Latest Grab Incident Proves that Grab Is Still Willing To Protect Their Drivers

Just a few days ago, my not-so-handsome-and-quite-fat-but-friendly colleague, wrote a piece on how an “Overprotective Dad-To-Be Got Aggressive With Grab Driver For Driving Over Humps & Bumps.”

To recap, a husband and his pregnant wife called a Grab car to 9 Bukit Batok Street 22.

Upon entering the car, the husband tells the driver, Aza, that his wife was pregnant and instructs him to be careful on “humps and bumps” to which the driver replies “I’ll try my best.”

For reasons unknown, the passenger embarked on a passive-aggressive rant which included:

• Telling the driver to drop them off if he couldn’t “drive better”
• Quoting Section 304 of the penal code (which is for homicide)
• Continual haranguing of the driver

This, despite Aza barely going over 40kmh during the 3 minutes-plus ride.

The incident ends in a cacophonous uproar when shouting (mostly by the passenger) can be heard, alongside with threats of police-calling, shift-blaming (who-beat-who sort) and Grab hotline’s automated system playing in the background.

Take a look at the video and you will know what I’m talking about (turn the sound on because it’s merely voices).

Naturally, the comment section was rife with sentiments and comments; most if not all, in full support of Aza.

Suspension of Passenger’s account

In a follow up to this incident, Stomp reported today that the passenger’s Grab account has since been temporarily suspended.

In response to Stomp’s query, a Grab spokesman said: “The safety of customers, drivers and passengers alike, is of absolute priority.

“Grab does not tolerate such behaviour and have temporarily suspended the passenger’s account while we do thorough investigations. We are also in touch with the affected driver to provide support.”

Which brings us to a rather interesting topic at this point.

Grab For or Against Drivers?

By now, I’m pretty sure most of you would have read about Grab’s very own drivers having a gripe or two about Grab.

According to this Todayonline article, many “complaints were … lodged by riders and drivers on the increase in “effective price post-transaction”, which translated to a dip in quantum and frequency of driver promotions and incentives.”

The “post-transaction” in question here was the controversial Grab-Uber merger that took place last year.

In other words, Grab was effectively paying their drivers lesser and treating them worse off than when Grab had just entered the market.

Further from home, Grab Manila even allegedly required its Filipino drivers to drive for 18-hour, 6 days a week shift, in order for them to attain incentives.

That said though, Ada’s case seems to indicate that Grab might not be that unfeeling and/or unfair after all.

In fact, as recent as October 2018, Grab halted late-night carpooling services after receiving numerous complaints from drivers about drunk and argumentative riders.

While their new reward system seems to be categorically a notch down from the old, both for drivers and riders alike, it should not be all that surprising as they are ultimately a business looking to improve their bottom-line.

The same goes for any long-standing brand/service in any industry.

That is why new players, innovations and disruptions are welcomed, and with that, “Hello Go-Jek.”