Grab introduces GrabShare, sharing paid car-pooling market with Uber

RIDE-HAILING platform Grab launched its first commercial car-pool service GrabShare that puts it one step deeper in a market dominated by rival Uber.

Available from Tuesday, the GrabShare service pairs just two passenger bookings with similar trip routes within a single trip, said Grab in a release. Passengers will experience a maximum of two stops before reaching their destinations.

For example, if passenger A commences the ride and is paired with passenger B, depending on the more efficient trip route, passenger A may make a first stop to pick up passenger B and a second stop to drop off passenger B.

This new offering is the company's fourth transport service in Singapore. It is the commercial extension of GrabHitch. It also follows Grab's introduction of taxi-hailing service GrabTaxi and private hire car-hailing service GrabCar.

Its launch also puts it in the same arena as one currently serviced by UberPool, a similar commercial car-pooling service offered by Uber for its commercial car-hailing service UberX. About one in every three UberX trips in Singapore is car-pooled.

Grab says GrabShare's matching algorithm ensures passengers get to their destinations in the shortest possible time.

The algorithm, conceptualised, designed and engineered across Grab's three research and development centres in Singapore, Seattle and Beijing, calculates and determines a match by factoring the closest available drivers, travel time, overlap of trip routes, detour distance and current traffic conditions before sequencing pick-ups and drop-offs.

GrabShare fares are priced up to 30 per cent lower than GrabCar Economy fares. Fares are fixed and displayed upfront.

For drivers, it helps maximising potential earnings by reducing the time and distance spent on a single GrabShare ride, says Grab.