A friend of ours recently took a Gojek ride home and had a little chat with her driver about the PHV market during the pandemic.
While the driver has mentioned that the market is picking up, he also alleges that there is a certain way that the system operates that makes you do more for less.
The driver says that according to Gojek rules, Gojek pays an extra $3.00 to the drivers for pick-up distance of more than three kilometres.
A check with Gojek’s website has confirmed this to be true.
While the driver says that he has benefitted from this, he also claims that he feels that he has been played out by the system because of this rule.
He shared one of the many real life examples that happened to him.
For example, there was once he was roaming around Bugis Junction but got a booking to pick-up a passenger at Marina Barrage.
The distance to pick-up was almost five kilometres and he was supposed to get the $3.00 far pick-up fee.
However, the system actually cancelled him when he just passed Marina Bay Sands and then gave him back a booking from Marina Barrage, causing him to lose out on the extra $3.00 far pick-up fares as the distance to pick-up is less than three kilometres now.
He thought that this is a one off thing, but after it happened to him a few times, he thinks that there is more to this than just the passenger cancelling by themselves.
He ended off with saying that even though he feels that it is unfair, he has no choice but to accept it because he needs this to support his family.
Image source: Google maps