MANILA -- Grab Philippines will be imposing a PHP 50 fee to passengers who will cancel their rides after five minutes of getting assigned a driver or those who did not show up at pick-up points within minutes of a driver’s arrival.
The ridesharing firm explained that the new policy aims to reduce unreasonable cancellations by both drivers and passengers.
“Grab is mindful that cancellations are frustrating for both the passengers and our drivers. At the same time, we are cognizant of the fact that sometimes, cancellations are necessary during special situations. Our intention in implementing this new policy is to create a better ride-hailing ecosystem, where both passengers and drivers practice the responsible use of the Grab platform,” Grab President Brian Cu said in a statement on Monday.
Starting Monday, a PHP 50 cancellation fee will be charged to passengers who cancel the ride after 5 minutes of getting assigned a driver and a PHP 50 no show-up fee if a passenger did not show up at the pick-up point within 5 minutes for GrabCar and 3 minutes for GrabShare upon the driver’s arrival.
The cancellation fee will be applied on the next ride booking of a passenger if they paid in cash and will be paid to the driver to reimburse fuel costs and time spent for traveling to the destination point of the rider.
A passenger’s account could be suspended for 24 hours if they cancel rides twice in an hour, thrice in a day or a total of 5 cancellations per week.
Drivers will also be locked out of the platform for a temporary period of time if they forced passengers to cancel ride bookings without any reason and for being selective of passenger destinations.
Grab clarified that fees will not be imposed for the following situations:
- Passenger cancels within 5 minutes of getting an assigned driver.
- The driver is not moving towards the pick-up point or going to the wrong direction.
- Driver takes 15 minutes longer than the first estimated time of arrival.
- The driver indicates that he/she has arrived when he/she has not.
The firm assured that it will refund any fees that were charged wrongly within 48 hours, when reported via their in-app Help Centre.
The new policy will be implemented on a staggered basis for both riders and passengers and is expected to be completed by the end of May.
“We will be implementing this initially to the first 10 percent of the riders and drivers with its full implementation set by end May. We will be rolling out official communications for passengers and drivers starting this Monday,” Grab public relations manager Krhizzy Pasigan said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency.
The company has notified the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board on the new policy.
Ride-hailing firm Uber used to impose a PHP 100 cancellation fee to passengers that cancel rides more than five minutes after a booking is made before its ride-hailing operations in the country were halted in April last year due to its acquisition by Grab. (PNA)
