Grab, the popular ride hailing company of Singapore has now expanded its car-pooling service GrabShare to include taxis from May 16 onwards.
On the GrabShare platform, only private cars allowed passengers to share a ride. But, now taxis will also be added to the mix of users who request a shared ride.
GrabShare claimed that passengers will benefit from the scheme as the fares are up to 30 per cent cheaper than individual rides.
This service has come barely two months after the JustGrab feature was launched, allowing five taxi operators — SMRT Taxis, Prime Taxi, Premier Taxis, Trans-Cab and HDT Singapore Taxi, to implement dynamic pricing for trips booked through the Grab mobile app.
In a press release, Melvin Vu, GrabTaxi Singapore chief, said, “Taxi drivers on JustGrab have already reported a 30 per cent increase in ride bookings, and SGD220 more earnings per week, since the introduction of JustGrab. We want to continue innovating to better serve driver-partners and passengers, and contributing to Singapore’s world-class transport network.”
Grab says that taxi drivers on GrabShare can expect to boost their earnings by up to 40 per cent from completing more jobs at a given time. As a special incentive, Grab says it is offering taxi drivers a 1.5 times fare top-up on all shared bookings during the month of May. No levy will be imposed on shared bookings for taxis this month.
Vu said, “Since launching GrabShare in December, we have been studying trip data and refining our matching algorithm to better match passengers with similar routes to the nearest available driver. We are confident that the combined strengths of taxis and cars will result in greater transport efficiency while creating more income opportunities for driver-partners.”