You may hug your driver: Vietnam’s xe ôm
Not every trip requires a car. Sometimes you just want to hop on a motorbike, zip through traffic and get off two blocks later.
Vietnam has long had a service for exactly that: the xe ôm, literally a “hug vehicle”.
The wonderfully terse Vietnamese expression describes a motorbike taxi: traditionally, a driver waiting on a street corner for someone who needs a ride. You climb on the back, tell him where you want to be, and off you go.
These days, I wouldn’t recommend simply hopping onto a stranger’s motorbike. Especially since technology has given the xe ôm such a useful upgrade.
Before the App
Before ride-hailing apps arrived, xe ôm drivers were part of the street furniture in Vietnam. You found them outside markets, bus stations and cafés, waiting for someone who needed a ride.
There was no meter. You named your destination, the driver named a price and you negotiated. For foreigners, that could turn a two-minute ride into a small linguistic adventure.
Still, the xe ôm made perfect sense. Motorbikes slip through traffic, squeeze into narrow alleys and drop you exactly where you need to be. For short trips, they are hard to beat.
Then the Smartphone Arrived
The motorbike taxi did not disappear. It acquired GPS.
Today, the best-known version is GrabBike, the motorbike service offered by Grab. Enter your destination, see the fare and order a driver. You can follow their approach on the map and check the licence plate before getting on.
More importantly, there is no haggling. No shouting an address over traffic. No wondering whether 80,000 đồng is the normal fare or the special Welcome to Vietnam price.
The driver has the destination on his phone, you have the price on yours.
It is essentially the same old xe ôm, just more convenient, more transparent and safer.
The Original Is Still Around
The old-school xe ôm driver is becoming a rarer sight. He is usually an older man who knows his patch by heart and has spent enough years waiting for customers to acquire one essential professional skill: sleeping on a motorbike.
Grab drivers are a different generation. They tend to be younger, and many drive as a flexible way to earn extra money. They don’t need to know every alley by heart. The app does that for them.
The times they are a-changing. When the last xe ôm drivers hang up their helmets, Vietnamese city life will unquestionably lose a little character with them.
