SEPTEMBER 23 — I thought it was just a coincidence. But after four of my usual Grab drivers or ride buddies told me they could take me to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) but weren’t free to collect me from the airport, I sensed something was amiss.
When it finally clicked, I wondered why it took me so long to grasp a truth almost every driver knows but not many passengers may take to heart: Unless you’re financially desperate, picking passengers up from KLIA may not be worth the trip.
This is because unlike picking people up from their houses and sending them to the Departure Terminal, the opposite route can be a lot more complicated.
First, unlike waiting for you at your residence, a driver cannot “wait” at KLIA for you. Drivers need to hang out at nearby petrol stations or some eatery.
As luck (or airport highway planning) would have it, there’s only one petrol station within spitting distance of KLIA.
I think it’s a Petronas; often when you drive past it you can see many cars parked at the exit pathway. God only knows how long they’ve been waiting.
Plus, what if the petrol station’s already full of cars? That’ll mean you either have to hang out farther from the station (which just feels weird) or at an eatery about 10 minutes from the airport and a bit out of the way.
Hence, if I’m not mistaken, drivers usually go to this eatery only if there’s a very long wait or if they’re just waiting for in-coming hails from arriving passengers.
And speaking about waiting for arriving passengers, we all know that’s no fun.
We’re all familiar with the fact that a 1600 touchdown time usually means the passenger only comes out of the airport around 1630 (if they’re very lucky); often it’s around 1645 or sometimes even past 1700 (if the luggage carousel crew’s out to lunch or if the immigration system is messed up).
For obvious reasons, international flights will take longer to clear than domestic ones.
If you’re a driver and your client happens to be stuck behind a long queue of foreign nationals who have trouble handling the new KLIA arrival app, then best of luck and I hope you didn’t make dinner plans.
Long and short, for a Grab driver to say Yes to a pre-arranged pick-up from KLIA, that would more or less require him to set aside two (or sometimes three) hours of his time prior to the pick-up itself.
What’s worse is if the plane arrives on a weekday evening (especially Friday for some reason), because the North-South Expressway Central Link (NSCCL) and Maju Expressway (E20) aren’t exactly empty deserts around that time.
They’re more like, uh, parking lots.
Finally, most drivers will find it awkward to charge a higher rate for the return trip. Which means all the issues mentioned above are “absorbed” by the driver.
So there you have it. If you’ve been getting regularly turned down by Grab drivers for return trips, maybe taking the KLIA Express is a better idea. For families, hey, why not support local taxi drivers for a change?
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
