A ride-hailing app’s carpooling service has started rolling out in Makati City after being suspended during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Market surveillance analyst John Paul Tanyag on Tuesday shared a screengrab of a notice within Grab‘s app which informed commuters that they can “save 15% on fares” with GrabShare.
GrabShare is the app’s carpooling service where users can book at a reduced fare at the cost of sharing the vehicle with other commuters headed in the same direction.
They can be matched with other passengers at any time of their ride.
The app said that fares under this service “can be up to 40% lower” than the regular GrabCar fares.
Tanyag informed fellow commuters of GrabShare’s partial return.
The notice within the app said that it only operates during the afternoon and evening rush hours in Makati City for now, mainly from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The ride-hailing app also said that it could only accommodate one co-passenger.
GrabShare was suspended in Metro Manila and Cebu since March 2020 in consideration of physical distancing measures against COVID-19.
At that time, there were still no developed vaccines against the viral disease which had just started its global outbreak.
The Department of Health imposed physical distancing measures as one of the means to prevent its transmission.
The ride-hailing app then temporarily suspended its carpooling service “to aid in the social distancing prescribed by the Philippine health officials with regard to the public health situation on COVID-19.”
The app previously said it would resume its GrabShare services “as soon as the public health situation de-escalates.”
Pandemic monitoring group OCTA Research recently said that Metro Manila remained at low risk of COVID-19.
It predicted that the National Capital Region may be logging in less than 100 new cases per day by the end of the month.
Data from the DOH showed the NCR reported an average of 221 new cases per day from November 2 to 8, down from the average of 308 daily new cases the prior week.