Labour
GrabFood bicycle rider raises issue on Grab’s lack of transparency in maximum delivery range
Recently, a GrabFood delivery rider named Sherwin had submitted his experience to TOC, expressing his concerns on the lack of transparency from Grab in regards to the maximum delivery range for its bicycle riders.
It began with a feedback e-mail Mr Sherwin sent to the Prime Minister Office (PMO) and the Istana on 15 July, where he described how GrabFood riders were required to travel as far as 4km to deliver food to the customers.
Despite asking for reassigning the delivery job to other riders with motorised bicycles who are nearer to the customers, Mr Sherwin mentioned that Grab declined his request as the customer destination is “within his range”.
Therefore, he probed Grab further to request for the maximum range for Grab bicycle riders. He claimed that the company responded that they “could not” reveal the range for its bicycle riders.
Mr Sherwin questioned the reason for Grab to not reveal the range for bicycle riders, and if a Singaporean company was allowed to do so.
The reason that prompted him to raise this issue to the authorities was that he lost his job earlier and he is currently a GrabFood delivery rider using a bicycle. Other than having to experience this firsthand, he noticed that many elderly citizens who are working as delivery riders on bicycles as well, and he felt that riding up to 4km may be a difficult task for them.
Mr Sherwin had also provided TOC several screenshots as proof that he had to ride several kilometres to deliver food to the customers.
In the screenshot of the Grab rider app below, it showed that he was paid S$5.70 for that delivery. The distance calculated on Google Maps between the restaurant and the destination was 3.3km.
He said, “Using a bicycle to paddle for 3.3km for $5.70 is not worth it.”
Response from the Land Transport Authority (LTA)
The LTA responded to Mr Sherwin on 22 July after the PMO forwarded his e-mail to the Authority.
They expressed that it would be “more appropriate” for Grab to look into this particular matter as they believed it was “operational in nature”. Therefore, LTA had shared Mr Sherwin’s feedback to Grab without disclosing his contact information and they told him to contact Grab via its driver app.
Upon receiving LTA’s response, the GrabFood rider pointed out that no actions had been taken although GrabFood riders had given the same feedback to Grab previously. He further stressed that Grab could make riders travel a great distance without setting up a clear guideline.
Mr Sherwin also mentioned that the riders would get “suspended” if they cancelled the orders on their own for multiple times, implying that the riders would be forced to deliver the food items in fear of being suspended.
He emphasised that the GrabFood riders only wanted to be “treated fairly” and that he is grateful for being able to earn some money during trying times.
LTA last responded to him on 24 July, conveying similar messages of referring the feedback to the respective agency and that the Authority was “looking into the matter”.
Comments on a similar GrabFood incident
In regards to Grab’s issue on maximum distance for its bicycle riders, another incident was circulating on social media yesterday (27 July), where a GrabFood bicycle rider receives an order from Seletar Island and there was no way for him to get there via bicycle.
Comments under the Mothership article believed that incidents revolving distance and accessibility were caused by the outsourcing of customer service. They claimed that Grab hires foreign talent as customer service, which then explains why they were unhelpful a lot of times.
A former GrabFood delivery rider Jasper Chong recalled his experience of seeking support from Grab and got rejected even though he had made a total of 250 Grab rides previously.
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