Proposal to manage Uber and Grab like taxis: Management going against the 4.0 era?

According to experts, it is necessary to remove barriers for traditional taxis to compete with Uber and Grab instead of tightening regulations as proposed by the Ministry of Transport.

Since their presence in Vietnam as providers of technology applications connecting transportation services, companies like Grab and Uber have been continuously blamed by associations and traditional taxi companies, accusing them of causing traditional taxi companies to fall into losses and losing customers. In fact, the decline in demand in society for the traditional taxi model is real.

However, few companies dare to face the problem, that the traditional taxi business is gradually becoming outdated, consumers no longer trust and seek it out like before. The need for new, fast, convenient, cheap and good quality services is what makes users turn away from expensive and uncompetitive transportation services.

From a management perspective, the difficulty for the management agency is how to create a healthy and equal business environment, managing all types from old to new, rather than imposing the same mechanism on all just to... make management easier.

However, after two years of being licensed by the Ministry of Transport to pilot electronic contract vehicles under Decision 24 with many objective assessments that the service brings many benefits to users, takes advantage of people's idle vehicles, and increases jobs, technology application providers to connect transportation are facing the fact that management agencies will amend the regulations in Decree 86/ND-CP on transportation business conditions, to manage the operations of Uber and Grab "like a taxi business operating in Vietnam".

Managing Grab and Uber like taxis - a step backward in the 4.0 era?

Remember, at a consultation on amending and supplementing Decree 86, Mr. Phan Duc Hieu, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Research, said that the debate on automobile transport business management is necessary, but not to propose policies and management tools to tighten them.

“In Vietnam, the market has something new, and policies should serve to develop that, but we have put the new into a management framework. We do not have the concept of using something new to build policies to eliminate the old, outdated methods,” commented Mr. Phan Duc Hieu.

Regarding the head of the Ministry of Transport wanting to manage Uber and Grab like traditional taxis, economic expert - Dr. Vu Dinh Anh said that the problem with the management agency is to remove and reduce barriers for traditional taxis instead of creating new barriers for new business forms that apply technology. Traditional taxi companies themselves can completely apply technology in their business operations. But why don't they do it and if they do, why are they not successful?

Identify to manage, but don't forget the rights of the people!

According to expert Vu Dinh Anh, the current difficulty for the Ministry of Transport is to identify Grab and Uber as what type of business, and once identified, a specific legal corridor should be built to have effective management measures. However, do not worry about management but ignore the rights of drivers and consumers. According to this expert, if managed like traditional taxis, it is very unreasonable for Grab and Uber, not developing a transport sector that applies new technology, but putting them all into management will continue to be unequal and backward in the times.

“The race between Uber, Grab and traditional taxis can be seen through the picture, traditional taxis are being “put on weights” by the management agency. The proposal to manage technology vehicles like traditional taxis is no different than the management agency adding more weights to both Uber and Grab, instead of removing the weights to let both sides compete equally, so that traditional taxis can catch up with Uber and Grab. This proposal is a reverse management method,” Mr. Anh said.

Regarding the request of the Minister of Transport to manage Uber and Grab like traditional taxis, Mr. Nguyen Van Huan, 43 years old, a technology car driver, added that before registering to become a Grab partner, he had nearly 10 years of experience as a driver for a large taxi company in Ho Chi Minh City.

“Honestly, driving a taxi is very tiring because you have to follow orders. In addition, every day and every month you have to follow sales and targets. If you run under the "cover" (customers dispatched from the call center) but do not meet the target (the specified amount of money), you have to run more outside by hanging around the streets to pick up customers. In addition, because you are a taxi employee, you often have to go to training courses, attend classes that are not much related to the job, which is very time-consuming. Now, if you force technology drivers to operate like traditional taxi drivers, they will surely die, no one will dare to drive anymore,” said Mr. Huan.