How Grab is treating their riders Unfairly

 

I've been working as a GrabFood walker since 2019. So that is about 2 years now.

Although I'm not an active 'chiongster', I do have periods of chasing weekly incentives and bonus 'festive' incentives.

I must say, I feel that Grab is treating their riders more and more unfairly. Forgive me that I cannot provide screenshots as the Grab Driver app disallow screen capture for a lot of their features (like chats and pages that shows earnings) in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).  

But the funny thing is, Grab doesn't bother to remove riders' FULL IC name from the Grab receipts despite many riders requesting.

Anyway, let's us get back to the topic. Why I feel Grab is treating its riders unfairly.

 

1) Going back on their words and Clawing back compensations

Before going into this, I've to explain that Grab do compensate riders' effort by offering compensations for:

1) Long waiting time (if you waited >30 minutes for an order)

2) Large order compensation (if order cannot fit into the Grab bag) or if you need to make multiple trips to complete the order because there are too many items. (say 50 cups of bubble tea)

My own experience with compensation is that Grab is very very suspicious about requests for compensations. So if you waited around 30-35 minutes and request for the compensation, they'll highly reject. They'll feel that you purposely delayed picking up the orders in order to cheat the compensation. Also, if you've moved away, even slightly from the merchant's location (yes, Grab can check your location on the GPS), they'll not award you the compensation!! So no going to toilet for you!  

Anyways, there are many complaints from riders that they either didn't get their compensations months after their request are approved or that their credited compensations get clawed back by Grab.

As riders, we know that during festive seasons (especially Christmas and Chinese New Year), waiting time for orders can take up to an hour (or even more)! 

There is this particular rider who worked full day during 1st and 2nd day of Chinese New Year and requested a total of over $30 of long waiting time compensations.

He got compensated quickly, only to have the compensated amount clawed back by Grab and a call to go to the Headquarters few weeks later. 

So what happened was Grab thinks that the rider delayed on purpose to cheat compensations and that they only awarded him the compensation "to avoid argument".

The rider tried to explain himself but Grab didn't accept his side of the story and awarded him a 3 weeks ban and a negative cash wallet.

Yes, Grab is quick to believe their customers on their complains over their riders. So riders have to be extra careful and keep as many evidences as possible. The recommended thing to do is always snap a photo of the order with the unit number, especially when customer request for food to be "hang on door" or "leave outside the door".

2) Impossible Distance

I guess I've ranted about this a few times already. Grab is giving ridiculous distance to walkers and by ridiculous, I'm talking about >4km!

I've personally received a Stacked order totaling over 7km! This distance is probably even too far for a Power Assisted Bicycle (PAB) cyclist to deliver!

Yes, we do have the option to cancel orders or request for Customer Service to reassign but that often takes quite a while, especially during peak hours.

Remember that riders only have a 10% allowance for cancellation if they want to qualify for the incentives.

3) Time Discrepancy 

Grab will have some incentives for specific timeslots only, like their "Dinner Incentives" (5-8:30pm) and "Lunch Incentives" (11am-1:30pm).

What happen is, they stated on the requirements that only orders ACCEPTED and completed during the timeframe will be counted.

However, what happen was, some riders accepted orders after 5pm but the order's time state 4:58pm instead. This is because the system only takes into account the time of order and not the time rider accepted the order!

Riders end up having lesser jobs qualified for the incentives due to this time discrepancy. Please note that the time discrepancy can be up to 5 minutes or more!

Many riders have feedback to Grab about this issue... and guess what? Obviously, nothing has been done! 

4) Shifts

Grab introduced shift booking and promised that during the shift hours, the rider will only receive orders within their zone.

For example, you applied for the 5-8pm shift in Central Zone (which consist of TPY, Bishan and Novena), you'll not get orders that are outside of these 3 areas.

Grab also promised a minimum payout and if you didn't achieved that amount during your shift, Grab will top up the discrepancy.

There are a few requirements to qualify though, 

1) Minimum of 90% acceptance rate & Maximum of 10% cancellation rate during the shift

2) Online for a minimum of 90% of the entire shift duration. Please refer to the following important points on eligible online hours:

- Auto-Accept must be toggled ON

- MyDestination must be toggled OFF

- Only hours that you are online within the shift zone will be counted

- Both GrabFood & GrabMart service type must be toggled ON

As you can see from the requirements that you'll need to fulfil a 90% acceptance rate and maximum of 10% cancellation.

However, we also know that Grab system have time discrepancy! So riders who thought their shift have ended would sometimes reject orders that came after the shift timing. They ended up not qualifying because the time of order is before their shift ends!!

Not to mention although Grab promises orders in the zone they booked their shifts in, riders sometimes received jobs outside of their zone. Say they've to pick up a food in Bishan and deliver to somewhere in Ang Mo Kio (which is outside of their zone)!

They have to either cancel on their own (this affect their cancellation rate) or contact the customer service to reassign for them. 

Some unaware riders would go ahead and deliver the order, and then get disqualified because they didn't stay in their shift zone for a minimum of 90% of the entire shift duration! 

I'm not sure what to say, but I do feel Grab could do better with their system, especially with the time discrepancy! There is no way the riders could have known the time of order and it's very unfair that they do not qualify for what they earned because of this!

Also, I feel it's only fair to also block out riders' names partially in accordance with PDPA, not just for the customers!