Uber, the high-end private taxi booking service known for their network of black luxury cars and uniformed chauffeurs, is now doing a dry run in Manila, reports Tech in Asia. Stylist Liz Uy was one of the first to try the service.
It’s so new, the app still quotes its fare in dollars (Australian, US, or SG, we’re not sure). The base fare is $90 + $2.10 minimum and $12.92/km.
It looks like the only ones who can afford Uber taxi are the people who already have their own cars and chauffeurs.
We tested the Uber app (available on iPhone and Android).
First, we requested for a taxi driver near West Avenue, Quezon. There was no one available.
Okay, we get it, wrong market.
So we changed our location to The Residences at Greenbelt. In less than 5 seconds, we got an SMS alert that a driver will be picking us up in one minute. Yikes. It took us 10 seconds to figure out how to cancel that booking.
Then we to typed in Bonifacio Global City as our pick-up point and requested for fare estimates.
We couldn’t believe our eyes:
BGC to BGC (PHP120)
BGC to Greenbelt (PHP149-169)
BGC to Malacañan Palace (PHP244-299)
BGC to Coconut Palace (PHP215-259)
What the hell? Uber mahal ha.
Correction: This story originally indicated the price in US dollars based on the graphics displayed in the Uber app. Uber has clarified that this was a typographical error, they had meant to use the peso sign.
