The demand for ride-hailing services in the country continues to expand and the fresh provision of transport network vehicle services (TNVS) providers will help plug severe supply gaps that have been noted in 2022. 

Grab Philippines Senior Director for Operations Ronald Roda said there is enough demand for the fresh supply of TNVS in the country, as the demand for its transport services already breached past the pre-pandemic level during December, 2023

Contrary to the claims of certain groups that the demand for TNVS is dwindling, data from Grab showed that daily bookings in Greater Metro Manila alone far exceeds the existing supply of ride-hailing drivers - with Grab serving less than half of the passenger demand volume during December.

Outside of Greater Metro Manila, the demand for GrabCar has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, but has shown monthly double-digit growth.

“We estimate that the number of slots required for catering to demand in 2023 for new and existing cities is close to 100,000 TNVS licenses mentioned by the LTFRB in their last statement. For Greater Metro Manila, this simply brings us back to the 65,000 supply cap levels pre-pandemic. Our aspiration is to get GMM supply back to early 2020 supply levels. For the provinces, an estimate of  35,000 TNVS licenses takes into consideration forecasts based on population size that can be converted into the Total Addressable Market (TAM), as well as the activity levels of the current driver pool in December 2022,” Roda said. 

In Greater Metro Manila, which includes the provinces of Rizal, Bulacan, Laguna, and Cavite, the TNVS supply previously allowed pre-pandemic is 65,000 driver-partners. Today less than 20,000 Grab drivers-partners are actively plying the roads of GMM where Grab is present. 

Areas outside the Greater Metro Manila, including Pampanga, Albay, Camarines Sur, Iloilo City, Bacolod City, and Cebu, also need additional supply of TNVS. 

“Even at 65,000 available cars in GMM, the fulfillment rate — the percentage of bookings that are fulfilled — never breached 85 percent pre-pandemic, meaning that there was still passenger demand to be fulfilled by the driver-partners,” Roda said. “An oversupply is highly unlikely.”

Grab is also expanding its services to other cities -  specifically in Mindanao, investing in other provinces to support the digital transformation goals of their local government units. 

“The fresh allocation of TNVS supply is truly a welcome development. Grab has initiated discussions with the local governments of Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Iligan to hopefully launch Grab’s super app services in their cities to enable their constituents to enjoy digital services. Historically, Grab noted strong contributions to the local economies of the cities where it operates, as it creates a domino effect on growth — from driver-partners, merchant-partners and down to the consumers,” Roda said. 

In view of the increase in supply, Grab will be doubling down on its initiatives to help onboard driver-partners and assist them in securing their franchises from the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB). 

“We fully support the LTFRB in its decision to strengthen the local ride-hailing sector with the opening of the 100,000 TNVS licenses across the country as it ladders up to our joint commitment with the Philippine government in providing 500,000 Filipinos with meaningful income opportunities. We are committed to not only generate new livelihood for our partners but to also help the local economy recover from the pandemic and grow further,” Roda said.