airasia ride, the e-hailing service on the airasia superapp, is testing out a new feature called SureRIDE. This feature appears to target a significant pain point of using e-hailing alternatives to Grab, the dominant player in the market, which is getting connected to a driver quickly and reliably. With some apps that don’t have as many drivers as the leading platform, it can sometimes take quite a while to secure a ride, especially during peak hours.
SureRIDE is still in the beta testing phase and was spotted by us on the app last week, although the option seems to not appear on the app anymore. From the description, it describes the feature as “Ride Assured”, which means that you are more likely to get connected to a driver using this option.
Sure enough, a company representative confirmed to us that this type of ride will connect users to drivers with the highest take-up and completion rates, which means that the drivers chosen for this programme are those who accept and complete rides more than their peers. We were told that because it is still being tested, there is no confirmed timeline on when it might be officially released.
From when we tested it, we discovered that SureRIDE was marginally more expensive than the regular airasia ride option, with a RM2 difference for the route we tried. We were positively surprised when we were able to get a driver almost instantly after making the booking but unfortunately, the driver cancelled on us shortly afterwards.
Aside from the slightly higher fare, it is unknown if there will be some sort of incentive or penalty for the drivers to ensure that the “assured” rides do not get cancelled. It is also unclear if the range for the booking request is the same as regular rides or if it is increased.
