[Review] Bolt has launched its ride-hailing services in Malaysia

My fellow non-drivers, you’ve likely heard that there’s a new ride-hailing app in town by the name of Bolt.

We caught wind of the European mobility app’s foray into Malaysia earlier this year, when there had been sightings of job postings on LinkedIn. But finally, the app is functional locally.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth the ride or not, here’s my verdict of my experience.

Cheaper fares, what’s the catch?

Currently, for the first seven rides, users get 50% off, which makes fares pretty cheap. Keep in mind that there is a maximum promo cap of RM15.  

Even without the discount, it seems like the fares are sometimes cheaper than Grab’s, or at least comparable.

So, what’s wrong with the app? Well, it’s all a numbers game.

Not once but twice, I was unable to book a ride. And both times, I tried for multiple times. The distance wasn’t anything insane, just around a 20 to 30 minutes’ drive. I constantly watched as the app told me “Driver Found” only to then tell me the driver did not accept the ride.

After multiple tries, I had to turn back to good old Grab, which got me a ride almost instantaneously.

But fine, Bolt is new. Not having enough drivers for now is pretty forgivable. But besides that, though, I kept experiencing glitches. For one, the app keeps deleting characters as I’m typing it in the search bar when I’m trying to plug in my destination.

That’s innocent enough, but the worst glitch was the one I kept facing with the payment portal, which was why I resorted to using cash.

Even though I linked my card to the app, I somehow have to approve my transactions every single time. Yet, every time I approve and head back into the Bolt app, I’m told that my payment failed.

Just take a look at my bank transactions:

At least it was immediately refunded.

Finally, we’re on the starting line

Third time’s truly the charm, because on my third attempt, I finally got a ride. Given, this was pretty late into the night (around 11:30PM) and the destination was only 10 minutes away, so maybe that improved my chances.

The driver was about 13 to 15 minutes away, which is not ideal, but tolerable. He actually called me to tell me he was on the way, which I believe was more of a nice gesture on his part than a feature of the app. At least that confirms that calls on the app are fully functional.

All throughout the ride, I saw ride offers keep popping up on his phone screen. A lot of these people were 10 to 20 minutes away from our destination, which might be why he didn’t accept any of them.

At the end of our ride, the driver asked us whether we had paid with card. I told him that it was cash, but he wasn’t able to check the price because the bookings kept popping up on his screen. Frustrated, he told us how much he hated that feature, because every time he would just have to wait for it to time itself out.

Now, I believe there was a “decline” button in the corner, but he didn’t press it. It’s either he doesn’t understand the UI, or maybe he feels like the platform might “punish” him for declining. Now, that’s just a hypothesis.

In any case, there seems to be a learning curve for the driver, which I can imagine is quite frustrating. Hopefully, through time, this is something that can be resolved.

You have to walk before you can bolt

Bolt, ironically, seems to be off to a pretty slow start in Malaysia.

A friend of mine, who managed to book a Bolt ride rather quickly, likened his experience with the service to “when Grab was a baby”.

While understandable, I would’ve expected Bolt to hit the ground running, given that the unicorn startup has had a wealth of experience entering a number of different countries, including neighbouring ones like Thailand.  

Regardless, maybe the entry of Bolt is going to create healthy competition that will propel our ride-hailing services forward. Lalamove just announced that they’re getting into the ride-hailing space, too, which is pretty interesting.

One of these days, we might have to do a little comparison between all the market offerings. For now, I will say, I’m still liking the reliability of Grab, and its comprehensive system is the best for now. But I’m ready for any of the other platforms to change my mind.  

• Learn more about Bolt here.
• Read other articles we’ve written about ride hailing here.

Featured Image Credit: Bolt / Vulcan Post