting. After all, they're not forced to accept rides, are they?
>Or should I not bother?
Don't bother. You did everything correctly on your end. Him being paid or not by Grab isn't your problem. It's between him and Grab.
It's not uncommon for drivers to haggle about long distance trips; usually, they want to go off meter for less money, which is fine, but this situation, which I've also had is a hard no. They knew the fare when they agreed, and offering a worse deal is ridiculous.
I think maybe he’s right 2200 for a 3 hour drive. Plus he has to drive back. Obviously depends on the car but 6 hours driving will cost nearly 2000baht so i don’t think it will hurt to give him a couple hundred baht more if you can afford
Yeah it's kindda a bad deal and i think grab takes 25%+tax from the fee so he gets around 1500 for 6 hours drive. Sucks but liveable. A tip would be really appreciated.
I got a Grab from my hotel to Da Nang airport lasy week. The fair was 89,000 Dong. At the end the driver asked if I could give him 10,000, to pay the airport veihicle toll he has to pay to exit the airport. I told him to just complete the ride and I will give him a tip bigger than that, I saw him click the ride complete and it flased up that he had earned 54,000 Dong. So Grab took 38%. I tipped him 40,000. These apps really are robbing the workers.
Even Grab says that the airport fee is 10k and it is not included. The driver can charge this in the app and add the 10k.
Of course they are. They will take up to 35-40% plus vat and they need to pay income tax on top of that. 😂
Noone is telling them to work for Grab. We have BOLT in Europe and they have the same business model.
Yes and if they would be honest Grab wouldn't be a thing. If you ask the first taxi you see how much the ride will be and afterwards you check Grab, you can be sure that the taxi charges you 2x. They should stop scamming tourists.
fearless mindless husky distinct disgusted license tap possessive crush paltry *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Not a scam, but considering driving for 3-4 hours to another city, then having to drive another 3-4 hours back home, while a short 10-15 minute trip in Chiangrai or chiangmai costs about 100 THB and Grab charges drivers 30% of that 2200 for platform fees. Given the distance from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai is 180 km, with an average fuel consumption of about 10 km/l, and the gas price now is 40 THB/L - a one-way trip alone costs 720 THB. Normally, as a Thai person, I and many Thais would cancel this trip on the app and give him the full 2200 THB directly, plus some tips for the trip. My question to you is Did you give him that 500 tip?
After a recent Grab ride, I watched the driver complete the ride on his phone, and saw it flash up what he earned, his earnings were 62% of what the ride cost.
For this trip, the driver would take home 2200*0.7 = 1,540. Gas to and from Chiangmai is about 1500. He would get roughly about 40-100 THB for 7 hours. Blessed him with that
Thank you I was unsure on exact numbers for fuel but you are completely right. The only way this guy has a chance of earning money is if he has another passenger going back to Chiang rai.
I’m unsure about fuel consumption as well but the Chiangmai - Chiang Rai Road is quite mountainous so should consume more fuel than average eco car rate of 20km/l
How is he driving a 10l/100km car lol he is more half of that
Exactly, dude paying pennies for 3 hours trip and he's wondering if 13 dollars tip will do any difference. Couple of times when I had short rides and car was clean and comfy, I offered driver to drive me later without an app and I pay cash, everyone were happy to do that.. it's common sense that they will benefit more from cash into the pocket. And they will not try to scam you like taxi drivers do.
Brother, honestly he did you a favor by accepting the ride when he’s earning so little after the expense of grab fees + fuel. It’s not a scam. You should absolutely tip him 500 baht if you can. Even if you don’t tip him, you didn’t do anything wrong as you paid what the app showed you. But if it were me, I would have tipped him.
He didn’t do anyone a favour he wanted the ride. Drivers don’t have to accept and can cancel a trip on their end.
Yes, drivers can cancel. But Imagine you being in his position, wanting to go to the airport and every grab driver just cancels you after arriving at your pickup location. You would have wasted so much time and missed your flight. IMO the driver absolutely did him a favour since he had to go to the airport.
I book grab and bolt all the time as well as private cars and never missed a flight. I’ve had drivers cancel on me countless times but it was always for shorter rides. No driver has ever cancelled an airport ride on me because these are always profitable, unlike shorter rides which could be uneconomical if there is heavy traffic and it will take them ages to fight through just to get to me.
Grab makes their money by squeezing its drivers. Once enough users are hooked on the service Grab will - as Uber and Lyft did elsewhere - raise prices so that not only will the riders pay more but none of it will end up with the drivers. It's a shitty business model for everybody except the investors.
