Scores of GrabBike drivers in Ho Chi Minh City launched a strike on Wednesday to show their dissatisfaction with the higher commission ratio applied by the ride-hailing service from this year. The on-strike drivers turned off their app and flocked to Grab Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City head office in District 10, but no agreement was reached between the company and its drivers. One driver, Thanh, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that Grab Vietnam hiked the commission ratio, which it calls an ‘app usage fee,’ from 20 percent to 23.6 percent on January 1. GrabBike is the motorbike taxi service, locally known as ‘xe om,’ owned and operated by Grab, which also offers taxi-like GrabCar and shipping service GrabExpress. Like other ride-sharing apps, Grab splits the revenue earned from each ride with its drivers, who it refers to as ‘partners.’ The new ‘app usage fee’ means GrabBike drivers will have to pay Grab Vietnam 23.6 percent of the fare for each ride he or she completes. “This is unreasonably high and we have decided to go on strike to show our protest against the new policy,” Thanh told Tuoi Tre. Hundreds of drivers gathered at the Sala urban area on Tran Nao Street in District 2 before heading to the District 10 office at 10:00 am. Grab Vietnam representatives invited the angered drivers to a private meeting room, but those who returned from the talks said “nothing was resolved.” The ride-sharing service told drivers that it will solve the problem… [Read full story]
Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have issued a nearly VND9 million (US$397) fine to a local taxi driver for operating without a license and overcharging passengers.According to Vu Viet Ha, deputy chief inspector of the municipal Department of Transport, Tran Dinh Phuc, an unlicensed taxi driver operating a vehicle with license plate number 51A 383.35, has been slapped with a VND8.85 million fine ($390) for his violation.Phuc had been picking up passengers in front of the Oncology Hospital in Binh Thanh District in a cab marked with a fake logo and hotline number for “Vantaitaxi."Customers using Phuc’s service were…... [read more]
(Cinet)- Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has just directed authorized units about plans for holding a festival to celebrate a 2008 new year. This festival is expected to start at 8 p.m of 28th December 2007 and end at 12 p.m of 1st January 2008 at 30-4 Park. This is a central organizing site of activities with 4 sub-stages and a major stage installed outdoors on Le Duan Road. The activity content in each sub-stage of the park presents eating and drinking culture of Viet, Chinese, Cham and Khmer; and has elected places for Ha Long Bay, one of…... [read more]
An opening ceremony of a new route from New Zealand’s Auckland to Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam was held on June 5 with the attendance of Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Dinh La Thang. The new service will be offered 3 flights a week on a seasonal basis, operating from June 4 to October 29 in 2016 with a flight time of around 11 hours. Passengers have also another choice to take a flight in Ho Chi Minh City and make a transit in Singapore before continuing the flight to New Zealand. …... [read more]
NDO – Low-cost carrier VietJet Air will open its new flight route linking Ho Chi Minh City and Seoul (the Republic of Korea) since November this year with seven flights a week. The first flight will leave on November 7, departing from Tan Son Nhat Airport at 00:15 (local time) and arriving at Incheon Airport at 07:25 (local time). The return flight departs at 11:20 (local time) from Incheon and arrives at Tan Son Nhat at 14:50 (local time). On the occasion, the carrier launched a special promotion offering 50,000 tickets from VND0 (excluding tax and other additional fees) for…... [read more]
The 987.3m-long, 23.5m-wide, four-lane bridge,built just a few metres away from the old Sai Gon Bridge, will have alifespan of 100 years and can survive earthquakes of up to 5.5magnitude. The 1.5 trillion VND (about 71 millionUSD) bridge is expected to ease traffic on the constantly overloaded SaiGon Bridge, which is nearly five decades old. The BT(build-transfer) project is also aimed at unclogging the city'snortheastern entrance, according to the builder, the Ho Chi Minh CityInfrastructure Investment Joint Stock Co. The new bridge ismeant for vehicles travelling from Binh Thanh to District 2, and the oldone, for vehicles in the opposite…... [read more]
