One Wednesday Evening During Rush Hour

A screenshot of my Grab booking screen.

I rode a Grabbed Uber this evening. I was on the way home from a meeting, and a commute would have taken way too much time, considering that I was coming from a city away. What can I say: nearly a decade of working from home has made me fairly resistant to the idea of traveling away from my home city, and the idea of going to the center of the neighboring city via public transportation was horrifying.


The man, whose name I will omit from this narrative, was nice. I've ridden my fair share of Uber and Grab cars, the former courtesy of the girlfriend, and while all of the drivers are corteous, rarely were they as politely chatty as this guy.

I seldom talk to cab or even TNVS drivers. I'm not a very nice fellow, by most standards. But once in a while, when my mood is right, and the driver is friendly, I engage in the usual small talk that makes the ride back home more enjoyable. This time around, I felt like I actually had to talk to the guy, since the drive back to the city took an hour and a half due to traffic, and it even gave me the opportunity to catch up on my sleep.

The man was on his first week as a Grab driver, transitioning from Uber. He asked me a series of curious questions, mostly revolving around how long I'd been a patron of Grab, what the promo I was using meant, and how Grab tagged these rides. I'd been with enough Grab drivers to know a little bit of how the system worked, and was able to answer a few of his queries to his satisfaction.

Then we started talking about how the governing body for public utility vehicles had grounded Uber, and the transition phase of drivers who'd temporarily shifted to Grab. I was surprised to hear that it had taken him all of three days to make the shift. That was pretty fast, insofar as application processes were concerned, and I couldn't help but express my surprise and, let's be honest, trepidation. I'd been hearing/reading about friends with horror stories about Grab sans Uber, and if the paperwork for temporary Grab drivers were done in a slipshod manner, then it'd be pretty worrisome.

But he was quick to allay my worries, and even went on to say that the head honcho of Grab was very hands-on. I don't know how unusual this was for TNVS companies, but that's pretty reassuring, the failings of the company notwithstanding.

Then we got to talking about how his outfit's garage was right beside a large, well-known taxi company made popular by their vehicle colors, and how the drivers of said company were treated badly by management. He didn't get into details, but he didn't mince words either: If you were under their employ, you were probably going to be treated like shit.

I asked him if he knew about this from personal experience, but he wouldn't say. So I asked him the next logical question on my mind: If the moratorium of Uber were to end, where would he go? Will he go back to Uber, or will he stay with Grab*?

He was silent for a while, thinking. It was pretty clear that he'd never really thought about that before - probably because he wasn't the guy in charge of the franchise. If his boss chose to stay with Uber, then that was where his loyalties would lie. But if he chose to put his chips in with Grab, etc.

Then he made a decision, and said "I guess I'd go with the company that treated their drivers better. If one company didn't really keep their drivers happy, then it isn't worth staying with them."

I was quiet for the rest of the ride, looking out at the traffic, as the dusk crept into the skyline of Manila. The cars honked their horns as each driver frustrated the other in the slow crescendo of rush hour. My Grabber driver didn't compete with the other guys, and I was content. Choice may be an illusion, but sometimes that illusion is the only thing you need. Ah, life.


*Note that I am aware that there are drivers who do both, but considering that both companies reward and/or penalize drivers who meet, or fail to meet, their quota, I think it was worth asking.