GrabShare 2023: What's new in our revamped carpooling service

Updated on 24 Jul 2023 with more details for driver-partners.

Users on Grab’s new carpool service will notice several improvements from the previous version.

In Singapore and the Philippines, it’s called GrabShare; in Malaysia, it’s JustSave; in Indonesia, GrabCar Bareng. The idea is for users heading in similar directions to share a ride for lower fares.

When we launched this in 2016, users said they were attracted to the lower cost. For driver-partners, dropping multiple passengers off along the way allowed them to complete more trips in a day, so they could earn more.

It’s a win-win, but there were issues. Some users were put off by unexpected detours and lengthened journey times that came about from the way riders were matched.

What’s new: Upfront matching, only two routes at a time

All shared riders will be matched with the driver before the ride commences. We give a seven-minute window for this to happen.

Previously, new bookings could be allocated into an ongoing trip that was in progress, which at times led to unexpected detours. Some driver-partners and users found this jarring.

Upfront matching also allows our mapping system to determine the most efficient route for all on the ride, taking into account traffic conditions, available driver-partners, and most optimal overlapping rider routes. In short, shared rides will be more compatible and save time for everyone.

Driver-partners also told us that they preferred shorter rides. So in the new version, we are only allowing two bookings per shared ride.

In the previous version of GrabShare, up to three bookings could be allocated for a shared ride.

Getting more driver-partners means more chances for a match

While redesigning our carpooling service, we worked on driver-partner feedback to encourage more drivers to join the new GrabShare. One pain point that came up was on passenger cancellations disrupting the matching and also being unfair to driver-partners who were already assigned a matched ride. 

So we’re implementing a cancellation fee on riders who cancel after a match is confirmed. These fees fully go to driver-partners to compensate them for their time and effort lost. The remaining passenger’s booking will not be affected.

Initial reactions to the relaunched service have been encouraging. Based on latest data from an ongoing survey, a majority of driver-partners surveyed in Singapore agreed that earnings from a shared ride were worth the additional time taken, as compared with a regular ride.

The majority of them also said they were encouraged to opt in for the relaunched service, allowing our platform to be faster in allocating rides and finding more optimal matches.

Passengers surveyed were also satisfied with the rides with most of them saying that they liked the affordable option and were satisfied with the time taken for the Grab platform to confirm their rides.

We continue to monitor feedback from this iteration closely. Meanwhile, we are working on reducing the distance between the first and second pick-up points and the overall distance our driver-partners need to drive to complete both trips.

We are looking to roll this out to more cities across Southeast Asia.