By Alexandria San Juan
Ride-sharing company Grab Philippines reiterated their call to transport regulators of onboarding at least 6,000 displaced drivers to cater the influx of passengers using their platform.
A Grab employee uses the app to book a cab for passengers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco / MANILA BULLETIN)
Grab Country Marketing Head Cindy Toh said on Tuesday that their immediate priority is to work with regulators to onboard the 6,000 displaced drivers who are not part of the master list of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board.
The approval of these transport network vehicles to join Grab's platform can serve the recent overflowing demand of riders.
According to Toh, Grab receives about 600,000 passenger booking requests each day but only 35,000 vehicles are available to serve the riding public.
With this overflow in demand and severe undersupply of cars, long waits or not getting allocated a vehicle at all remain as problems when trying to book a ride, said Toh.
"We are continuously working with government agencies to find a long-term solution on the supply issue," she assured.
"We understand how difficult this situation has been for our passengers, especially to those who depend on us for their daily commute. We are working very hard to improve the Grab experience," Toh added.
In the meantime, Toh said that Grab is regularly releasing incentives to increase driver productivity by at least 15% per day.
Grab, in a statement, said they also encourage passengers to use GrabShare, or the option to share a ride with another rider, to free up more cars for fellow passengers and save up with lower fares.
Meanwhile, for multiple destinations, Grab encourage the use of GrabCar’s Multi-Stop feature instead of booking separate rides.
Early this year, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board issued Memorandum Circular 2018-005 which put a common supply base of 65,000 units plying in Metro Manila.
LTFRB member Atty. Aileen Lizada said that there will be a review on active TNVS every three months to "replenish" the pool should the units in the supply base reduced.