{"id":5170,"date":"2017-02-20T07:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T23:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/?p=5170"},"modified":"2017-02-17T16:44:41","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T08:44:41","slug":"grab-40-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/blog\/grab-40-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"How we grew a business from 40 to 630,000 drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>The secret: Patience, persistence\u2026 and plenty of coffee sessions with drivers, says Grab&#8217;s head of business solutions Aaron Gill <\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this interview series, we chat with Grab\u2019s founding members about their experience building up Southeast Asia\u2019s largest ride-hailing app. This week, our head of business solutions Aaron Gill shares how we expanded our network of drivers from 40 to over 630,000, and offers takeaways for other early startups.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/V7vD3gkRC2Q?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Grab has a network of over 630,000 drivers in Southeast Asia, but the startup\u2019s beginnings were decidedly humble, says pioneer member Aaron Gill, who is head of business solutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBack in 2011, we had no grand ambitions of bein<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">g a unicorn. All we wanted was to fix the taxi problem in Kuala Lumpur,\u201d says Aaron, who hails from the Malaysian capital but is now based in Singapore.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the past, commuters in Kuala Lumpur would phone in taxi call centres. A dispatcher would manually find and assign a driver in a process that could drag on for half an hour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">There were also rumours \u2013 never verified \u2013 of dispatchers awarding rides in return for kickbacks, upsetting honest cabbies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe saw this and thought we could obviously make an improvement. We could shave waiting times for passengers and help drivers earn a fair wage,\u201d says Aaron.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was the genesis of Grab (then called MyTeksi). Aaron joined the founding team \u2013 which comprised co-founders Anthony Tan and Tan Hooi Ling \u2013 overseeing product and tech development.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Getting Drivers Onboard<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right off the bat, the team faced a challenge: Grab needed taxi drivers onboard its ride-matching platform. But most drivers in Malaysia didn\u2019t even own smartphones. \u201cConvincing them to buy one was a huge leap,\u201d Aaron says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By working with a local taxi service provider, the team found 40 cabbies willing to throw in their lot with the unknown startup.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatsapp was an alien concept to the drivers which meant face-time was critical. The team set up fortnightly <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">teh tarik <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">or coffee sessions to gather feedback.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThese early adopters had faith in us because they felt it was time for a change. They liked that the decision would be made by a machine, not a person. It seemed fairer,\u201d Aaron says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Vocal Critics, Vocal Champions<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But having invested in a new tool, Grab\u2019s first 40 drivers had high expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Aaron recalls drivers sitting side-by-side at coffee shops waiting for jobs to come in. One would get a notification, but due to the speed of the network, it would take a few more seconds for the other drivers to receive the same job.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThey would compare and ask why one person had a two-second advantage. They even claimed we were \u2018favoring\u2019 one driver over the other!\u201d he exclaims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tensions came to a head during the fortnightly coffee sessions, when drivers would sometimes bang on tables and shout at the team. Their frustrations were understandable. After all, this hit their livelihoods directly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThey had invested so much in us. We owed it to them to build a product that showed results,\u201d says Aaron. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the team dutifully went back every fortnight to show incremental improvements. And when drivers swung by Grab\u2019s office for tech support, the team\u2019s engineers would personally come out to help.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSlowly, we found that the same driver who yelled at us the month before would be happy with us. In fact, he would become our strongest advocate,\u201d says Aaron.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Raising The Bar<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">After months of tinkering, the Grab app debuted in June 2012 to a media blitz. It received 11,000 bookings on the first day, which meant finding more drivers became a top priority.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the team took to the streets, approaching drivers at coffee shops and petrol kiosks. The number of sign-ups shot up from around 100 to 1,000 a month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These \u201con-ground\u201d tactics were so successful that the team exported them to other countries. \u201cIn Vietnam we approached drivers at 4am at the start of their shifts,\u201d Aaron describes. \u201cIn Singapore, we targeted taxis queues at Changi airport. One person would explain the app to the driver, and the other would download it onto his phone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>The Human Touch<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While Grab has grown, it retains its personable approach with its drivers. Every major city the brand operates in, for instance, has driver support centres, while the smaller ones have kiosks and satellite offices.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And though it is possible to communicate via Whatsapp or Line now, Grabbers in some cities still continue the founding tradition of fortnightly coffee sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI remember a young driver who signed up with Grab so he could save up for his marriage. When he finally had a wedding, he wanted us to be there,\u201d Aaron recalls with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIn many ways, we\u2019ve been a part of our drivers\u2019 lives \u2013 and that\u2019s extremely rewarding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>3 takeaways for growing a young business <\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b> Your harshest critic can become your biggest champion<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYour most vocal critic can actually work for you,\u201d says Aaron, referring to the Grab team\u2019s experience dealing with disgruntled drivers. \u201cMake him angry, and he\u2019ll be vocal about it. But by the same token, make him happy, and he will be your most vocal champion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><b> Out-serve your partners<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From regular coffee sessions to manning driver support centres, \u201cour approach has been very high-touch. But that face-time has been critical to our success,\u201d says Aaron. During its early days in Malaysia, for instance, the team didn\u2019t just school drivers in the Grab app. They also introduced them to complementary tools like Whatsapp and Viber, helping them to unlock the full value of a smartphone.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li><b> Your early adopters are key<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThey will be the ones telling others about your product,\u201d says Aaron. \u201cWhen our first few drivers had their coffee breaks, their devices would ping with jobs and this became a conversation starter with other drivers sitting around the table. That\u2019s how the word about us spread.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The secret: Patience, persistence\u2026 and plenty of coffee sessions with drivers, says Grab&#8217;s head of business solutions Aaron Gill &nbsp; In this interview series, we chat with Grab\u2019s founding members about their experience building up Southeast Asia\u2019s largest ride-hailing app. This week, our head of business solutions Aaron Gill shares how we expanded our network [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":592,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/592"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5170"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5176,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5170\/revisions\/5176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grab.com\/ph\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}