Earlier in June, Singapore ride-hailing company Grab received flak for not informing its passengers about their decision to disable GrabShare between 1am and 5am.
Grab reasoned that they had received “numerous reports” about safety concerns, prompting them to abolish this service in the wee hours of the morning.
Fast forward about three months later, Grab announced yesterday that it will also be disabling its GrabHitch bookings during the same timeframe from October onwards.
A Grab spokesperson told TODAY that its drivers have complained about the disputes and tension they have with carpooling passengers during those hours.
Some of the negative experiences include drunk passengers vomiting in their cars and unruly passengers arguing with them.
As such, Grab believes that this move will help to “improve the experience and safety of its community of drivers and riders”.
Both GrabShare and GrabHitch services are carpooling options that helps passengers to reduce their travel cost by splitting the fare with fellow commuters who are headed in the same direction.
The only difference between the two is that GrabHitch is operated by private-car owners, while GrabShare vehicles are driven by commercial drivers.
Good News For Its Rivals?
According to TODAY, Grab had sent an in-app message to its users on Tuesday regarding this announcement, but a few Grab users (including myself) did not receive any such notifications in our inbox.
Separately, this news came just a day after the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore fined the firm about S$6.4 million for its “anti-competitive” merger with Uber.
This could be seen as a way for Grab to push its users to use their more expensive ride options such as JustGrab service.
However, this strategy could backfire on them and instead push its users to go for alternative ride-hailing apps or taxis, thus bringing business to its rivals during its downtime.
Featured Image Credit: Grab
