Bangkok--21 May--FleishmanHillard
Grab, the leading everyday everything super app in Southeast Asia, today announced the GrabCares #pullingthroughittogether programme aimed at alleviating the impact of COVID-19 through a series of support measures for merchant-partners and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), government and healthcare professionals, driver- and delivery-partners, as well as Grab users and the general public.
The support measures include a reduction in the maximum commission rate for GrabFood merchant-partners; accelerating the merchant sign-up
and onboarding process; recruiting more than 64,000 delivery-partners to meet increasing demand for food,
groceries and package deliveries; and transitioning GrabCar and GrabTaxi driver-partners to do food delivery jobs and earn alternative sources
of income. Grab is also raising
safety and hygiene standards to give consumers’ peace of mind and providing support to government
and healthcare professionals in the fight
against COVID-19.
Tarin Thaniyavarn, Country Head of Grab Thailand, commented, “The COVID-19 situation in Thailand has increased in severity and many are concerned about the impact it has on livelihoods and the economy. Grab Thailand has been closely monitoring the situation since the beginning of the outbreak and has continuously adjusted its business plan and approach to cope with the evolving situation. Our team is committed to doing our very best to serve the rising demand for daily essential services, while ensuring we maintain the highest safety standards for all stakeholders in our ecosystem. Through the launch of GrabCares, we are taking another step to provide greater support to alleviate the impact of COVID-19 on our community.”
I: Merchant-partners and MSMEs
1.1) Supporting MSMEs in generating more revenue through GrabFood
Effective 1 April, Grab will reduce
the maximum commission rate for GrabFood merchant-partners (excluding
GrabKitchen) from 35% to 30%. This
will help reduce the financial burden on merchant-partners.Grab has revamped
the merchant sign-up and onboarding process and
doubled the size of its support team to serve increased GrabFood
merchant applications. With merchant applications
tripling to over 2,000 daily, Grab Thailand
aims to speed up the application
process to 7 to 10 days, from an average of 14 to 21 days. This
will provide merchants in Greater
Bangkok and outer-cities quicker
access to additional income opportunities.
1.2) Expanding GrabFood to more provinces to empower more MSMEs
Over the past three months (from
January to March 2020),
GrabFood has expanded its service to eight provinces including Chonburi,
Rayong, Nakhon Pathom, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Lampang, Uttaradit,
and Mahasarakham. Grab aims to bring GrabFood
to nine more provinces such as Ratchaburi, Petchburi, Surin,
Nonkhai, etc. by June. This will help
digitally transform even more MSMEs, offering them much needed business revenue
from online food orders during this challenging Covid-19
period where restaurant dine-ins and walk-ins
have dwindled significantly.
1.3) Promoting local MSME merchant-partners through exciting campaigns on GrabFood
Grab has launched the
“Support Local Restaurants” campaign to
promote smaller brands and MSMEs on GrabFood. With
increased visibility on the Grab app, Grab hopes to boost their sales by at
least six times.
II: Government agencies and healthcare professionals
2.1) Collaborating with government agencies to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19
Grab Thailand has been
supporting the Department of Disease Control, Ministry of
Public Health on contact tracing to identify individuals who may have come into
close contact with a COVID-19 patient.
2.2) Supporting Public Health agencies’ initiatives and extending our appreciation to healthcare professionals
From March 26 to June 30, Grab
is offering discounted food delivery fees to officials from the
Department of Disease Control as well as physicians, nurses and healthcare
workers from health organizations as well as seven public hospitals
including Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute, Rajprachasamasai
Institute, Ramathibodi Hospital, King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital,
Rajavithi Hospital, Siriraj Hospital and Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital.Grab Thailand has partnered public hospitals
including Police General Hospital and Chulalongkorn
Hospital to provide on-demand medicine delivery via GrabExpress so that
patients can reduce the need to travel to hospitals. Grab users can
support COVID-19 pandemic-related
projects e.g. Ramathibodi Foundation
by donating their GrabRewards points.
