For Grab drivers, time is money, and they don’t want to spend precious minutes waiting for customers.
Thus, from 18 Jul, Grab made the controversial move to cut the grace period to three minutes before passengers are charged a waiting fee.
However, some customers have said this is unrealistic, as seen in a recent post in the Complaint Singapore Facebook group.
Source: Complaint Singapore on Facebook
The main grouse is that drivers may claim they’ve arrived prematurely. This means customers can’t board despite already being at the pick-up point.
According to the post on 20 Jul – two days after the shorter grace period was implemented – the OP was waiting for her Grab ride at the drop-off point at Anchorpoint mall on Alexandra Road.
However, when she received the message saying, “Your driver has arrived, ” the vehicle was still turning into the driveway.
This prompted a sarcastic reply from her, asking him to “turn faster”.
Source: Complaint Singapore on Facebook
She pointed out that mall driveways would sometimes have obstructions, such as goods delivery.
Thus, this could cause passengers to exceed the three-minute grace period and be charged a waiting fee when they were already at the pick-up point.
In another incident, the OP said her entire family had walked out to wait for the Grab ride at the guardhouse of a condo complex.
When their driver arrived, they allegedly saw him indicating that he had “arrived”, despite him actually being at the guardhouse.
She noted that as he was at the guardhouse, he technically hadn’t arrived at the pick-up point.
This is considering that he still had to drive some distance into the condo to pick them up, and there might be more than one lobby.
While bemoaning drivers who indicate their arrival early, the OP also pointed out that Grab doesn’t allow customers to make notes when ordering a ride anymore.
That results in drivers sometimes showing up at the wrong pick-up point, wasting valuable time within the three-minute grace period.
She also griped that drivers may get confused when they’re called and may not read their messages for safety reasons.
The OP wasn’t the only customer displeased by the shorter grace period.
On Grab’s Facebook page, a Ms Magdalene Bernadette Tan posted on 17 Jul relating her experience while waiting at the pick-up point outside the NTUC FairPrice outlet in VivoCity mall.
Again, she received the message announcing her Grab driver’s “arrival” and replied that she was already waiting outside NTUC.
However, the driver replied that he was still in the queue waiting to enter the mall’s driveway.
Source: Grab on Facebook
She questioned whether she would have to pay the waiting fee if the driver was stuck in the queue for three minutes.
Saying this has happened “many times, ” she suggested that Grab ensure that drivers can indicate their arrival only when they’re at the actual destination.
Another customer, Ms Susan Petch, said she has had drivers indicate their arrival without physically arriving “on many occasions.”
Source: Grab on Facebook
She estimated that the drivers often indicate their arrival about two to four minutes before their actual arrival.
Speaking directly to Grab, she wondered what the company would do when customers are charged a waiting fee when, in fact, their vehicles haven’t arrived yet.
Grab said that the move to cut grace periods, announced on 11 Jul, is meant to increase the availability of rides for passengers.
Passengers may have to reach their ride more promptly than before, but the company explained that this would increase rides overall.
“Less waiting time will mean more rides to go around,” Grab said in a press release, adding,
As the country re-opens and more passengers book rides, we want to help our driver-partners capture these new demand trends by spending their time on the roads more productively.
In an FAQ on their website, however, Grab acknowledged that customers may get an arrival notification but not see their driver.
The company said they’ve set “strict controls and limits on our system”. Drivers can click on their “arrived” button only when they are at their pick-up point or “very close to it”.
Source: Grab
Grab did concede, however, that extenuating circumstances can occur, such as:
According to Grab, the three-minute grace period will be “automatically extended” if a driver is near but not at the pick-up location when the arrival notification is sent.
These measures have been taken so customers will still enjoy the full grace waiting period.
Better still, Grab added that if the driver is too far away, the waiting fee will be automatically waived.
If the driver still takes longer than the grace period to arrive and the passenger is charged the waiting fee, Grab asked them to contact their support team.
A dispute on the waiting fee can then be filed, they said.
Implementing a waiting fee is understandable. Hence, customers are encouraged to be ready at their pick-up point when their driver arrives.
However, it’s also valid for customers to be concerned about drivers clicking on their “arrived” button too early.
After all, nobody wants to pay more when it’s not their fault.
It’s thus reassuring to know that Grab has controls to ensure their system isn’t abused.
Hopefully, no customers will be penalised unfairly through the shortening of the grace period.
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Featured image adapted from Complaint Singapore on Facebook and GRAB CAR registration on Facebook for illustration purposes only.
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