Gojek to introduce $3 waiting fee, shorten grace period to 4 minutes from Sep 26

Gojek will shorten the grace waiting period for users from five minutes to four minutes from Sep 26 onwards, announced the ride-hailing platform on Monday (Sep 19). 

Users will now have a maximum of four minutes to reach the pickup point before they are charged a penalty of $3, one minute less than the existing five-minute grace period.

For every subsequent five minutes the driver has to wait, the rider will be charged an additional $3. This fee will be capped at $9, which comes after 19 minutes of waiting.

The shortened grace period will apply to all trips booked via Gojek – namely GoCar, GoCar XL and GoCar Premium.

Gojek will also charge users a $4 cancellation fee if they cancel their booking four minutes after they have been matched with a driver, or if they cancel as soon as the driver arrives at the pickup location.

Currently, users have up to five minutes to cancel without any penalties.

Two months earlier, rivals Grab shortened their cancellation and grace waiting period from five to three minutes from Jul 18.

Grab added a $4 fee if users cancel their bookings more than three minutes after making one. Users also have to pay a fee of $3 per five-minute waiting block if they keep drivers waiting for more than three minutes.

In comparison to other ride-hailing services, Ryde charges a waiting fee of $5.30 if the user has not boarded the vehicle four minutes after it has arrived, while Tada charges a late fee of $2.50 for every five-minute block after the scheduled pickup time, with no cancellation fee.