In addition to features to help merchants and drivers, Grab also introduced a number of features for those looking for a ride as well. Strictly speaking of features that get you from one place to another, one for the frequent fliers is letting you book a ride from the airport to your destination in advance. As in, before you even take off from where you were.
Grab says that this is simply building on the fact that over 50% of Advance Bookings are rides to the airport, and the Airport Pickup version is simply to cover the other half of the journey. You need to provide your arrival date and flight number for this, but the feature makes use of that to track your flight status in real time.
You can also set a pickup time delay after your touchdown, so when for instance you’re landing in a small airport, the driver only needs to be there 30 minutes after landing to pick you up. You can set this pickup time according to your preference, but to prevent congestion at the airport, the drivers will be waiting nearby rather than at the pickup point itself. That’s when you hit the button that signals that you’re ready, and the driver will be notified to make their way to you.
While this feature is already live, it is only available in what Grab has designated as pilot airport terminals for the feature, and naturally they are all in Southeast Asia. More specifically, they are I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Yogyakarta International Airport, Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Kuala Lumpur International Airport 1, Phuket International Airport, and Seletar Airport in Singapore.
As an aside, Grab also announced travel passes for just about every country in Southeast Asia that you can buy before going on your trip. As part of the pass, you get a bunch of discount vouchers for airport rides, rides within your destination country, as well as food delivery and dine outs.
For more domestic rides but involving teenagers, Grab has also added teenagers to its Family Accounts. Like before, this allows you to book rides for them and pay for their rides, but the new addition also means that they can book their own. Either way, extra security features are present here to ensure their safety.
The list of such features include prioritising top rated drivers with proven track records to pick your kids up, and a Pin verification to ensure they get into the correct ride with the correct drivers. For the latter, the driver gets the PIN first, which will then be passed to the teen. Only when the PIN matches will the ride commence. AudioProtect will also always be on for such rides, and parents can otherwise monitor these trips from the Family Account Admin’s end.
For those looking forward to make use of this feature though,it’s not going to be available immediately. According to the press release Grab put up, this one will only be available later in May.
