Go-Jek And Grab...A Private Hire Driver.

In mid-January 2019, I stopped driving SMRT Taxishare and switched to a Private Hire Vehicle Driver (PHVD) with Grab and Go-Jek.

Why?.....Because the rental of an SMRT TaxiShare for 9 hours is $85, whereas a private hire car is only $55 for 24 hours...a $30 difference per day.

I don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that I can save and earn an extra thousand a month driving a private car and at the same time be able to drive the rented car up to Malaysia.

However, with TaxiShare, I can choose as and when I would like to drive and pay only for the rented hours. But as a PHVD with a rented car that has a monthly contract, I've to fork out daily rental regardless of whether I drive or not like a Taxi Hirer.

In Singapore, if you hold a Taxi Vocational Licence, you are allowed to drive either a private hire car or a taxi with some minor restrictions. The major restriction is a private driver cannot pick up street passengers or enter taxi stands. Other than this major restriction, the playing field is even.

So happily, I registered with Grab and Go-Jek, two major ride-sharing platforms. Uber had left Singapore.

The conversion from a GrabTaxi to GrabCar driver was smooth and easy. It was completed within a day at Grab office. But the road to becoming a Go-Jek driver was onerous with countless delays.

Frankly, either I was extremely unlucky or Go-Jek IT team was hopelessly incompetent that caused the needless delays.

On 16^th Jan.2019, I personally submitted all the required documents to join Gojek as a driver partner in their office at Midview.

I was attended by an exemplary lady (Miss Joo) who reviewed my documents thoroughly and loaded onto their “boarding” system successfully.

Then the wait for approval and activation began………………….

After four (4) days, I contacted Miss Jo, who was helpful to provide me with a contact number, for follow-up on the status of my application.

I was not surprised that my application was on the waiting list as the volume of applicants was large.

Miss Jo pleasantly assured me that the “higher-up” in the IT team had been notified to keep an eye of my application. She had no control over my application after submission and did not try to weasel away her responsibility.

Days went by with no approval nor activation of my application. 

Meanwhile, Go-Jek incentives for drivers had been drastically reduced from $140 for 18 trips to just $50 for the same amount of trips.

Anyway, I incessantly pestered Miss Jo for an answer. Without fail, she handled my frustration professionally. Hence, I kept my cool with no complaint.

But, after the fourteen days of waiting, with no activation, I lost my patience and wrote an email to their management to rant my grievances. 

I had no complaint on missing “the boat of Go-Jek generous incentives” but was greatly disappointed with Go-Jek team of amateurish IT technicians who couldn't get a job done promptly.

Honestly, my initial enthusiasm for joining Go-Jek was lost.

Most new applicants to join Go-Jek gets their approval on the spot if they registered in their office with a prior appointment date in their office. For my case, it took nearly a month.

To rub salt on my wound, after two days of driving with Go-Jek, I could not withdraw my earning from Go-Jek. I had to drop into their office to submit fresh bank statement to validate my banking account. 

Again, it took nearly a week before I could get my hand on the cash that I work so hard for it. 

Apart from these initial disappointments with Go-Jek, the more important realization was that I could not earn a decent income for 9 hours of driving as a private car driver.

Please let me explain.

I rented a car (Toyota Altis 1.6) from MPV Company at $55 per day. The petrol consumption of this car was $0.15 per kilometer (10.7km/Ltr) and Go-Jek/Grab cuts a 20% commission from my fare collections. So, if I drive 9 hours and collected $200, my nett earning is only.....$75.00 (without

Go-Jek/Grab incentives)

Collection of Fares..............$200.00

Less Rental..........................$ 55.00

Less Fuel (200km).............. $ 30.00

Less Commission.................$ 40.00

Nett Income (9hrs)...............$75.00

or $8.30 per hour of driving, without incentives.

Honestly, the problem of my low income is not the rented car or Go-Jek/Grab systems but my inability to achieve the incentives due to my age.

To earn more, I've to accomplish the periodic and ever-changing incentives that Go-Jek/Grab dangles by driving long hours, make more trips and at the same time, meeting the minimum performance of 85% acceptance rate (below 15% cancellation of jobs). If a driver cancels one job, he has to do about 7 trips to compensate for the one job cancellation. To me the incentives are therefore not easily achievable. 

Generally speaking, the job of driving a private car with Go-Jek/Grab is suitable for those who own their car and drives to earn extra cash or use the car to run personal errands like housewives and retirees. Also, young drivers who have lots of energy and stamina to hit the incentives with a minimum of 12 hours driving would earn a reasonable income. 

I think I would eventually settled to be a relief taxi driver like I did for the last 10 years.

Below is a quick comparison of my income between being a relief taxi driver and a private hire car for driving 9 hours.

Collection of Fares..............$180.00

Less Rental..........................$ 50.00

Less Fuel (200km).............. $ 20.00

No Commission...................$ 00.00

Nett Income (9hrs)...............$110.00
or $11.23 per hour of driving without incentives.

In conclusion, if I want to earn slightly more and get a day or two off without having to worry about paying daily car rental, then palpably I have to become a normal relief taxi driver again.