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Friday, March 29, 2024

Grab Philippines sanctions 500 drivers after complaints

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GRAB Philippines on Monday said it sanctioned almost 500 drivers last week after an internal investigation into mounting complaints against drivers cancelling passengers’ bookings.

Brian Cu, Grab country head, said he expected more drivers to be disciplined in the coming days as the ride-hailing company further intensified its campaign to purge driver ranks to serve its passengers better.

“We will never tolerate any behavior that compromises the quality of our service. We see every post and complaint. We apologize that our services fell short. However, we will move forward. We have rolled out additional and stricter measures to address issues on cancellations and this is just the start. We promise to improve to provide the quality of service our passengers deserve,” Cu said. 

“Only five-percent cancellation rate is allowed as metric for incentives. Those with 10 percent and above cancellation rate per week may face sanctions such as suspension and complete banning from the platform. We assure our driver-partners that we will follow proper investigation and due diligence.” Cu said.  

“While we do our best to further improve driver services, we hope that our passengers would also do their part and exercise the same level of commitment. We encourage our passengers to be responsible by maintaining minimal and valid cancellations and keeping wait time to no more than seven minutes. Passengers with reported complaints my also face sanctions,” he added. 

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Meanwhile, a party-list lawmaker on Monday challenged Grab Philippines to cut its estimated P400-million monthly gross commission to show genuine compassion to the sorry state of poor drivers and operators.

Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta Rep. Jericho Nograles tagged such abuse as “tubong lugaw” – an idiom to mean having a return of investment higher than the capital. 

Grab Philippines must moderate its commission by reduction to 10 percent from 20 percent, he said.

“You (Grab) are at it (tubong lugaw),” he cited.

“Brian Cu and Grab are very consistent when they said they love their drivers. I would like them to prove their love by slashing their commission. That is doable,” he stressed.

“Imagine that, they’re running a computer business that earns a P400-million gross per month. If you divide that (by two), that is already P200 million (for the drivers and operators,” he said.

The drivers and operators, not Grab, are always facing the risk of hard work and payment for their units, he added.

According to Nograles, the P400-million Grab’s monthly gross commission emanated from Cu’s statement that Grab has 2.5 million weekly rides with a minimum fare charge of P200 or P400 million income.

In a span of one month with a 10 million rides, the ride-hailing service could earn as much as almost P2 billion.

“So Grab, if you really care for your drivers, give them half of the commission. Imagine, Grab has P400 million per month, while the drivers are losing due to high cost of gas, time, maintenance and payment for the vehicles,” he pointed out.

Following LTFRB’s order to suspend Grab’s P2 per minute travel charge, driver cancellation rate doubled at 11 percent last Friday and Saturday, and were predominantly driven by low fares. 

As a result, drivers drove less and Grab was only able to service half of the passenger demand. 

“Drivers have to buy gas, pay the monthly amortization for the vehicle, or the daily boundary, and when traffic stalls them, it is only the P2 per minute that saves their income. So with the P2 gone, many of our drivers earn less and drive less, if at all. No matter how willing they are to drive, they are left with no choice but to think of ways to recover their expenses. Sadly, most of them have resorted to cancelling bookings especially when they know they will traverse traffic,” he added.

Grab has appealed to the LTFRB through a filed motion for reconsideration, explaining that the P2 per minute travel time fare component was legal (based on the 2015 Department of Transportation),  and necessary  to protect the livelihood of driver partners while sustaining transport demands of the riding public. 

Cu said the P2 was not a Grab income because 80 percent went to the driver directly while the 20 percent was spent on driver incentives and rider promos. 

Grab promised to improve their features and service for the good of the riding public. 

However, Cu hoped that the LTFRB would reinstate the travel time fare since it was ultimately for the benefit of both riders and passengers. 

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