Congested Cities To Gain From Grabshare

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- Congested major cities like Kuala Lumpur stand to gain significantly from Grab's first on-demand commercial car-pooling service, GrabShare. Grab, the leading ride-hailing platform in South-East Asia, on Thursday announced its regional introduction of GrabShare in Malaysia and the Philippines. With GrabShare, passenger demand can be met efficiently with the existing car supply to help ease traffic congestion. "Grab leverages on big data to develop tailored solutions and solve local transport challenges to out serve our customers," said Grab Malaysia's Country Head, Sean Goh, in a statement Thursday. "GrabShare transports with a more pocket-friendly fare, minimising the need for more cars, by tapping on the pool of commercial GrabCar Economy drivers. "We are confident GrabShare will enable us to meet Malaysia's growing passenger demand for ride-hailing, especially in catering to first-and-last mile, while helping our drivers earn more," said Goh. Although total car sales in Malaysia declined 13 per cent in 2016, a 2014 Nielsen study showed Malaysia had the third highest car ownership globally, with 93 per cent Malaysian households owning at least one car and more than half with multiple cars. The concept of car-pooling is not new and has long been promoted by government agencies in Malaysia, he added. Grabshare, first launched in December 2016 in Singapore, has been effectively attracting new riders to the Grab platform and in two months, completed two million GrabShare rides with total distance of about 20 million km. With rapid passenger adoption of GrabShare, Grab has seen a 15 per cent improvement in passenger matching rate with drivers' monthly income increasing 10 per cent on average. GrabShare's rapid success in Singapore instills Grab's confidence to extend its commercial car-pooling service in more countries. Its fares are 30 per cent cheaper than GrabCar Economy with all passengers covered by Grab's Group Personal Accident Insurance. Total personal accident benefits for the driver or passengers can be up to US$10,000 (US$1 = RM4.44) per person in Malaysia. The Grab application can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. --BERNAMA