The e-riding market has witnessed big changes over the last decade and has changed the way people access transport services.

The appearance of foreign e-hailing apps brought convenience, but caused difficulties for traditional taxi firms. Feeling pressure from strong foreign rivals, Vietnamese taxi firms had to seek solutions to exist and develop. 

The boom of ride-hailing apps has created a revolution in the transport industry. With the apps, riders know the fees and the itinerary in advance and can make payment in a convenient way. 

The convenience has prompted many passengers to shift from traditional taxi to tech-based taxi, thus putting a pressure on traditional firms.

While facing difficulties, from less market share, less revenue, high operation costs and ineffective management, traditional taxi firms also have to compete with rivals with more powerful financial capability, heavier investment in technology and more effective marketing strategies.

Traditional taxi firms have realized that in order to exist, they have to upgrade, apply high technologies and cooperate with each other.

In such conditions, at a conference to find the right development orientation, more than 200 traditional taxi firms in the country decided to join forces and gather on one application platform.

Under their agreement, taxi ride hailing is integrated in bank apps and operates at the same time with taxi firms’ own apps, thus creating an ecosystem which connects businesses.

Thanks to the platform, passengers just need only one app to hail taxis with various taxi firms. They can also find the nearest drivers and can compare service fees. This not only brings convenience to passengers, but also allows taxi firms to expand theur customer base. Particularly, it brings benefits to small taxi firms which find it difficult accessing clients.

Nguyen Tuan Mui, chair of Taxi Viet Alliance, said taxi firms all want to have software to be created by Vietnamese and used by Vietnamese. The use of bank apps to provide general taxi services to businesses will help solve the problem.

“Only when we unite will we gain success. I believe the use of bank apps to hail taxi will succeed,” he said.

Going digital

A survey by the Vietnam Automobile Transport Association found that 100,000 taxis of 200 taxi firms operate in the domestic market, and there are also 900,000 contract cars.

However, the road transport sector is facing challenges, especially after the strong rise of tech-based taxis.

According to Nguyen Cong Hung, chair of the Hanoi Taxi Association, in current conditions, taxi firms need to digitize.

“Our wish is having software commonly shared among transport firms, especially serving road transport passengers,” he said.

“The fact that e-hailing can be implemented with bank apps will help taxi firms approach 50 million users, and they will have a good platform to launch sale promotions,” he said.

Tran Manh Nam, a senior executive of an online payment platform, said that in recent years, the shift from traditional economy to digital economy has been seen not only in Vietnam but all over the world as well.

According to Nam, operations such as taking orders, dispatching drivers, managing drivers, trips and revenue are digitized.

“From large taxi groups that own thousands of taxis to small ones with just 30-50 cars, they use tech platforms to manage their operation,” he said.

Thanks to digitization in sales, taxi firms now can approach more clients and increase revenue.

“Vietnam is among the leading countries in digital transformation, especially in the field of transport. Technological solutions in the taxi sector in Vietnam have been developing well,” Nam said. “I am sure that Vietnam has a taxi market with highly developed technological platform."

Trong Dat