Grab, Go-Viet, and Be: who is the stingiest?

Grab seems to be the meanest player in the local ride-hailing market

Most recently, hundreds of Go-Viet ride-hailing drivers have gathered in front of the firm’s headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City and turned off the Go-Viet application to protest the company's latest bonus payment policy. Specifically, the drivers have to earn 80 points to get VND240,000 ($10.4) of bonus instead of the 28 points for a VND180,000 ($7.8) bonus as before.

The majority of them said that they will never reach the target despite working all day. According to Go-Viet’s score calculation, drivers will get 2.5-3 points after each ride during normal hours and 4 scores in rush hours. Thus, they have to complete at least 26 rides a day to get the bonus, while most drivers only complete 10-20 rides a day at most.

Despite the complains, Go-Viet’s drivers still get a larger bonus than those driving for Grab, but less than Be – the newest entrant.

Even with tightening bonus policy, Go-Viet still more generous than Grab

Grab has previously paid bonuses to drivers based on their driving scores. However, Grab’s score calculations are far stricter than Go-Viet's. Accordingly, the Singaporean firm offers five score benchmarks (250, 450, 600, 800, and 900 points), fetching VND30,000 ($1.3), VND90,000 ($3.9), VND180,000 ($7.82), VND280,000 ($12.17), and VND360,000 ($15.6) bonus.

Different from Go-Viet, every Grab ride fetches 15 points, so drivers have to complete 30 rides to get 450 points and earn VND90,000 ($3.9) bonus, much lower than Go-Viet’s VND240,000 ($10.4) for 26 rides.

However, both Grab and Go-Viet are inferior to Be's bonus policy. Guided by its ambition to establish itself in the market, newcomer Be has been rather generous with drivers.

Be’s drivers get a bonus not only after the daily number of rides but also after their daily revenue. They get the bonuses of VND40,000 ($1.74), VND120,000 ($5.2), VND200,000 ($8.7), VND280,000 ($12.1), and VND360,000 ($15.6), for the daily scores of 8, 16, 24, 32, and 38 points collected after the rides.

In addition, Be’s drivers also receive a bonus of 20 per cent of their daily revenue ranging around VND200,000-400,000 ($8.7-$17.4). In case their daily revenue exceeds VND400,000 ($17.4), they will get a 25 per cent bonus on their revenue. Thus, every Be driver will get VND240,000 in bonus for at least 24 points, slightly higher than Go-Viet and Grab.

When will the bonus end?

To conquer the market, ride-hailing newcomers accept to spend large amounts of money, including bonus payments for drivers. Back when Grab was a newcomer several years ago, the income of its drivers at the time even exceeded VND10 million ($434.8) a month. However, now they make around VND5-6 million ($217-260) a month, according to a Grab driver.

Clearly, Go-Viet are repeating Grab's strategy, albeit at a much faster pace. Specifically, Grab waited for several years before tightening its bonus policy, while Go-Viet has begun within the first year of its operations. It could be seen that Go-Viet’s bonuses are becoming smaller the longer it is present on the market.

The scenario may be the same for Be, which is the most generous player in the market at the moment.