KL transport: Uber or Grab?

As I have mentioned a ton of times in my previous blog posts, “Grab” and “Uber” are both applications that provide online transportation for users. To put it simply they are the applications we use to book rides to get to our desired destinations.

Both Uber and Grab have become quite popular in Malaysia; in a way that they are each other’s biggest rivals now. The competition between them is crazy, with each of the services trying to dominate the market. Now there only remains one question, which one is better?

There are a lot of online articles, conducting surveys and all, I didn’t pay any attention to those, and this is my own personal opinion collected from the various months of experience with both of these services.

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At first glance there isn’t much difference between the two apps. Both of them run very efficiently. The applications are extremely smooth and easy to use. In both of the applications you can pay both with credit card and with cash, before Uber only provided services if you paid with credit card, they have expanded their payment options now. Both of the apps you can register using a Malaysian phone number (another reason as to why you need a Sim card).

Now, Uber and Grab are both relatively cheaper than normal taxis in Malaysia. I have been trying to figure out which of the two is cheaper than the other and this is what I came up with:

• During peak hours, mornings from 7 am t0 8:30 am, and afternoons from 6:30 pm to 8 pm. Another peak hour could be when it's raining. If you guys have ever been to Malaysia, you would know that Malaysian rain doesn’t play. Now during these times, Uber is actually much cheaper, they are less affected by the peak hour and do not overcharge. Grab on the other hand, becomes way more expensive during this hours, and it usually says “High fare due to high demand” or something like that. So like a 5 ringgit fare becomes 15 during these times. But it is not like that with Uber, it pretty much maintains the same price range and if there are a lot of drivers nearby you then it's cheaper.
• For longer and further destinations, I suggest checking both applications; there usually isn’t much difference between the two of them; even though supposedly Uber is cheaper for longer destinations.
• For going to the airport (KLIA), use Grab, it has a fixed price to the airport, which is 65 ringgits, adding the tolls it would be about 75 ringgits. The price is extremely good; there is no way you can get to the airport in a cheaper way. As for Uber, I don’t think it has a fixed price to the airport, it can be quite expensive to book an Uber.

These are some pointers I came across the past few months from using both of these ride sharing apps. If I come across any points I will add it up here and last piece of advice, have both of these applications running on your phone and every time before booking a ride, check both apps and see which one is offering a cheaper service.

Hope this is helpful

Cheers.

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