The hottest recruitment battle in Singapore used to be for insurance and property agents.
This is not the case anymore.
The two biggest ride-hailing giants in Singapore have embarked in a fierce battle to recruit new private-hire drivers over the past year. Beside dangling attractive sign-up bonus, they have outsourced the task of recruiting new drivers to many others.
Here are 5 of the method used to recruit private-hire drivers in Singapore.
Grab ‘hjack’ at Paya Lebar MRT
Grab analyzed and set up a roadblock at Paya Lebar MRT to hijack Uber Drivers walking towards Uber Hub.
The footpath towards Uber Hub is a route that all new and existing Uber driver will walk past from the carpark where they park their vehicles.
A team of ‘hijackers’, in plain clothes, will approach all potential/existing driver along the footpath.
This elite team of ‘hijackers’ travels in a Grab Green Toyota Vellfire, covered with Grab decals, parked prominently beside the footpath
Door-to-Door recruitment
Uber deploys its elite fleet of infantry to attack the heartlands.
The troops will set up base at high density neighbourhood centre and approach passerby to sign-up.
The more siao-on troops will even go door-to-door !
Mobile Undercover Riders
Many active drivers would have met ‘brand ambassadors’ who try to recruit them during the trip.
Both Uber and Grab deploys a team of mobile brand ambassadors to hop on and hop off their competitors’ car. The brand ambassadors would generally book a trip that is not too far away and try to sign-up the driver on the spot. It was reported that additional rewards of up to $100 would be given to drivers who sign up on the spot.
The brand ambassadors are generally individual sub-contractors and not an employee of Uber and Grab
Driver Referral
The way to recruit someone is to have your existing driver refer their family and friends.
Both Uber and Grab consistently offer driver-refer-driver program to their existing drivers to join them.
Special ‘overtrade’ for Competitor Driver
The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory.
Many drivers drive exclusively for only 1 ride-hailing app. These are the group of drivers that both companies are trying to recruit over and have offered special incentive for this particular group.
