Commuters can book shared rides on Grab from Jan 16 under new trial
After a hiatus of almost three years, commuters can once again book shared rides on private-hire cars and taxis using ride-hailing app Grab from Jan 16 to 29 as part of a limited 14-day trial.
The company said on Tuesday that the trial of its GrabShare service – which allows multiple passengers headed in the same direction to share a ride for lower fares – coincides with the Chinese New Year period, and this means more rides will be made available during the festive season when some drivers may be on a break.
During the trial, bookings for shared rides can be made only during evening peak hours between 5pm and 11pm from selected areas, including the downtown core, River Valley, Outram and Buona Vista, where demand is expected to be high.
There are hopes that the trial will be expanded here after Jan 29, but Grab did not give a timeline for when the ride-sharing service will be fully relaunched.
Fares for the shared rides are expected to be up to 20 per cent cheaper compared with non-shared rides.
GrabShare, which was launched in Singapore in December 2016, was suspended on Feb 9, 2020, amid concerns over the spread of Covid-19 among passengers during the early days of the pandemic.
The reintroduction of the service in Singapore follows a similar relaunch in the Philippines in November 2022.
With the relaunch, Grab has also made changes to how GrabShare will work after feedback the company received from drivers and passengers regarding earlier versions.
Previously, a shared ride was confirmed after a driver was assigned. Other matching passengers were allocated en route, and this often led to unexpected detours and delays if a new booking request suddenly came in.
It was a major bugbear that Grab had tried to resolve in 2019 with a “wait and save” option that offered slightly cheaper fares and a lower chance of a sudden detour in exchange for a waiting time of up to five minutes.
This allowed passengers to be matched before their trip and enabled the shared rides to be fulfilled within a stated time.
With the newest version of GrabShare, all shared rides will be matched upfront, which means a ride will be confirmed only after two passengers headed in similar directions are matched.
This may take up to seven minutes so that the best match can be found, Grab said in a list of frequently asked questions published on its website.
If passengers cannot find another commuter with a similar route, they will be prompted to book a regular non-shared ride instead.
Other changes that Grab made to the service include limiting the number of bookings per shared ride to two, and the number of passengers per booking to just one.
Previously, up to three bookings could be allocated to each shared ride and up to two passengers were allowed per GrabShare booking.
Grab said passengers will now also be charged a $4 fee if they cancel their shared ride after it has been allocated to them.
This fee will go fully to the driver and the other passenger’s booking will proceed, the company said.
Additionally, only cashless payment methods will be accepted with the new version of GrabShare, Grab added.
Meanwhile, the company’s waiting time grace period of three minutes for regular ride-hailing services will also apply to the shared service.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now
