This is how Grab responded after users complained of expensive delivery fees today

As we reported previously, food delivery riders organised a strike today due to an apparent fare change that went viral amongst Grab riders. Today, users report of higher-than-usual delivery fees on the Grab app—likely due to the strike and lack of riders willing to deliver. However, here’s how Grab addressed the higher price.

A user on Twitter posted that the delivery prices on the Grab app for them is “crazy”—showing a RM6 delivery fee for a GrabFood order 3KMs away. Usually, the fee would be around RM3.

At around 11.30am today, I tried looking at my own feed on the Grab app and found a whopping RM8 for a Starbucks order about 5KMs away. A Zus Coffee outlet nearby wasn’t even available for us to order—if I wanted Zus Coffee, I needed to order from an outlet 12.5KMs away for a RM10 delivery fee. Comparing it to Foodpanda’s prices, its delivery fee is still a reasonable RM2.99 for the Zus Coffee outlet nearby.

We also asked our friends on Twitter and Facebook, and we received a few responses confirming the higher than usual price for Grab’s delivery fees. Most noted that they knew it was due to the strike today, but a few pointed out that you can still get regular delivery fees, but only in certain circumstances.

Grab’s response

Under a Twitter user’s complaint about a higher delivery fee, Grab responded saying that their riders “depend of the delivery fees paid by customers”. They added that the company gives a “bonus”, and the additional tips customers give are given “100% to riders”.

Delivery riders’ protest

Even though it looks like Grab is hiking up its fees, riders from both Grab and Foodpanda are getting together to strike today. According to The Star, the protest started from midnight today and will go on for the rest of the day.

“The protest is a way of giving these companies some awareness about how the riders are feeling in their current situation as they cope with rising cost of living. They feel that they are earning less despite performing more deliveries,” said Abdul Hakim Abdul Rani, the vice-president of Malaysian P-Hailing Riders’ Association.

He explained that riders are paid a flat rate per delivery and may earn incentives depending on the time and distance of the order placed. However, he said that riders are not compensated fairly for deliveries that may take a longer time to complete. Abdul Hakim added that his NGO has proposed to introduce a standard rate of RM5 for the first 5km per delivery and 80sen should be applied for each subsequent kilometre.

“I estimate that maybe 40% of riders will join the protest but the rest with families may carry on as usual because they need to earn their daily wages. I have heard of how riders start the day with zero and end the day with RM50. For some, that is enough money to feed a small family,” he said.

Yesterday, AirAsia Super App and AirAsia Food owner Capital A Bhd today announced it is offering its gig workers full-time employment with a minimum monthly salary of RM3,000. Tony Fernandes said that alongside the attractive basic salary, the riders will also receive perks such as Employee Providence Fund (EPF) and Social Security Organisations (Socso) savings account, medical coverage, annual leaves, and even travel benefits.

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Related reading

• AirAsia Food and Xpress riders now hired as full time staff, first in Asia to offer minimum salary to gig workers
• [ UPDATE ] Grab: Viral post of GrabFood riders’ lower earnings is because of a “technical issue”