No GrabShare during wee hours

Ending up in a GrabShare with a drunk stranger in the middle of the night has now become a thing of the past.

On June 14, Grab announced that they had disabled the GrabShare service on its app from 1am to 5am every day.

While its purpose was to discourage unruly behaviour, passengers and drivers were concerned about the inconvenience caused.

What’s going on? 

GrabShare is a service where passengers can choose to ride with other passengers in order to get cheaper fares, and is popular among youths. Some passengers were worried about having to pay higher prices to get around.

“Everyone knows how cab prices can increase like crazy after 1am. After a night of clubbing and drinking, GrabShare is important to me because the difference can be as much as five dollars,” said Temasek Polytechnic student Chow Sheng Yang, 19, who uses the service at least twice a week.

Some were concerned about the financial impact it may have on drivers.

Others thought there were alternative solutions to dealing with rowdy passengers without affecting everyone else.

However, there are passengers who are pleased with GrabShare being inaccessible during certain hours.

“Having experienced taking care of drunk friends, they can be quite hard to handle. Imagine how the drivers must feel. If you want to get drunk, don’t burden other people,” said Muhammad Rusmatin, a 19-year-old Republic Polytechnic student.

Some feel that the move is not entirely a bad one, but could be limited to certain areas to minimise the inconvenience.

Nanyang Polytechnic student, Seriyanti Binte Suhaimi, 21, said: “It definitely is a good effort from Grab to ensure the safety of their drivers. Maybe one thing they could do is to only disable GrabShare at areas that usually have more drunk or unruly passengers.”

What’s your take? 

1. Do you think Grab should have disabled GrabShare between 1am to 5am? Why?