Ride-hailing app Grab is making a big push into the taxi business by becoming Singapore’s second-largest taxi operator’s go-to app for bookings – and subsidising the drivers’ smartphones in the meantime.
Starting today, Grab and TransCab are partnering to move all of the latter’s 7,000 drivers onto Grab.
The app will thus become these drivers’ exclusive third-party online platform to handle on-demand passenger bookings, both parties said in a release yesterday.
The taxi company will still accept telephone bookings.
TransCab drivers will undergo training to help them become familiar with the app, and learn about Grab’s safety guidelines and expected code of conduct.
Grab will also provide subsidised smartphones to drivers as part of the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce operating costs for drivers.
TransCab managing director Teo Kiang Ang said: “We want to continue to support our drivers to earn higher income and believe that Grab’s technology will bring more ride bookings to our drivers.
“We are confident that this partnership, along with our low rental rates, is a win-win situation and will attract more drivers to join our fleet.”
This partnership comes months after SMRT announced that its private hire subsidiary Strides had tied up with Grab to allow 200 Strides drivers to take on bookings from the app and earn performance-related incentives.
This article by The Business Times was published in MyPaper, a free, bilingual newspaper published by Singapore Press Holdings.
