Grab announced GrabProtect, a suite of safety and hygiene measures to minimize risks of the spread of COVID-19 on its transport services.
It will comprise new safety features, updated safety policies and transport hygiene kits that will enforce higher safety and hygiene standards in the Singapore ride-hailing industry.
The new measures will be rolled out progressively in Singapore from end-June 2020.
Online health and hygiene declaration form and mask selfie tool
The new online health and hygiene declaration feature will require all drivers and delivery partners, as well as riders to confirm that they do not exhibit COVID-19 symptoms.
They are also required to declare that necessary safety and hygiene measures have been taken prior to driving, delivering orders or booking a trip.
Drivers and delivery-partners will also be prompted to say cheese and take a selfie using the mask selfie feature after completing this declaration.
4 Seater only for 3 Persons
Safe distancing will also be enforced on Grab trips. Riders will not be allowed to take the front seat beside the driver.
As such, a regular 4-seater JustGrab will only take 3 riders.
Cancellation for users without masks
All Grab users including drivers, delivery partners and riders are required to wear a mask when they are out. If either party shows up without a mask, passengers and driver-partners can choose to cancel the booking by selecting “driver/passenger did not wear a mask” as their cancellation reason.
Both driver-partners and passengers are entitled to cancel rides if they find either party appears to be unwell by selecting “driver/passenger is unwell” as the cancellation reason.
Grab will waive the penalty for cancellations due to the 2 above reasons.
Updated Ratings and Feedback Feature
Grab has also updated its user’s feedback options to allow them to report on health and hygiene-related concerns.
Users can provide feedback after every trip, whether their driver/delivery-partner or customer practiced good personal hygiene like wearing a mask or took precautionary measures such as contactless delivery on GrabFood or GrabExpress.
Necessary actions will be taken against those who do not adopt the best practices. It may include the suspension of driver-partners’ and passengers’ ride-hailing accounts.
Protecting the Drivers
GrabProtect is a good initiative to safeguard the health of our front-line private-hire drivers. The virus may be present for god-knows-how-long in the world. Besides applying for the $9,000 SIRS Scheme, adopting better hygiene practices to fight the virus is the only thing we can do now.
