Grab to spend $4m a year on driver, delivery rider benefits
Come 2025, Grab will increase its spending on welfare for drivers and delivery workers who use its platform in Singapore to $4 million a year, said the ride-hailing and food delivery giant on Oct 3.
Ride-hailing firm Gojek also has plans to expand its range of benefits for drivers here over the next few months, a spokesperson told The Straits Times.
The developments come amid greater scrutiny over the well-being of private-hire drivers and freelance delivery workers, known collectively as platform workers.
Grab said its annual $4 million outlay, which will come from its operating budget, will be used to fund the company’s existing GrabBenefits programme and new perks that will be introduced from Jan 1, 2025, as part of improvements to the benefits scheme.
The new perks include free annual flu jabs and subsidies for general practitioner (GP) and telemedicine consultations, which are capped at two visits per year and up to $45 per visit. These are limited to drivers and delivery riders in the top two tiers of Grab’s rewards system.
Under the GrabBenefits programme, which has been around since 2018, Grab already provides benefits like fuel discounts and insurance for prolonged medical leave.
Grab said the new perks build on these existing benefits, and they are aimed at addressing concerns raised by drivers and riders during recent focus group sessions.
These concerns include the rising cost of medicine and physical ailments like backaches that are not typically covered by visits to the doctor.
Grab, which posted US$2.36 billion (S$3.06 billion) in revenue in 2023, is not the only platform company that offers perks to drivers and delivery workers out of goodwill.
Gojek and foodpanda provide fuel discounts and medical subsidies, among other benefits.
At Gojek, all its drivers today can see a GP at a subsidised rate of $12 per consultation, without any limit on the number of visits. Grab offers the same, and its new subsidy of up to $45 per visit for two GP visits a year is in addition to this.
Gojek on Oct 1 also rolled out a new fuel savings programme following requests from its drivers for higher upfront discounts.
Grab said the improvements to its benefits scheme are meant to complement the new labour protections under the Platform Workers Act. Set to take effect from Jan 1, 2025, the Act provides platform workers with employee-like levels of Central Provident Fund contributions and work injury compensation insurance.
“Some of these overlap with what we voluntarily provide today, so it makes sense for us to relook our existing benefits,” Grab Singapore managing director Yee Wee Tang said.
He noted that the Platform Workers Act covers on-the-job injuries and long-term savings, while Grab’s benefits programme focuses on more immediate needs such as healthcare and daily expenses.
It is not clear how much of the $4 million that Grab has set aside each year will be spent on the new perks. The Nasdaq-listed company declined to provide details. It also declined to say how much it currently spends on the existing GrabBenefits scheme.
Mr Li Jianggan, chief executive of venture capital and research firm Momentum Works, believes the latest improvement to Grab’s benefits scheme is a strategy to win the loyalty of workers.
As the greater levels of CPF contributions under the Act may lead to a reduction in take-home earnings, some drivers and riders may reconsider whether they want to continue with platform work. Mr Li added: “Since driver supply is always a key issue in Singapore, Grab needs to provide additional benefits to influence them to stay.”
Mr Ariff Salleh, 42, who has been delivering food for Grab since 2019, said the improved benefits that Grab is offering will be a boon to delivery riders like him. “We are dealing with food, so the (free) flu vaccination is definitely a plus.”
Under the Platform Workers Act, platform workers will also be able to form representative bodies called platform work associations with legal powers similar to those of trade unions.
The National Trades Union Congress has said it will form platform work associations after the new law kicks in.
To encourage Grab drivers and delivery workers to join these associations, the company said it will sponsor six months of membership fees for new sign-ups under its improved GrabBenefits programme.
Asked whether this marks a step towards NTUC obtaining the necessary mandate to formally represent Grab workers in the future, Mr Yee said the platform worker associations are still in their infancy and more details will need to be worked out.
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