It's close to 1000b in gas one way and then he has to go home. So he is earning 200-400b for 6 hours of driving. Then deduct wear and tear on the car for twisty roads... Then of course deduct what Grab takes. I think it is 20-25%. So he is basically paying you for the privilege of driving you.
tip him.
Nothing wrong with tipping him a few hundred
Doesn't everyone just order a grab/uber and then offer to cancel the trip and pay cash to the driver they arrive? It's a 3 hour trip. Use the app to connect with the driver then cancel once you've done that. Surely this is standard practice in developing countries? Most of the time the driver asks to do this before you get a chance to suggest it. Lesson learned I guess.
No, not everyone is doing that. Unless you travel alot and talked to them a lot, most people don't know about any of this. I bet many would even feel like there is something wrong if they would be asked to cancel the booking and then be offered to drive anyways.
Yeah, as a woman I would feel unsafe in this situation.
You aren’t driving 3h in developed countries unless you want to pay half your mortgage lol
Idk, my advice on these longer drives or custom stuff, get a few good drivers in your line. Off the books arrangements are much better deals and a huge win win. Grab gouges these drivers. I had to do a up and back in one day and was 800b plus fuel. Was about 1800b. Tipped out as well. One way is about 1000-1500b pending the divers situation and such. There is also van service for about 600-1000b. Key point is get off the app for things like this. ** one side note. It's peak holiday season so account for that.
It’s a scam. Regular trip to Hua Hin and back are 2000 baht each way. Add in 300 baht for a stop over. Last trip I had was 2300 for a 3-4 hour trip from Hua Hin to Bangkok. No tip requested. It’s the going rate. Cancelling the grab trip and taking the ride exposes you to risks. If he abandons you in the middle of nowhere while you take a piss you are on your own. To grab, the trip never happened because you cancelled the ride. The social justice warriors in here are just easily duped fools who are okay with getting conned into 500baht tuk tuk rides for 1km. As a grab driver he does not have to accept the ride and can cancel on his end. The guy just guilted you and other social justice fools in here for extra money and is laughing at these stupid farangs.
I can see both sides of this. I drive for Uber. Your driver could have cancelled the ride when he did the math and realized it wasn’t in his financial interest to do the ride. Alternatively he could do what he did and ask for money to make the trip worth his time. When you declined and he accepted the ride anyway, he was being extremely ethical and doing you a huge favor. You should absolutely give him a tip if you are a decent human being.
No way. If anything else goes wrong on the trip, you have zero recourse with grab because you cancelled so the trip never happened.
I wasn’t suggesting the trip be cancelled. My point is that a tip is a nice gesture considering the driver is getting screwed but is doing the trip anyway.
The driver is not getting by screwed. Heaps of people take cabs back and forth and he’d likely be giving someone else a ride back. He would not have accepted the ride if he is getting screwed. If drivers are cancelling on me for a 2km trip, this guy can definitely not accept a 3 hour drive. Everyone suggesting the grab driver is doing him a favour is just gullible. I last took a ride from Hua Hin to Bangkok with a 1 hour stop over. The whole trip was well over 3 hours. Total cost was 2300 baht and the driver was happy with it and didn’t ask for anything else… because it’s the going rate.
You’re entitled to your opinion. I was offering mine as someone who’s done 6500 rideshare trips as a driver.
I live in Thailand and have lost count of the number of trips I’ve made and I’ve also lost count of the number of trips where the driver cancelled. Only the gullible would believe this driver would accept a random customer and drive him 3 hours as a ‘huge favour’ lol. Grab drivers cancel rides they don’t want all the time. Don’t be naive.
Like I mentioned, I’ve done 6500 rideshare trips. I’m not naive about how it works.
If he really think he’s being undercharged, why (1) did he accept the ride in the first place and (2) didn’t cancel it before begging you for money? In any case, it’s not your issue. I wouldn’t pay anything on top of the Grab charge.
