SINGAPORE, Dec 6 — Competition in the carpooling sector is heating up, with ride-hailing platform Grab launching its own commercial carpooling service today, some five months after its competitor Uber kicked off its carpooling service on July 1.

This new service called GrabShare accepts a maximum of two bookings with similar routes to get passengers to their destinations quicker. It promises commuters fares that are 30 per cent cheaper than GrabCar Economy fares.

Grab declined to reveal the number of drivers it has on its various services and just said it has 50,000 drivers in its network.

Being a commercial service, bookings on GrabShare are instant. Users of the Grab app can start trying out this new carpooling service from today.

This new service is different from the company’s existing social carpooling service called GrabHitch, which accepts up to four passengers with only one drop-off point, and has to be booked between 15 minutes and up to seven days in advance as the app matches car owners with passengers.

With GrabShare, passengers can expect no more than two stops before reaching their destinations, said the company.

Head of Grab Singapore, Lim Kell Jay, said that demand for GrabHitch has been picking up rapidly, showing that people like the idea of carpooling.

"People are warming up to the idea of sharing a ride to save some cost, or to get a ride when they can’t,” Mr Lim said.

For Grab drivers, he said this service maximises the utilisation of their vehicles, and they earn more in fares per hour. — TODAY