III: Driver- and delivery-partners
3.1) Providing income opportunities for Thai people
Grab will continue to bring
new delivery partners on board to provide them with additional income
opportunities through food, groceries and package delivery jobs. This
is critical in light of an economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19
outbreak. From February to March, Grab has onboarded more
than 29,000 new delivery-partners and plans to recruit 35,000
more partners in April to serve the rising demand for
delivery services as a result of social distancing measures instructed by the
government.GrabCar and GrabTaxi driver-partners
whose income have been greatly impacted due to decreased tourist
arrivals and reduced travel by local passengers can access alternative
sources of income by taking on food and package delivery jobs. Grab
started a pilot programme on March 25 in which more
than 10,000 driver-partners can earn additional income
through food delivery in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom and
Chonburi. A debt-relief
programme is in place to help driver-partners affected by
the COVID-19 crisis through a series of measures
including the suspension of principal repayments, reduced minimum
payments, loan tenure extensions and interest-only
repayments.
3.2) Caring for Partners’ Health and Safety
Grab has provided more than
50,000 face masks and over 3,000 disinfectant sprays and hand sanitisers to
driver- and delivery-partners
since January 2020, along with a 50% discount for car-cleaning
services. Going forward, Grab will provide cloth
masks to partners due to a shortage of face masks.From January to February, Grab collaborated
with the Department of Disease Control, Ministry of
Public Health, to offer free health check-ups and flu
vaccinations to over 3,000 GrabTaxi driver-partners. Grab
has also provided driver-partners who are at risk a
subsidy of THB 500 for medical checkup expenses, as well as financial
support of THB 2,000 for driver-partners who have
tested positive for COVID-19.Grab has also partnered with
Muang Thai Life Insurance to provide all driver- and
delivery-partners who have tested positive for COVID-19
with THB 500 per day in compensation, up to 15 days.
IV: Grab users and the general public
4.1) Increased safety measures to give users peace of mind and confidence with Grab services
Grab has continued to conduct
education and awareness campaigns on health and hygiene practices for
driver- and delivery- partners. Grab
is also encouraging merchant-partners,
including GrabKitchen, to maintain the highest safety
standards of food preparation and handling. In
addition, Grab has cooperated with the Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to
implement body temperature checks for delivery partners
before entering restaurants in many parts of the city.We have launched 'Contactless
Delivery’ to ensure both customers and delivery-partners
maintain a 2-meter distance at all times. All
partners are also encouraged to strictly follow the eight safe food delivery
regulations by the Department of Health, Ministry of Public Health. In
addition, delivery-drivers are required to stand
at least one meter away from each other while queuing up at restaurants.To reduce the physical
exchange of cash during this outbreak, Grab is promoting the use of GrabPay
cashless payments, and working with banks to promote digital payments. In
fact, the use of cashless payment for GrabFood orders has doubled in the past
few weeks.
4.2 Providing daily essentials to consumers
Grab has partnered with
Central Food Retail Group to launch GrabMart, which
provides consumers another convenient way to purchase daily
essentials online, in addition to the Groceries feature which connects shoppers
with Tops Supermarket and HappyFresh delivery services. The
first phase of GrabMart was launched on March 27, enabling Grab
users to order food and daily essentials from over
230 FamilyMart branches. The service will soon be
expanding to include Tops Deli.
“We know this is a very challenging time for everyone, and on behalf of Grab in Thailand, we want to express our appreciation and thanks to the doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals who are working tirelessly to battle this pandemic. We also want to thank our merchant-partners for ensuring the highest food safety standards, as well as our driver- and delivery-partners for providing essential services that keep our communities going. Grab will continue to support the community through this difficult time, and we are fully committed to overcoming this crisis together with the Thai people,”saidTarin.
#GrabCares #pullingthroughittogether
About Grab
Grab is the leading super app in Southeast
Asia, providing everyday services that matter most to consumers.Today, the Grab app has been downloaded onto over 185 million mobile
devices, giving users access to over 9 million drivers, merchants and agents.Grab offers the widest range of on-demand transport
services in the region, in addition to food, package, grocery delivery
services, mobile payments and financial services across 339 cities in eight
countries.