Grab offers ride-hailing services, food delivery, and courier services in the growing number of cities across Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other countries in the region. Grab has become dominant and sometimes only ride-hailing service in the region. There are a number of slight differences.
Download and Sign-up:
The grab app can slightly different in each country, so I’d recommend downloading it in an English Language country unless you speak the local language. Signing-up can be a bit of a hassle with a foreign phone number. If you are sticking with your US or EU SIM, try signing up with an email address rather than the phone number, as delivering the needed validation code to foreign numbers seems to be problematic.
Payment:
The default payment in Grab is cash. While that’s necessary for the very much cash-oriented societies of SE Asia, it’s less convenient. You can add a credit or debit card to make payments, as well. This was no issue in Singapore or the Philippines, but in Indonesia Grab would not allow me to store a credit card, instead forcing me to use their wallet service OVO- which you can load with a credit/debit card, but as a visitor you might end up losing money that’s leftover at the end of your trip. It’s best to download the app and entering a credit card.
Grab will charge a small amount for each credit card you store, so you might want only to store 1 card for a short visit. You can categorize the card as “primary” or default payment.
Ride Booking:
Booking a ride is parallel to Uber, your exit point will default based on your GPS location, but you need to verify the correct pick-up spot. Grab utilizes multiple points for large buildings, so you want to make sure that you have the right exit to avoid the problem.
You can pick your destination by typing or on a map, with some frequently used destinations showing up prior to typing in.
The next step is to select your car. Grab offers regular GrabCar, which are supposed to fir 4 people, but can be tiny subcompacts with little trunk space. If you are a longer group or have multiple pieces of luggage, you can upgrade to a longer vehicle or a GrabCar+.
Usually, a little cheaper is Grab Taxi, which will result in a regular taxi arriving or depending on the city.
Now you should verify your payment choice, enter any promotional code you might have, or enter a note to the driver, for example: “I’m waiting in the lobby.”
If you have an important ride coming up, you can schedule a booking for the needed time to ensure you have a ride and don’t have a long wait.
The Ride:
Grab will assign a driver and inform you of the driver’s name, car, license plate, and driver rating. I recommend taking a screenshot of the assignment, so you have all that information. The Grab app is very unreliable and will sometimes lose your assignment. While the driver is still on the way, the app will look like you haven’t made a booking yet. When that happens, check-in the side panel under History, and it will tell you whether the ride is still in progress or has been canceled.
Unlike Uber, Grab drivers can revoke a certain number of rides each day without penalty, making it much more common experience than in the US or Europe. Especially in Singapore, you can have multiple drivers accept the ride, just to cancel it a few minutes later, resulting in very long wait time for rides. In a few countries, like Indonesia, your ride can luckily only be canceled once, something that should be implemented everywhere.
Once you arrive at your destination, the driver should end the ride, and you’ll receive a receipt for the fare as well as a chance to rate the driver. If there was a problem with the ride, you can report it through the app.
Services other than Ride-Hailing:
•Food delivery for any craving.
• Parcel delivery on demand.
• Grocery delivery, convenient, and reliable.
• Cashless payments, seamless and simple.
Other Features:
One feature Grab offers that you won’t find on Uber is F=Grab rewards. For each ride, you earn points that similar to an airline or hotel loyalty program, will help you earn elite status with Grab and points to redeem rewards.
While Silver and Gold don’t make much of a difference, the Platinum status will enable prioritized bookings. The status levels are depending on your spending, different by country.
Website Link : www.grab.com
App Download Links
