GrabCar Now In Cebu!
We haven’t been using GrabTaxi lately for a number of reasons.
1) We don’t really need it that much anymore. Our current location has plenty of transportation choices from tricycles, jeepneys, taxis to pedicabs.
2) Commuting has been limited to only within a small area in our city. Jeepneys (and tricycles) are the better choices when going to my son’s school, doing the groceries or hearing mass. (cheap and always available)
3) It takes a while to go through the motions of opening the Grab app, keying in your location + destination, and waiting for the page to load while keeping your fingers and toes crossed that a taxi driver will book you out of the 5 or 6 showing to be nearby. (More often than not, your 6-10 times of trying to get booked end up in vain.)
This morning, since the skies showed ominous dark clouds and we had to go to an important realty conference, we decided to try Grab again and were surprised. Our first try yielded a booking right away. A few seconds after, we got a call from the cab driver asking for our exact location. It turned out he was heading in the wrong direction and had to cancel.
We decided to give it one more try after that and so after 2 more tries, we got booked again! (That was fast!) However, when we looked at our cab’s location in the map, he was still quite far and as the minutes ticked by, he just seemed to have been stuck inside a different subdivision. Not moving. We decided to cancel.
As I was getting ready to leave the house, I had my son do Grab again just to see if the last try would be luckier. Indeed, within seconds of looking, we got a ride booked!
The Grab vehicle icon showed the car to be only a few minutes away, and it’s moving. Whew! We could finally breathe a sigh of relief knowing we would be spared the hassle of having to wait in the heat (The sun decided to peak out of the dark nimbus clouds at this point.)
I sent my son to the gate while I monitored our Grab ride’s progress. Seven minutes became 5 then 3 then 1 and then ---. Told my son to look out for the cab but he said he couldn’t see any. (Strange, have we booked an invisible taxi?)
Then I received a text message saying that my ride had arrived and is in fact outside our gate! Turned out that the new grey sedan parked out on the street was ‘it’ for us. My son accidentally booked a Grab CAR and not a Grab TAXI!
I’ve not done Uber before but I do know how it works. (And how expensive it could be.) I was scared to see how much it would cost us but luckily, it was about the same price as a regular cab ride plus the booking fee. :-)
And so it went, our very first paid ‘carpooling ride’. :-)
How was it, you may ask. It was good!
The driver, Laurence, was courteous, not to mention neat, cool and good-looking. He spoke good English which was another plus. He seemed quite young though and I was tempted to ask whether he just came from school or something. haha!
The car was clean, no overpowering car freshener that can be irritating if you don’t like the scent, the air conditioning system was perfect - not to cold, not hot either. Plus, it had a pile of candies at the open storage compartment in the middle, obviously placed there for the passengers to help themselves with.
(The shot was a bit shaky but I’m sure you see what I mean. ;-) ) The ride went smoothly, albeit a bit slow. Maybe because the driver was extra careful of his new car, or just mindful of his passengers’ comfort and security. Small talk was kept to a minimum. Non-intrusive. Again, the driver was obviously following the right decorum so as to not turn passengers off.
Why am I writing about this? Well, it’s because this is such a WELCOME CHANGE to the commuters and passengers in Cebu!
Now, there is another choice! We don’t have to suffer the dirty (and sometimes) smelly cabs to get around the city. Some cabs are so dirty you get scared at the thought of what could be lurking underneath the seats or on the floor especially at night when you could barely see inside.
No need to wait it out under the heat of the sun to get a good ride. We can actually go around in comfort without fear of possibly getting a reckless driver behind the wheel who doesn’t really care about you, just your money.
Change has indeed come, to Cebu! Thanks, GrabCar! May your fleet expand more and your drivers remain courteous and conscientious.
Until our next ride, GrabCar - Cebu!