Passengers can now pay for street-hail rides via Grab app

SINGAPORE — Ride-hailing company Grab on Monday (Aug 7) launched its latest service, GrabNow, which allows passengers to pay for their street-hail taxi rides via its app.

Participating taxi drivers are identified by a GrabNow decal. The service is in its beta phase and Grab said it will roll it out progressively to all its users this week — those on the Android platform would have started seeing the GrabNow icon on their mobile phones, while iOS users will start seeing it later this week.

When a passenger hails a participating taxi, he must launch the Grab app and then pair his mobile device to the taxi driver’s. According to Grab, the pairing will take no more than 10 seconds and can be done via Google Nearby or a six-digit code issued from the driver’s app, which the passenger can enter into his device. After both driver and passenger are paired, the trip will be registered as a GrabTaxi ride and can be paid for using Grab’s in-app cashless payment feature GrabPay, or by cash. Passengers will be able to accumulate GrabRewards points for these rides, and will also receive electronic receipts for completed trips.

GrabNow is expected to drive more cashless transactions via GrabPay, said Mr Melvin Vu, head of GrabTaxi Singapore. “We understand that many taxi drivers are still hesitant to accept cashless payments due to the extra processing time for credit and debit card transactions. We believe that our latest Instant Cash Out feature will encourage taxi drivers to embrace the convenience of cashless payment, and bring more taxi-drivers into the cashless society.”

Under the Instant Cash Out feature, all GrabTaxi driver-partners with POSB or DBS bank accounts can instantly transfer fares collected via GrabPay into their bank accounts and withdraw their earnings at any of the bank’s ATMs, without having to wait for the standard processing time of one working day. Grab aims to roll out the feature to other local bank account holders in the following months. 

Cabbie Rani Krishnasamy, 51, who drives for SMRT Taxis, welcomed the added convenience. “With cashless payments and GrabPay, I can just check my bank account in the next five to 10 minutes (after the transaction) to make sure the money goes into my bank account,” she said. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY TOH EE MING