Grab Philippines said it updated its ride policy in a bid to reduce unreasonable cancellations for both drivers and passengers.
“Grab is mindful that cancellations are frustrating for both the passengers and our drivers. At the same time, we are cognizant of the fact that sometimes, cancellations are necessary during special situations,” said Grab Philippines president Brian Cu.
“Our intention in implementing this new policy is to create a better ride-hailing ecosystem, where both passengers and drivers practice the responsible use of the Grab platform,” he added.
Grab said it would intensify efforts to further reduce cancellations by promoting the responsible use of services.
Grab is tackling one of the core problems that bring down the quality of transport network vehicle services—unreasonable cancellation behavior.
For drivers, unreasonable cancellation behavior includes forcing passengers to cancel the booking without proper reason and being selective of passenger destination.
For passengers, unreasonable cancellation behavior includes excessive actions–two times per hour, three instances a day or a total of 5 cancels a week.
Passenger cancellations after 5 minutes upon booking confirmation and no-shows are also major concerns from drivers.
To eliminate excessive cancellations that affect the ride-sharing experience of both drivers and passengers, Grab has put in place a number of initiatives and policies to discourage cancellations on both sides.
Grab said they were penalizing drivers if they went below the required completion rate and a driver excessively ignored or canceled booking requests by locking them out of the platform for a temporary period of time.
For passengers, Grab is giving 30 GrabRewards points when a driver cancels on a ride. But the passenger’s account will temporarily be suspended for 24 hours after excessive cancellations.
Grab is also imposing P50 cancellation fees for those abort the ride after 5 minutes of getting assigned a driver.