Grab Wants the LTFRB to Onboard More Drivers
As life returns to a semblance of normality for many Filipinos, companies are working on ways to accommodate the surge of people going back out into the world. There are more commuters on the road, and that means an ever-increasing number of customers for Grab Philippines’ ride-hailing service GrabCar.
But because of the suspension of ride-hailing at the height of the pandemic, many Grab drivers were forced to give up their cars or look for other sources of income. And even if Grab wanted to onboard newer driver-partners, supply is regulated by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) and transport network companies like Grab are required to abide by their guidelines.
This is why Grab has released a statement urging the LTFRB to onboard more driver partners to fill the demand of more commuters requiring a safe and reliable transport network vehicle service (TNVS).
“Even if Grab wanted to accept new driver-partners to meet the increasing demand, only those vehicles licensed by the LTFRB are allowed to be on the platform,” Grab said.
According to the company, the LTFRB has already opened 8,000 new TNVS slots last April 18.
“As soon as the LTFRB TNVS online portal is ready to accept TNVS driver sign-ups, we expect additional TNVS drivers to be on the road in two to three months’ time after completing the LTFRB-mandated onboarding procedures,” Grab said.
However, Grab said these new slots are still not enough to meet the increasing demand for GrabCar, and said it is continuing to work with the LTFRB to add more TNVS slots.
GrabCar had around 33,000 active drivers daily as of February 2022, but that number most definitely has gone down drastically since the start of the pandemic. Grab has yet to release its updated number of active daily drivers.
GrabCar is a service of Grab, the superapp which went public on New York’s NASDAQ in December 2021. It reported. The company reported a net loss of over $1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021.
