Grab rides will soon cost slightly more
By now, I am certain all our readers are familiar with Grab in Malaysia so I will not waste any time introducing the service and get right to the point. Grab Malaysia has updated its peak hour fares and incentive structure for its e-hailing service, to compensate its drivers more fairly, especially for all their time.
When will we see this change? Immediately. Yup, as of right now, Grab has implemented its new fares for peak hour pricing and it will be be based primarily on the time needed to complete a ride rather than the distance covered. This is the opposite of how the fare used to be calculated prior to the update.
Moreover, this change means that in the Klang Valley area, the Grab fare per minute (estimated time to reach destination) will be increased from 20 sen to 43 sen, whereas the fare per kilometre (distance) will be reduced from 70 sen to 25 sen. However, the base and minimum rates remain unchanged at RM2 and RM5 respectively.
On top of that, Grab noted that many of its drivers stated that the current fares do not offer sufficient compensation for the time spent in traffic jams during peak hours. This has left many riders unhappy and some even unwilling to accept rides during peak hours so this change should help a lot.
What’s more, Grab even stated, “Please note that we need to balance the higher fare per minute with a lower fare per km as maintaining the existing fare per km will result in a significant increase in fare levels, causing a drop in demand from passengers.”
Naturally, Grab also shared some visuals and illustrated how this compromise would affect passengers particularly during peak hours and based on the table, I do admit, not much has changed, sure we now pay just a tad more during peak hours but in all honesty, the difference is negligible at best.
So while most passengers should think these changes are fair, vice president for the Grab Drivers Malaysia Association (GDMA), Mohd Azril Ahmat thinks otherwise.
Mohd Azril said, “Based on the feedback I’ve gotten from some (Grab) drivers today, they are expecting at least a 30% reduction in earnings. This is because they reduced the earnings based on distance, which is down to just 25 sen. My concern now is that other ride-hailing companies will follow the same fee structure.”
Founder of online radio station Ehailing.fm, Fazal Kamarudin also agreed that the fare changes were shocking and stated, “From 70 sen per kilometre to 25 sen doesn’t make sense. I hope that Grab can study the fee structure again, and the relevant authorities should look into the matter.”
What do you guys think though? If you need further information, we got this from Ringgit Plus. Thank you Ringgit Plus for the information and images and do check out their article linked here for more detailed information.
