Grab is open to taxi drivers who wish to join the platform, said Jaygan Fu, Grab’s head of Malaysia at the launch of GrabHitch today. He noted that for taxi drivers who had finished their lease but wish to continue to drive, Grab is there to offer them the option.
“If they desire to be a GrabCar or GrabHitch driver, we will support them. If they decide to continue to be on a taxi, they’ll be able to do that. It’s up to the driver to choose which platform they want,” he said.
“End of the day, taxi drivers are human too and they’re nice people,” Fu said. “These (taxi) drivers (with Grab) who have good ratings, good behaviour, they’re an asset to us. So, we want to keep them within our platform to out-serve our customers,” Fu highlighted.
“I personally believe the angry taxi drivers are very much drivers who are not on our app. There are ones who tend to line up in certain hotspots and try to get their passengers from there,” Fu opined.
When asked whether Grab would approach taxi drivers to join its platform to address the issue, Fu replied, “we definitely are open to getting taxi drivers onto our platform. We have our walk-in centres which are open on weekdays from 10 am to 5 pm, for drivers to come in and submit their applications if they want to join us. We are open to that.”
Fu stated that with more drivers, passengers would face shorter waiting times – a significant benefit for Grab users. Meanwhile, it was also stated that the company is not just looking at providing them with income. “When they (taxi drivers) join us, we are not only looking at providing them jobs. We also have social missions like Grab school for taxi drivers’ kids,” he said.
Other such programmes include an elite driver programme, which rewards hardworking drivers with incentives. “We don’t only look at it from a monetary angle but we look at it at a social angle. For us we enable them to earn money and we touch their hearts as well,” he added.
As for regulations which will soon be introduced by the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD), Fu disclosed, “prior to this, we were constantly in discussion with SPAD, to see how we can move forward with this. Being a Malaysian company we need to abide by the laws, if they decide to go in a certain direction, we’ll definitely need to adhere and we’ll give our full cooperation to abide by any regulations imposed.”
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Soon the teksi gangsters will send their spokesperson Datuk Samsu to make noise about this. But last year, Datuk Samsu was sentenced to 135 years of jail. Don’t know how he can do press conference in prison.
In malaysia, you can be sentenced to jail but you can decide not to go. Up to you. You can stay at home and relax. But records will show you served time in Kajang prison.
next week KLCC area will have taxi roadblock already.
Where is the Windows Phone app for Grab?
Most of the genuine taxi drivers have left and more are leaving The Malaysian Taxi Industry since they couldn’t compete with GrabCar and Uber fare pricing. I am truly fortunate cause I got a job as a tourist bus driver last month. Most of the genuine taxi drivers are struggling to survive and are waiting for the government to regulate Uber and GrabCar so they could have an option to choose!
Nice comments Jaygan Fu. Datuk Samsu should learn from you.
Grab, you better don’t invite them to join. Once the joined, they will form a persatuan untuk memperjuangkan sesuatu… they always have something to perjuangkan.