KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 — E-hailing company Grab Malaysia today denied allegations that it had failed to reimburse the 5 per cent in excess commission owed to its drivers, saying all compensations have been paid in full.
Grab, through a statement, explained that the excess commission had been charged to drivers who had manually accepted their customers, as opposed to auto-accepting rides from potential passengers.
“To date, we have reimbursed the 5 per cent fee to all driver-partners who had previously chose to manually accept jobs through the app post July 11.
“As this included a large amount of our active driver-partners on the roads, the reimbursement was done in phases,” read the statement.
This comes in response to calls made by the Malaysia E-Hailing Association (MeHDA), which urged the Transport Ministry to take action against Grab for failing to reimburse its drivers the excess commission already charged from them.
MeHDA president Daryl Chong said Grab had promised that reimbursements would be deposited by August 5, but many drivers have yet to receive their commission two days after the deadline.
Grab also announced that drivers would only be given the ‘auto-accept’ option starting today and will no longer be allowed to ignore or cancel ride requests, while assuring the public of constant cooperation between the company and its drivers.
“This means that all driver-partners will now be required to auto-accept rides.
“We commit to continue working closely with our driver-partners, so that many more can continue to earn an income via ride-hailing and keep the Grab experience for both drivers and partners as efficient, balanced and as high quality as possible,” read their statement.
Grab had previously charged drivers a 25 per cent commission rate for choosing customers manually, an extra five per cent on top of the usual 20 percent commission rate.
The company said the additional 5 per cent was necessary to reduce unexpected situations and maintain the balance in supply and demand within the e-hailing market.
