Grab upbeat on Myanmar after trial

Hooi Ling Tan, co-founder of Singapore-based Grab, said the company had gathered positive feedback during the period and was confident on the outlook for its Myanmar operations. “It has been only four months. But the growth has been large. We are here today to expand our services. Hopefully we can attract a lot more passengers,” she said at a press conference.
 Tan said the company – which has operations across Southeast Asia - was encouraged by the community’s receptiveness to the service and the support given by the government since March, when it started business operations in the country.
“We have seen positive and meaningful results including improvements to driver-partners’ incomes, taxi standards and transport efficiency. We have also gathered feedback from our beta trial and translated them into improvements for our users,” she said.
Tan said more than 5,000 drivers have partnered with Grab and they have reported, on average, a 30 per cent improvement in their monthly incomes.
All the drivers now have access to banking and financial services through the firm’s partnerships with CB Bank and Wave Money. They also enjoy discounted mobile data plans in partnership with Telenor Myanmar and can attend free English-language courses.
 According to Tan, the firm is now fully operational in Yangon. She said she is committed to making the Grab application – through which users book rides - more user-friendly, while raising the skills of the driver-partners on its platform, and creating more job opportunities for locals. She also pledged to support the government in upgrading the country’s transport infrastructure.
“We are investing in Myanmar for the long term,” she said, without disclosing its investment amount and target.
Tan said the firm had focused on three core pillars in the past four months – the user experience, safety and local partnerships. The trial was successful, she said, as Grab managed to introduce international standards and innovations, such as driver screening, training and new safety features.
According to the feedback from the trial, many people in Myanmar are still unfamiliar with ride-hailing apps and passengers are less likely to take rides after 8pm due to safety concerns. And sometimes it was difficult for drivers to find passengers’ exact pick-up locations.
“We are learning how to use on-demand services together. Basically, it is a huge opportunity for both taxi drivers and passengers. We carefully choose our partners and always check the quality of our taxis to ensure safety,” Tan said.
Tan said the company used the “Share my ride” feature for live tracking of rides and introduced an emergency button that allows passengers to call the police through the app in an emergency. Free personal accident insurance is also available for passengers and drivers for the first time in Myanmar, she added.
“We have made public transport safer. When riding with Grab, traffic accident rates are five times lower than national average across the region,” she said. “Eight in 10 females feel safer in booking a taxi with us.”
The firm has a team of over 40 employees and will set up a 24-hour customer call centre next month to address any concerns, feedback and questions from drivers and passengers. In the near future, passengers and drivers can tap on the “Contact Us” button within the app to reach the call centre.
“We are looking for more great talent with an interest in innovation. We need great people to continue bringing true value,” she said.
Zeyar Mynn, head of operations at Grab Myanmar, said the company would focus on Yangon first under its expansion plans. He said he hopes to expand the service to other cities in the future. 
He said the Yangon Region government had given much support to the company, which is in active discussions with the Road Transport Administration Department under the Ministry of Transport and Communications to provide better services in Myanmar.