GRAB, Southeast Asia’s leading everyday super app, on Monday announced its updated ride policy that aims to reduce unreasonable cancellations for both drivers and passengers.
In a statement, Grab said it is mindful that cancellations are frustrating for everyone—whether for a passenger whose time was wasted, or for a driver who spent fuel and effort to get to the pick-up point.
As part of its “Better Everyday” commitment, Grab continues to intensify its efforts to further reduce cancellations by promoting responsible use of its services, specifically unreasonable cancellation behavior, Grab Philippines President Brian Cu said in a statement.
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 cancellations—two times per hour, three instances a day, and or a total of five cancels per week. Passenger cancellations after five minutes upon booking confirmation and no-shows are also major concerns from drivers.
To eliminate excessive cancellations that affect the ride-sharing experience for both drivers and passengers, Grab has put in place a number of initiatives and policies to discourage cancellations on both sides.
Drivers are penalized if they go below the required completion rate. Completion rate is computed based on completed bookings, cancellation rates and ignored jobs. Completion rate also heavily affects incentives.
If a driver excessively ignores or cancels booking requests, they are locked out of the platform for a temporary period of time.
Drivers with passenger complaints and low star ratings are also flagged. Grab gives out warnings, and suspends or eventually bans drivers over repeat offenses.
For drivers who go above and beyond, a new tipping feature allowing passengers to reward the drivers with five-star rating has been rolled out.
When a driver cancels on a ride, the passenger automatically gets 30 GrabRewards points, which they can use to redeem items or vouchers in the GrabRewards catalog.
After excessive cancellations, the passenger’s account will temporarily be suspended for 24 hours. Also, a P50 fee will apply to passengers who cancel the ride after five minutes of getting assigned a driver.
A P50 fee will apply if a passenger doesn’t show up at the pick-up point within five minutes for GrabCar and three minutes for GrabShare upon the driver’s arrival.
The cancellation fee incurred in the above situations will go directly to the driver, to compensate them for fuel and effort they have already spent traveling to the passenger.
“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. 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,” Cu said.
At the same time, to protect passengers, Grab has put in place a robust system so that fees are not charged in some situations. For instance, the passenger is not charged a fee if they cancel within five minutes of getting assigned a driver. No fee is charged if the driver isn’t moving toward the pick-up point (or going the wrong direction).
No fee if the driver takes 15 minutes longer than the first estimated time of arrival. (For example, if the passenger gets a driver who is three minutes away, but he or she has waited more than 18 minutes for the driver to arrive, the cancellation is free.
There is also no fee if the driver indicates that he has arrived when he or she has not.
In addition, Grab promises to refund any fees charged wrongly within 48 hours, when reported via their in-app Help Center.
Grab has notified the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board about its new cancellation policy.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza