Seems the entrance of Indonesian ride hailing firm into the Singapore market cannot come soon enough. Just as they announced that they have launched the pre-registration portal for interested drivers, 86% of Grab drivers polled (out of a sample size of 1,200) said that they would want to move to Go-Jek than remain with Grab.
Go-Jek spokesman had indicated that thousands have signed up via their portal just a few hours after the launch on Monday, although he declined to reveal the actual figure. Amongst reasons given by the drivers on why they are looking forward to making the jump was that they had hoped for better working conditions in Go-Jek. Grab drivers are reportedly forced to drive 12 -18 hours daily just to make ends meet. Grab also has an unfair policy on the drivers, where they are banned fro using the Grab app for a specific period of time if they cancelled or simply choose rides, even though the rental fees are calculated on a daily basis.
As analysts have pointed out, drivers are what make the ride hailing firms successful, thus the success or failure of both Go-Jek and Grab will be dependent on the drivers. It will be an interesting few months on how Go-Jek and Grab addresses their driver issues.
