Grab cuts number of cars on Singapore roads

SINGAPORE: Grab has helped reduce the number of cars on Singapore roads by about 19,000 since it launched its service there in 2013, said head of Grab Singapore Lim Kell Jay.
He said for every shared car Grab adds to the roads, its service is removing 1.5 personal cars.
Lim said Singapore is densely populated with 5.5 million people occupying some 790km² of land area.
He said roads account for 12% of total land area versus 14% for residential development.
He said Grab's goal is to take cars off the road by making transportation highly efficient, accessible and affordable.
"This can be done by increasing efficiency of individual services such as GrabTaxi and GrabCar as well as maximising utilisation via carpooling of GrabShare and GrabHitch.
"Unifying transport services such as JustGrab and GrabShare while moving larger groups affordably and conveniently via GrabCoach and GrabShuttle has helped achieve this aim," Lim said during Grab's fifth anniversary celebration here recently.
"Garb shuttle has been complementing Singapore's bus network. GovTech, part of the Singapore government, and Grab has been launching new and optimising existing shuttle routes to cater to more commuters.
"Routes have tripled to 47 within the first three months of launch," Lim said.
He added they were making it more affordable and having direct commute for public transport users.
He said the data-driven shuttle bus service can move larger groups of individual commuters affordably from door to door.
He also pointed out that commuters can crowd-start new shuttle routes.
He said by working with the government and taxi operators they (Grab) became the first government approved fixed fare taxi service.
He added that they achieved it via partnership with five taxi operators and became the first market to launch car- and taxi-sharing via GrabShare.
He pointed out that JustGrab had 92,000 more job bookings worth over S$1.1 million (RM3.42 million) in fares daily.
Lim said the fast access to Singapore's largest network of taxis and cars has lowered average waiting time for rides from five to 3.2 minutes.
He also shared the earnings ratio of Grab driver-partners who earn an average one-third more per hour compared with the wages of an average worker.
He cited the example of drivers in Singapore earning 10% more, Malaysia 48%, Vietnam 55%, Thailand 19%, Indonesia 34% and Philippines 35%.
He added that traffic accident rates from Grab are lower than the national averages by some five times.