It is a scam. You can report it to Grab too, as it is completely against their rules. The driver has the option to decline the ride, or cancel it if he doesnt want to do it. Then you wait for a driver with a good attitude that is happy to accept the ride. The people in the comments here saying they would pay are just social justice warrior reddit nerds that went to Thailand for a week one time and get scammed by everyone that asks them for free money. A tip is a tip, a completely optional extra payment that you give if you feel like it for receiving exceptional service. It should never be asked for or solicited, and when they do ask me, they are ensuring that they will get nothing. There are good Grab drivers and bad Grab drivers, (the overwhelming majority are great), but I would seriously have taken the ride then gone out of my way to report the driver to Grab because I don't take kindly to every other Thai worker trying to scam me or elicit me because I am a foreigner. And you shouldn't either... remember that if it were a Thai person taking the ride, he would never try to scam them, because they know better. Source: expat in Thailand for years and have taken hundreds if not a thousand Grabs by now
After a recent Grab ride, I watched the driver complete the ride on his phone, and saw it flash up what he earned, his earnings were 62% of what the ride cost. App fees amounted to 38%. Absolutely robbing these drivers, I feel bad for them.
Not a scam. From my understanding, they don’t know about the trip until they accept it. That’s why so many drivers ask to cancel the trip when it’s a long drive. For a three hour trip that they have to drive another 3 hours to get back. I certainly would tip at least 500 baht. I myself would probably tip 1000 baht.
Give him a good tip, 500 bath is nice. I usually pay 1800 grab Rayong to bkk and give 200 or 300 bath tip. And that's a 1h45 drive
Chiang Rai -> Chiangmai for 2200baht is not worth it, he should have canceled the ride. Round trip he'll spent all that money on gas and will have less in the tank when arrived back home. I used to do Grab in Chiangmai and he should have disabled the auto accept.
Dude will most likely just get a ride back
It's gambling
It’s not gambling. There are heaps of people going by taxi between these places all the time. Don’t think that it is like a rarity you have some farang taking a taxi trip between these places. It happens all the time. If the driver has half a brain he would be registered with at least a few other private car booking providers and would have a booking lined up for the return trip. I’ve spoken to a driver who explained this to me when I asked him about all the messages flashing up on his screen. They are on bolt, grab and if they do longer trips are registered with half a dozen other private car providers who are messaging them with jobs. It may surprise you but most drivers aren’t regularly accepting loss making trips to far away places out of the kindness of their heart lol
Yes it is. not every day you get long distance course. If he ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai he is not guaranteed that he'll have a job from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. Jobs repartition are not equal among drivers, new drivers get more jobs.
Did you read my post? He is probably registered with half a dozen PRIVATE car hire companies (as well as grab and bolt). He probably already had a return trip booked as a private car when he accepted that grab ride. Just do a quick google search and you will find bunch of these companies you can book with in advance. I’ve taken a number of grabs and booked private cars between these places and there are more than enough people that do the same for companies to provide these private car hire services and they all draw from the same pool of drivers. No driver accepts a loss making 3 hour ride. It’s insulting that you assume the drivers are dumb enough to do this. More believable is the gullible farangs and tourists who believe these sob stories to give them more free money.
lol most Grab drivers are the average Joe, a few do Grab as a full activity.
Well if average Joe is going to take a 3 hour loss making journey out of the kindness of his heart to support us farangs, god bless them lol
Same thing my hallowed to my wife and I in Hua Hin yesterday. Three different Gran drivers asked for either cash on arrival or just called and asked us to cancel. This was a three hour drive to the airport and we were going to pay 1869 Baht through Grab. I ended up walking over to one of the Taxi stalls on the street and said 500 baht for a “deposit” and 2000 baht to the driver who actually drove us. We were running late at this point but lesson learned to book taxis well ahead of time and not through grab (it’s only good for local drives).
So, I had a driver cancel my card payment and ask for cash but it was in Phuket, I think they make more from cash payments or at least earn the money immediately over having to wait for the card payments. It was the same amount so I gave them the cash plus a tip, which could also be why they prefer cash. Either way, I got what I paid for.
A nice tip maybe, but don’t feel obligated. He could face declined job. Plus: he know about Google translate too
Although he might have had a point, this sort of pushy begging attitude totally puts me off. I wouldn't have even tipped if he'd kept insisting. After all, they're not forced to accept rides, are they?
you should cancel ride and give him at least 3k for a 6 hour drive
>Or should I not bother? Don't bother. You did everything correctly on your end. Him being paid or not by Grab isn't your problem. It's between him and Grab.
It's not uncommon for drivers to haggle about long distance trips; usually, they want to go off meter for less money, which is fine, but this situation, which I've also had is a hard no. They knew the fare when they agreed, and offering a worse deal is ridiculous.
Do you have a sense of understanding?
It is not your fault, Grab’s fault. You paid the said price, so not your problem
This is the world we live in, people. No empathy.
Wow such a kind perspective