Komsan Chiyadis
GrabFood delivery-partner, Thailand
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We’ve cut the number of steps it takes to join Grab as a driver
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July 19, 2023
With the reopening of post-pandemic Southeast Asia, we are seeing a resurgence of incoming travellers taking Grab rides, as well as locals commuting. We’ve also observed that food delivery as a lifestyle habit has stuck; a recent survey we conducted found that the vast majority of Southeast Asian consumers see delivery as a permanent part of post-pandemic life.
To meet the rising demand for both rides and deliveries, one of our ongoing focus areas has been on ramping up driver-partner supply on the Grab platform. To ease signing up, we developed an in-app driver sign-up tool.
Previously, signing up on Grab was a separate process outside of the app. We built the in-app tool after surveying drivers across our markets, who told us they preferred to do everything in one interface.
So we first piloted the sign-up ability within our driver app in 2022 in Singapore and Malaysia. This was later rolled out to the rest of our markets across the region by April 2023.
Driver-partners can now sign up directly within the driver app, and with fewer steps involved, too.
The tool was built to onboard drivers more efficiently and cost-effectively than before.
We surveyed markets like Vietnam and Indonesia, and conducted workshops across countries to get a better understanding of pain points that our driver-partners face.
With their feedback, we focused on improvements including cutting down the time needed to complete the steps, and making the instructions easier to understand.
Signing up in-app to drive on the Grab platform
In user research, we found that a large proportion of new drivers dropped off from the sign-up process when they found it difficult to understand.
Some said that lengthy steps presented friction in signing up, and some found it complicated interacting with multiple websites in the sign-up process. Drivers previously had to sign-up with a website, then go to a separate training portal, and finally get prompted to download the driver app at the end.
Drivers previously had to sign-up with a website, then go to a separate training portal, and finally get prompted to download the driver app at the end.
To reduce this friction, we created a consolidated platform that driver-partners can use with a single login, to give them access to all the steps and forms needed within the app.
Designing a user-friendly environment
For driver-partners to be able to self-serve, it’s important that the app should be clear in its guidance on what the next step in the sign-up process should be.
In 2022, our data found that 20 per cent of new drivers and 70 per cent of reboarding drivers were rejected because of document submissions not meeting requirements. This was often because of incomplete information, or photos not meeting the specified guidelines.
To address the issue with form-filling, we started to provide drivers with a comprehensive checklist of why their particular forms did not pass requirements via both the app and email.
For photos, driver-partners submitting their pictures now get a preview of their submitted profile photo against the guideline version, and are informed if their submission will not be accepted.
We also built push notifications at each step to show driver-partners which stage of the process they were at, and to prompt them when their application status changes, and what they need to do next.
More than half of our new driver-partner sign-ups come through the new onboarding tool.
This needed to be customised at the country level to be compliant with local ride-hailing and driver identity verification laws.
Being able to handhold the applicant step-by-step helped us reduce reliance on manual support from Grab’s operations team, and contribute to a faster and more efficient onboarding.
The onboarding tool now serves more than half of our new driver-partner sign-ups, with the majority completing the entire sign-up process without the need for additional assistance.
We are currently working on adding Grab chat support in the driver-partner app. This will allow drivers to send in questions or ask for help from a Grab agent, to help them resolve questions more quickly and conveniently.
We anticipate this feature being especially useful in remote locations where we may not have a driver facility present, as we expand across the region.
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Komsan Chiyadis
GrabFood delivery-partner, Thailand
COVID-19 has dealt an unprecedented blow to the tourism industry, affecting the livelihoods of millions of workers. One of them was Komsan, an assistant chef in a luxury hotel based in the Srinakarin area.
As the number of tourists at the hotel plunged, he decided to sign up as a GrabFood delivery-partner to earn an alternative income. Soon after, the hotel ceased operations.
Komsan has viewed this change through an optimistic lens, calling it the perfect opportunity for him to embark on a fresh journey after his previous job. Aside from GrabFood deliveries, he now also picks up GrabExpress jobs. It can get tiring, having to shuttle between different locations, but Komsan finds it exciting. And mostly, he’s glad to get his income back on track.
