Grab Malaysia has claimed that it has observed a “good number” of its “active delivery-partners” benefitting from the new earning structure in the last few days, following a protest from its delivery riders at its headquarters office in Malaysia on Friday.
Grab Malaysia also said it encourages feedback and foster ongoing discussions on the new earning structure the company recently introduced.
“We are aware that a subset of our delivery-partners are facing challenges with the new earning structure and we are engaging them closely to understand their concerns while also encouraging feedback and fostering ongoing discussions,” Grab Malaysia said in a statement on Friday.
The new earning structure is part of Grab Malaysia’s commitment to foster economic growth for all Malaysians, the ride-hailing and food delivery company said.
“For our delivery-partners, we do this by ensuring they have a steady stream of earning opportunities from our platform and they are fairly compensated for every booking they complete,” it said.
With the new earning structure, Grab Malaysia said its delivery-partners who need to put in more time and effort will be more fairly compensated. Similarly, delivery-partners who do farther pick-ups and complete bookings during high-demand periods will be rewarded, it added.
On Friday, a group of about 300 Grab delivery riders staged a peaceful protest outside Grab’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya (Selangor), demanding the company resolve several issues affecting them, local media Free Malaysia Today reported.
Their main demand is for Grab to reinstate the previous base fare of MYR5 ($1.06) for deliveries within the Klang Valley, which was reduced to MYR4 ($0.85) earlier this week, the report added.
It was reported that during the protest, representatives of a delivery riders’ group Persatuan Perpaduan Rakan Penghantar Malaysia Penghantar met with Grab’s management.
The association’s Vice President, Abdul Hakim Abdul Rani, said discussions with Grab went smoothly.
Aside from relaying their demands on the base fare for deliveries, Hakim said they wanted the company to maintain pickup bonuses for riders.
“We have received complaints from fellow Grab delivery riders that some of them have not been receiving the pickup bonus,” Hakim said, adding that another protest involving more riders will be held next week if their demands are not met in five days.
Also at the protest was the member of parliament of Machang, Wan Ahmad Kamal, the report added.
Grab Malaysia, in the statement on Friday, also said, “We are already observing a good number of our active delivery-partners benefiting from the new earning structure from the last few days – as they benefit from our incentives during peak hours and receive fairer total compensation for time spent and distance travelled, in order to complete the job.”
“We will continue to keep investing in promotions like GrabUnlimited, HotDeals, Kombo Jimat, particularly
during peak demand periods to boost demand and ensure that our delivery-partners can consistently earn on our platform,” Grab Malaysia said in a statement on Friday.
“We will continue to engage closely with our delivery-partners to help them understand and gather feedback on our new earning structure and look forward to them benefitting from it,” the company said.
In November last year, Singapore-headquartered Grab announced that it has delivered the first adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation (EBITDA) profitable quarter as topline continues to grow.
The group said that its adjusted EBITDA turned positive for the first time at $29 million for the third quarter, an improvement of $190 million compared to adjusted losses before interest, taxes, depreciation of $161 million for the same period in 2022.
This was due to the firm continued to grow gross merchandise value (GMV) and revenue, while improving profitability on a segment adjusted EBITDA basis and lowering regional corporate costs.
The group is currently expecting adjusted losses before interest, taxes, depreciation of $20 million to $25 million, as compared to $30 million to $40 million previously.
It also revised up its full year revenue projection to $2.13 billion to $2.33 billion, from $2.2 billion to $2.3 billion.
Earlier in June 2023, Grab also announced it is cutting 1,000 jobs as its Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Anthony Tan said fundamental step-changes in its operating model and cost structure are needed to build Grab’s competitive moat for the longer-term.
News portal DealStreetAsia reported on Monday Grab has made another capital infusion worth S$145.10 million ($109 million) into its digital banking subsidiary GXS Bank, according to regulatory filings.
Grab invested in GXS Bank, its digital banking joint venture with Singapore-listed telecom operator Singtel, through its wholly owned subsidiary A5-DB Holdings Pte Ltd, filings with Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) showed.
According to DealStreetAsia’s report, the latest capital injection followed the S$137 million that Grab injected into its digital banking subsidiary in July last year. Grab also pumped about $75.8 million into GXS Bank in April. TNGlobal has reached out to GXS Bank for comment.
The ACRA filings further show that Grab and Singtel will invest an additional S$229.5 million into the bank in Q3 2024 while GSX Bank plans to subscribe to additional shares in GX Bank Malaysia for S$55 million, the report added.
The NASDAQ-listed counter’s share price has declined more than 76 percent since its listing in December 2020.
Grab Malaysia defends revamped delivery fee framework amid riders’ protest call