What we learned from letting women driver-partners choose to match with women passengers

Isabela Martin, Senior Product Marketing Manager

. October 18, 2024 . Regional

Grab strives to create a safe, equitable platform that empowers women drivers and passengers.

We took a significant stride in March 2024 with the launch of a feature called Women Passengers Preferred.

This feature allows women drivers to indicate in the app that they prefer to be matched with women passengers. It provides a feeling of safety for women who would otherwise be hesitant to drive for Grab, empowering them to pursue economic opportunities through the platform.

Of course, if there are no women passengers in the vicinity, our partners will still be matched to men passengers. This ensures that the earnings of our women driver-partners and the ride experience of our passengers are not compromised.

Strong uptake of Women Passenger Preferred

In just six months since its launch, the Women Passengers Preferred feature has been embraced and tried at least once by one out of every two women driver-partners in the region. This quick uptake underscores the feature’s relevance and reflects a collective desire among women to be seen, heard, and supported in their work.

Lowering barriers for women in ride-hailing

Women, unfortunately, still face challenges in men-dominated industries like ride-hailing in Southeast Asia. Over 50% of the population still holds biases against women working in this sector—for instance, the belief that women should stay at home and that driving is unsafe for them.

These societal expectations can deter women from signing up to drive in the first place, and can create overall friction to their platform experience.

We see this play out in higher cancellation rates. Both men and women passengers tend to cancel rides more often when the driver is a woman.

We also found that women drivers tend to cancel more often when the passenger is a man.

Despite these challenges, our targeted programme to bring more women drivers onboard has been effective. The 26% increase in our monthly active women driver-partners since the end of last year speaks to its success.

But there’s more we can do, and the Women Passengers Preferred feature is just the beginning of our commitment to this goal.

Improving match rate and safety: A win for both women drivers and passengers

Since the Women Passengers Preferred feature became available, we’ve observed positive developments for our community:

49% more matches between women drivers and women passengers.
Women drivers who enabled the feature experienced 18% fewer last-minute cancellations from passengers than the women drivers who didn’t.

Over 99.99% of all Grab rides continue to occur without any safety incidents, but the feature has further strengthened safety, especially for women driver-partners.

Since its launch, those using the feature have experienced fewer safety-related incidents compared to those who do not. This reflects a positive shift toward a safer and more supportive environment for women in ride-hailing.

Our commitment remains clear; to continue making a real difference, one ride at a time.

Deliveries and rides Impact Partners

What we learned from letting women driver-partners choose to match with women passengers

Lowering barriers for women in ride-hailing

Improving match rate and safety: A win for both women drivers and passengers

Komsan Chiyadis

Komsan Chiyadis