Grab driver allegedly not given waiting fees in 100 eligible cases, always initially rejected by automatic reply
A frustrated Grab driver complained that the company’s system repeatedly denied him rightful waiting fees in an alleged 100 separate cases.
He said that the auto-reply system would make things harder by immediately rejecting his claims.
Grab apologised for the delays and stated that they had adjusted the process to be smoother.
Grab driver claims he was never awarded waiting fees in around 100 cases
The driver, who wished to remain anonymous, told MS News that from the beginning of May onwards, he began timing how long he waited to pick up passengers.
Grab has a policy where if a driver has waited for more than three minutes at the specified pickup point, they will get paid a waiting fee. The fee will be automatically added to the passenger’s fare.
Source: Grab, for illustration purposes only
The driver claimed that over a period of three months, he recorded around 100 cases where passengers took longer than three minutes to arrive at the pickup point.
Despite this, he alleged that he would never be awarded the waiting fee.
“Even this morning I’m still facing this issue,” he said on 17 Aug.
Waiting fees allegedly consistently rejected by automatic systems
The driver told MS News that for the first 10 to 20 cases that he reported to Grab, a staff member would respond and reimburse him after verifying.
However, things would soon change as the problem persisted. He said:
But since the end of May, the first response is always an auto-reply that rejects my claim.
The reply claimed that he was not eligible for a waiting fee.
Image courtesy of Grab driver
He thus had to follow up with a second request, which could take another day before he received a response from a human employee.
So far, for every single case that I’ve appealed, I’ve received the reimbursement after the staff member checked.
The driver pointed to this as proof that his cases are genuine and suspected a “system glitch” on Grab’s end.
Image courtesy of Grab driver
Other drivers possibly affected by the same issue
He also highlighted the fact that other drivers would be “forfeiting their hard-earned money” if they never wrote back to Grab after the automatic rejection.
On a local private hire vehicle (PHV) driver Facebook group on 28 May, a user accused Grab of “cheating on waiting fees“.
A poll they set up had 292 votes supporting the allegations, while only 21 votes said it was working fine.
Source: Facebook
On 22 May, another user asked if waiting fee tickets were no longer automatically given by the system.
Source: Facebook
Grab driver complains that company response was unhelpful
The frustrated Grab driver told MS News that he had sought clarification on why the issue happens.
According to him, they responded by saying he was either not at the exact pickup location or that the GPS signal was not good at the time.
However, the driver pointed to the sheer volume of cases in different locations to dispute the GPS explanation.
Regarding exact locations, he was told that drivers were allowed to click “I arrived” some distance away from the pickup point. In his experience, the waiting fee was still denied despite doing that.
Ultimately, the driver felt that Grab’s response was “evasive” and “plainly not helpful”.
Image courtesy of Grab driver
He wanted to alert Grab drivers of this issue so they stayed vigilant about how long they had been waiting and how to get the fees reimbursed.
Grab apologises, adjusts process regarding claims for waiting fees
“We apologise for the friction and delays this driver-partner experienced when submitting waiting time claims,” a Grab spokesperson told MS News on 20 Aug in response to queries.
Grab explained that automated verification steps are in place to “safeguard our marketplace”, but recognised that the process failed to work smoothly for certain claims.
“We have since adjusted our process to make this smoother moving forward,” they stated.
Source: Grab, for illustration purposes only
The spokesperson added that they have reviewed the reimbursements for the driver who complained and are ready to assist any other partners through their appeal channels.
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Featured image adapted from Grab, for illustration purposes only, and courtesy of Grab driver.
