Amid the surge in holiday demand, Grab expresses confidence in the reliability of its mobility services, courtesy of proactive measures undertaken. The company’s focus on optimizing fleet utilization ensures maximum efficiency across all GrabCar vehicles traversing the roads.
Historically, Grab experiences a substantial surge in mobility service demand during the holiday season. Anticipating a minimum 20% spike in GrabCar demand in December 2023, with a potential surge of up to +45% in the second and third weeks, the platform prepares to manage the challenge of supply allocation by implementing strategies to maximize vehicle deployment.
Ronald Roda, Chief Operating Officer of Grab Philippines, emphasizes the paramount importance placed on passenger, consumer, and partner experiences. Leveraging data, platform insights, and technology, Grab proactively identifies and tackles challenges faced by stakeholders. This approach enables Grab to develop proactive solutions, ensuring a hassle-free holiday season for all. “We aim to enable every Filipino to partake in the enduring holiday celebrations through Grab’s reliable mobility services,” adds Roda.
Enhancing GrabCar Fleet Efficiency In its pursuit of platform reliability, Grab has initiated an array of mobility solutions to optimize its existing GrabCar fleet. This strategic focus on enhancing platform reliability addresses the demand-supply imbalance. Among these solutions is the relaunch of GrabShare. Rolled out in Q1 of 2023, this cherished carpooling service efficiently matches passengers traveling in the same direction, promoting ride sharing. Unmatched passengers are allocated a GrabCar with a discounted fare through the GrabShare Match Guarantee offer. Currently available in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu.
Travelers arriving at airports, particularly Overseas Filipino Workers returning home for the holidays, can anticipate a dependable GrabCar booking experience through GrabAirport. Collaborating with airport authorities and the LTFRB, Grab introduced GrabAirport—an on-demand ride-hailing service backed by a dedicated Grab fleet for airport pickups and drop-offs, addressing the lack of safe and transparent transportation at airports.
To cater to time-sensitive passengers requiring immediate vehicle allocation, Grab introduces Multi-Taxi Type (MTT) booking. By enabling the platform to search for vehicle allocation from a range of Grab’s mobility options, such as GrabCar Four-Seater, GrabCar Six-Seater, and GrabTaxi, MTT bookings can notably reduce allocation time by 20 to 30%, based on pilot runs of the feature. This enhancement guarantees a more reliable and efficient booking experience, especially for passengers in a rush.
Collaborating with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Grab focuses on expanding the current driver pool—a crucial factor in achieving a balance between demand and supply on the platform. This year, following LTFRB’s allocation of new slots, Grab has increased its fleet by 40%. In preparation for the holiday rush, Grab continues to onboard drivers who secured a slot from the latest pool of 10,200 TNVS franchises issued by LTFRB in August. From this pool, 4,000 new driver-partners have been activated thus far. While working to restore the driver pool to pre-pandemic levels, Grab ensures a well-balanced platform that maintains safety, reliability, and convenience, even amidst seasonal market fluctuations,” Roda notes.
Offering an Alternative Mobility Option Homegrown two-wheel ride-hailing company MOVE IT, in strategic partnership with Grab, is equipped to meet the holiday commuters’ demand for safe, efficient, and transparent transportation.
As the third player in the motorcycle taxi pilot study, MOVE IT aligns itself with the government’s focus on safety and fairness within the MC Taxi industry, particularly during high-traffic periods like the holiday season. MOVE IT emphasizes its fleet of professionally trained rider-partners, boasting a 99.999% road safety record. The glitch- and crash-free MOVE IT app showcases an array of safety features, including Share Your Ride, 24/7 Help Centre, Emergency Response, and Voice Over IP (VOIP) calling—setting industry standards in both technology and service.
“This holiday season, commuters can rely on Tropang MOVE IT for safe, convenient, and cost-effective rides. As a strategic partner of Grab, customer-centricity is integral to our service, ensuring honest and dependable transportation for every passenger,” shares MOVE IT General Manager Wayne Jacinto.
Another strategic approach to meeting demand is ensuring rider-partners remain productive on the road. Through its Back-to-Back Booking feature, the MOVE IT Driver App enables rider-partners to accept new bookings while completing ongoing ones, maximizing their online hours and enabling them to accomplish up to four rides per hour.
Effectively addressing the rising demand, MOVE IT continues to expand its fleet in Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Cagayan de Oro, in adherence to allocated slots for each player. MOVE IT regularly engages with its rider-partners through various knowledge-sharing and capacity-building programs on road safety and passenger handling, including webinars and content available on the MOVE IT Academy.
