Grab to Lower Surge Rates for Holiday Season

Ridesharing firm Grab Philippines is set to lower the surge rate on its fares amid increasing demand for ride among its passengers for the holidays, a company official said Monday.

“If you see that prices are always surging due to lack of supply and higher demand, that surge cap would be further brought down to be able to manage the expectations of our passengers on fares,” Grab Philippines Country Head Brian Cu said in a press conference on the sidelines of the launching of its road safety campaign in Quezon City.

“We will manage it so that the average fares will not spike up; we really need to manage this in a level that is acceptable with our commitments to the PCC (Philippine Competition Commission),” he added.

Cu said the company will be implementing a surge cap for as low as 1.4 times the fare rate to enable their riders to plan out their trips during the Christmas season.

He said the company will also continue to provide promos to its riders for them to avail of lower fares, while performance-based incentives will be given to drivers based on higher acceptance rates of rides, lower cancellation rates and consistently following traffic rules, among others.

To date, Grab implements a surge cap of 1.6x from the previous 2x after its PHP2-per-minute charge was reinstated by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board last September.

The ride-hailing firm said the lower surge rate seeks to help passengers adjust their transportation costs.

Meanwhile, the PCC has approved last August Grab’s acquisition of erstwhile corporate rival Uber’s operations in the country after it has submitted its voluntary commitments which include improving the quality of its service, particularly response time to rider complaints.

Grab has committed that its fares will not have an “extraordinary deviation” from the minimum allowed fares set by the LTFRB. The deviation should not be more than 22 percent of the fares before Uber’s acquisition.

The company also assured that it will provide a breakdown of fares on electronic receipts to its riders. The receipts will include the distance, fare surges, discounts, promo reduction, and per-minute waiting charge. (PNA)