KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 ― Grab Malaysia announced fare changes — including a rise in fare prices per minute. The changes are to help compensate its drivers for time spent stuck in traffic during peak hours.

Effective yesterday, the fare per minute has been increased from 20 sen to 43 sen. However, the fare per kilometre has been reduced from 70 sen to 25 sen. The base and minimum rates remain unchanged at RM2 and RM5, respectively. Grab says that the fares were revised based on feedback from its drivers.

"We hear you, and we will be revising the fare structure so that fares are based more on the time taken to complete the ride and less on the distance of the ride,” said Grab Malaysia.

Opening up the Grab Car feature of the app, a banner appears above the space to type in the location of your destination. The banner simply states that "fares are higher now” with no added explanation to customers.

According to Grab, the fare will still be "calculated upfront based on system-estimated distance and system-estimated trip time”. For example, a 10 km ride that takes 30 minutes will cost RM18 instead of RM15 under the new fare structure, while a 10km ride that takes only 15 minutes will cost RM11 instead of RM12. Grab’s listed peak hours are from 7am to 9am and 5pm to 8pm.

While the fare change might seem beneficial to Grab drivers according to Grab, some have reportedly shared their concerns. Mohd Azril Ahmat, vice president of the Grab Drivers Malaysia Association (GDMA) shared that drivers prefer to work during non-peak hours, so the new fare change is disappointing.

"Based on the feedback I’ve gotten from some drivers today, they are expecting at least a 30 per cent reduction in earnings... This is because they reduced the earnings based on distance, which is down to just 25 sen. My concern now is that other ride-hailing companies will follow the same fee structure,” he shared.

Last year, we reported that food delivery riders organised a strike due to an apparent fare change that went viral amongst Grab riders. Grab responded saying that their riders are "depend of the delivery fees paid by customers” and the additional tips customers give are given "100 per cent to riders”. ― SoyaCincau