SUPERAPP Grab announced that it has boosted its service reliability and accessibility to meet the growing demand for deliveries and transportation for the Christmas holidays.
In a press briefing yesterday, Grab Philippines Country Head Ronald Roda said the company ramped up efforts to better balance the supply of vehicles with passenger demand and effectively serve the rise in on-demand deliveries. These include new features to ensure safety and reliability without compromising affordability, as well as upping the performance on the backend, assuring that both the algorithm and customer service response have been tweaked to meet or surpass the 99.9998 percent reliability target.
“Demand will always be greater than supply in our ecosystem,” Roda told Malaya Business Insight. “We are regulated by the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and thus this is the limitation by the number of cars that are made available for the use of the public.”
Roda however, expressed gratitude to the LTFRB for its continued openness and supportive efforts. With the release of new TNVS slots in August, Grab had been onboarding new driver-partners – a process that could take up to three to five months.
In other countries where ride-hailing services are available, the demand dictates the supply of vehicles. In the US for instance, Uber and Lyft, are not regulated by franchising in the same way as traditional taxi services. Instead, they are regulated through a combination of state and local laws that address various aspects of their operations, such as insurance requirements, background checks, and safety measures.
Grab Philippines Director for Mobility EJ Dela Vega and Director for Deliveries Greg Camacho, also shared their respective strategies to enhance reliability, accessibility, and safety as demand increased in the final two months of the year.
Historical data showed that Grab Philippines experienced at least a 19 percent increase in daily transacting users for its ride-hailing services in the last quarter of each year, with ride bookings growing by up to 45 percent in the second and third weeks of December. For its deliveries business, demand rose by 20 percent on key holiday dates, with a recent survey revealing that 44 percent of Grab Philippines users relied on the app for their festive meal deliveries.
“Our data and studies all lead to a singular insight: Filipinos just wish to be present this Christmas – fully engaged with families and friends as they celebrate…special moments this holiday season,” Roda told be media present at the event. The Grab Holiday Trends study indicated that Filipinos attended an average of four gatherings to celebrate Christmas and New Year.
The brand emphasized the challenge of being a reliable and accessible platform.
“We spend 10 months preparing for the Christmas season. We have been preparing since January of this year – working with our regulators towards a more balanced demand and supply and launching a series of technologies to provide our consumers with a better holiday experience,” Dela Vega said.
Despite demand during peak times potentially outstripping current supply, Grab remained optimistic that its service reliability would improve compared to previous holidays.
Grab also addressed the potential impact of holiday-induced traffic congestion on driver-partners’ earnings and productivity. Historical data showed that drivers would need to spend 14 percent more time for the same trip distance during the December holiday rush.
“Our customers include our drivers and riders, and we want them to benefit from the spike that the season brings,” Dela Vega commented echoing an earlier sentiment of Roda, who noted that the holidays are crucial for their driver-partners, and the company is committed to helping them capitalize on the increased demand to attain sufficient, if not above-par, earnings for themselves and their families.
“While we continue to prioritize the accessibility of our services, we are also closely monitoring the fairness of our fares to ensure that our driver-partners can earn sustainably and viably this holiday season. By ensuring this, we hope to encourage more drivers to continue serving our passengers despite the traffic situation, helping maintain service reliability on our platform,” Roda said.
Grab assured users that fares would remain fair, in line with the regulatory matrix implemented by the LTFRB.
To maintain the accessibility of its ride-hailing services, Grab expanded the coverage of its GrabUnlimited subscription service, which now included an everyday 8 percent discount on GrabCar rides. Grab also launched GrabCar Saver – an affordable mobility solution that was cheaper than a standard GrabCar ride.
The superapp recently launched its Group Rides feature, which maximized the utilization of its fleet through a carpooling model and efficiently lowered fares by allowing groups of four to share their ride’s base fare.
Interestingly, Director for Deliveries Greg Camacho gave a list of top foods for Christmas deliveries which includes lechon and pizza and baking good as top purchases on Grab’s grocery function. He also explained the GrabFood Group Order feature, which facilitated collective meal orders for families and friends, offering escalating discounts up to 15 percent. GrabFood Saver helped users save on delivery fees, while the Large Orders option allowed for ordering larger quantities of food and essentials for group celebrations, complete with special deals.
One relatively unknown feature is Advance Booking, which guarantees on-time rides to the airport that could be booked up to seven days in advance. This was first introduced in May this year. The service allows hassle-free booking of vehicles to bring passengers to the airport
