Reforms to boost Grab drivers’ earnings by 10 percent

MANILA, Philippines — Ride-hailing giant Grab has rolled out a series of innovations within the app to help their drivers locate where most of the passenger demand is and boost their hourly earnings by 10 percent.

Grab head of product fulfillment Prashant Kumar told reporters the company has introduced a number of solutions to enhance driver productivity and revenue.

According to Kumar, the innovations reduced the idle time of drivers by four percent and increased their hourly income by an average of 10 percent last year.

Grab launched Heatmap that predicts the locations in a city where most of the passenger demand is based on historical data and real-time insights. It also includes what the average wait time would be before getting a booking.

Grab is now piloting Hotspot Navigation in Singapore to point drivers to the nearest areas where most of the current bookings are and helps them navigate toward that direction.

Kumar said Grab is also testing in Singapore and Thailand its Personalized Alerts that send out notifications to off duty drivers who may want to take advantage of a demand spike.

He added that the innovation would be brought to Malaysia and the Philippines by the fourth quarter of the year.

The ride-hailing app is also piloting in Singapore its Zones offering drivers with a list of predefined locations where they can just drive around for a fixed period of time, usually five hours.

Kumar said the solution that would be available in the Philippines toward the end of the year allows drivers to only get bookings from a specific area, boosting their hourly income in the process as they can complete trips quicker.

Apart from this, he said Grab is keeping its Shared Fleet active. Shared Fleet allows drivers to look for non-transport opportunities, especially during dead hours.

Shared Fleet was launched at the onset of the pandemic when drivers had to widen their logistics offering as quarantine restrictions were enforced and travel demand declined.

Grab continues to introduce innovations to enable drivers to position themselves where the demand is and secure alternative opportunities.