Banana Bike, a Bangkok-based on-demand motorbike taxi app, is adding its fleet to the capital's smartphone-enabled riding market with the introduction of what is termed the country's first instant online bidding service.
"By only working with official motorbike taxi drivers -- the ones sporting flashy orange vests and yellow number plates -- this makes Banana Bike fully legal and ready to ride," managing director MR Saral Varavarn said after yesterday's service debut.
Grab and Uber are also offering motorcycle-hailing services in Thailand. But the authorities have suspended their services over claims that they broke local laws and clashed with registered transport companies.
"Our app service is legitimate, as our motorcycle drivers hold public motorcycle driver licences with yellow registration plates," MR Saral said.
Banana Bike users can download the iOS or Android version and register their phone numbers via SMS.
Commuters are allowed to order a motorcycle taxi via a lively bidding through smartphones for a ride from motorcycle taxi drivers within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the passenger's location.
A motorcycle taxi stand is typically located 1.5km from another in compliance with the standards set by the motorcycle taxi industry. This ensures there will be no overlapping routes with other motorcycle taxi stands, he said.
Riders can either choose a motorcycle taxi driver offering the best fare rate or one who is nearest.
The company has 1,300 motorcycle taxi drivers signed up with its service system, operating in major inner-city districts in the initial stage.
MR Saral said Banana Bike does not impose any fees on motorcycle drivers. The company instead charges drivers 10 baht per trip.
The company is also working with Omese, a Thailand-based payment enabler, to accept debit and credit cards payments soon.
Banana Bike spent one year developing the app and has been supported by the Land Transportation Department. The app service was unofficially launched two months ago.
"We expect to have 10,000 drivers joining our fleet by the year-end, up from 1,300 at present," MR Saral said.
An internal study by Banana Bike found that there are more than 140,000 motorcycle drivers in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok. Of the total, 40,000 are expected to participate in Banana Bike's network.
The study also found that there are 1 million motorcycle taxi trips per day in Bangkok, with an average of five trips per person per month.
MR Saral said around 5,000 people have downloaded the Banana Bike app.
"We aim to have 20,000 customers with 300 trips per day -- the level to break even," he said.
Banana Bike also plans to launch a smartphone-enabled hailing service for tuk-tuks in Bangkok in December.
The company will raise seed funding worth 15 million baht in 2017 for further business expansion, MR Saral said.