Singapore, 06 December 2016 – Grab, the leading ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia, today announced GrabShare, the company’s first commercial carpool service that is beta-tested in Singapore. With GrabShare, passengers enjoy cheaper rides while drivers earn more from completing two passenger bookings in one trip. GrabShare is the company’s fourth transport service in Singapore and complements GrabTaxi (taxi-hailing), GrabCar (private hire car-hailing) and GrabHitch (non-commercial social carpooling).

To get passengers quickly to their destinations, GrabShare pairs just two passenger bookings with similar trip routes within a single trip. Passengers will only experience a maximum of two stops before reaching their destinations. For example, if Passenger A commences the ride and is paired with Passenger B, depending on the more efficient trip route, Passenger A may make a first stop to pick-up Passenger B and a second to drop-off Passenger B.

Conceptualised, designed and engineered across Grab’s three research and development centres in Singapore, Seattle and Beijing, GrabShare’s matching algorithm ensures passengers get to their destinations in the shortest possible time. The algorithm calculates and determines a match by factoring the closest available drivers, travel time, overlap of trip routes, detour distance and current traffic conditions before intuitively sequencing pick-ups and drop-offs. For drivers, GrabShare focuses on maximising potential earnings by reducing the time and distance spent on a single GrabShare ride, enabling drivers to complete more jobs per hour to boost their incomes and reduce fuel consumption.

“Commuters in Singapore indicated that they would be open to carpooling if they didn’t have to make long detours with numerous passengers in one trip. Drivers had the same feedback and wanted the option of taking short breaks between trips. GrabShare is designed with drivers and passengers in mind to provide the best carpool experience in Singapore — passengers enjoy cheaper fares with minimal additional time spent on the road, and drivers earn more from shorter carpool trips,” said Lim Kell Jay, Head of Grab Singapore.

Singapore’s best carpool experience with GrabShare

The GrabShare service taps on Grab’s pool of commercial GrabCar Economy drivers to serve the country’s growing demand for point-to-point transportation.

Benefits of GrabShare to passengers include:

1. Cheaper fares

GrabShare fares are priced up to 30 percent cheaper than GrabCar Economy fares. Fares are fixed and displayed upfront. With Grab’s dynamic pricing model that balances supply and demand, passengers enjoy cheaper rides during non-peak hours when more available drivers are on the road.

2. Ride with a friend at no additional cost

GrabShare users can bring another friend on the ride at no additional cost, as long as both share the same pick-up and drop-off locations.

3. Maximum two-stop guarantee

Passengers can expect no more than two stops before reaching their destinations.  This ensures everyone reaches their locations fast for less. Drivers will wait up to three minutes for each passenger at pick-ups.

4. Instant booking

Passengers can book a GrabShare ride on-demand from anywhere, at any time and enjoy socialising with fellow commuters on the ride.

5. Ride with peace of mind

Grab’s Group Personal Accident Insurance covers all passengers in the event of an accident. The total personal accident benefits for the driver or passengers can be up to US$250,000 per vehicle, or up to an aggregate limit of US$2.5 million per accident.

Benefits of GrabShare to drivers include:

1. Higher earnings

Drivers can complete two passenger bookings at once to receive higher combined fares with every GrabShare trip.

2. Similar trip routes

Every GrabShare match is designed to minimise additional distance travelled, reducing fuel consumption and time spent on a GrabShare trip.

“Our goal is to make on-demand transportation readily available and affordable so people no longer want to own a car for their personal use. GrabShare enables our drivers to serve more passengers especially during peak hours when demand can be three times higher than usual. Starting today, passengers can choose between four types of transport services – GrabTaxi, GrabCar, GrabHitch and GrabShare – depending on their travel preferences, whether based on schedule or price,” added Lim.

GrabShare is rolling out in phases starting today.

How GrabShare works

1. Passenger A selects GrabShare ride and is picked up by a GrabShare driver.
2. Passenger B selects GrabShare ride, and Passenger A and B are matched. The Grab app notifies both the driver and Passenger A and B of a successful match.
3. Diver makes a slight detour to pick up Passenger B. Both Passenger A and B can bring one other person to ride with them (for example, four seats in the car may be filled).
4. The order of pick-up and drop-off ensures that both Passenger A and B get to their destinations quickly.

To celebrate the launch, passengers can ride with GrabShare for a flat fee of SGD5 on Friday, 9 December, regardless of the journey. Download the Grab app today from the App Store and Google Play to experience GrabShare. For more information, please visit https://www.grab.com/sg/share/.