Grab hopes tie-up will raise income of drivers

KUALA LUMPUR: Pushing beyond ride hailing services, Grab wants to increase the revenue of its driver-partners.

“We have some 100,000 partner-drivers on a monthly basis,” said Grab Malaysia country head Sean Goh at the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Media Prima Digital yesterday.

“We are hoping that by having the Grab in-car media platform, our partner-drivers will be able to push up their revenue.”

On the new Sales and Services Tax (SST) which will take effect in September, Goh does not expect many changes in the pricing of its products.

He said the company is studying whether it will absorb the cost arising from the SST as it did with the Goods and Services Tax.

Goh also said there has been misconceptions since Grab acquired Uber Southeast Asia in March. Some of these include price increase of ride hailing services and drivers being forced to work more for less.

“However, in our ecosystem, I can tell you that it is very hard to become anti-competitive. Our biggest competitors are actually car owners.”

Besides transport and food delivery, Grab is also looking to strengthen its offerings under Grab Financial, which include mobile payments, micro-financing, insurance and other financial services.