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Philippines: Grab to hide passengers’ destinations, implement auto-accept feature
MANILA, Philippines — After receiving user complaints on ride cancellations and booking difficulties, ride-hailing service Grab Philippines on Tuesday said it would no longer show drivers the passenger’s destination starting Friday.
Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu said it would also employ an auto-accept feature that allocates jobs automatically to drivers.
“We hear what our riders want and we will continue to improve our services while making bookings more efficient for our drivers. We will implement non-showing of passenger information before ride acceptance as it is a major source of complaints,” Cu said in a statement.
Both destination-masking and auto-accept featured will be rolled out on Friday. The destination-masking will initially be implemented to 25 percent of Grab drivers with historically low acceptance rate.
To ensure protection of drivers, they will be given an option to see the passenger destination during wee hours of the night.
The Transport Network Company Grab made the decision after seeking advice from Transport Under Secretary Tim Orbos and Assistant Secretary Mark De Leon.
“Grab reached out to DOT for proper guidance and to express our commitment to continue working with the government to improve and strenghten the TNVS sector We are thankful that they are supportive of the measure,” Cu said.
On Monday, Cu also announced that close to 500 drivers were suspended for cancelling passengers’ bookings. Those drivers sanctioned had a rate of ten percent and above cancelation of booking in the past week.
Cu said these drivers may either be suspended or banned. He said drivers are only allowed to cancel five percent of their total bookings per week.
Those who complied with the latter would receive incentives.
Due to the measure, passengers would also be required to provide correct and complete account information. They would also be allowed to link their account to social media platform to ensure the driver’s safety.
He is hopeful that the passengers would do their part and verify their accounts for the safety and proper identification.
“We will never compromise safety and we will always put the welfare of our drivers and passengers first. We thank our drivers for understanding the masking of destination feature,” Cu said.
“The drivers must keep earning to keep driving and serving the riders. Each of the three cogs is important for the whole wheel to keep running efficiently,” he added..
Despite the measure adjustment, Grab said the main reason for difficulty in booking is the lack of drivers. —Rosette Adel
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2018/04/24/1809013/grab-hide-passengers-destinations-implement-auto-accept-feature#77zMhLPB8Guk44xs.99