Grab expands into food delivery

MANILA, Philippines — Ride-hailing app Grab is expanding its offering in the Philippines through the launch of a food delivery service by next month.

“We’re planning to launch food by next month,” Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu said in an interview at the sidelines of the BusinessWorld Economic Forum Friday.

He said talks are ongoing with restaurants which will serve as partners for the food delivery service.

Grab is bringing the food delivery service in the Philippines in line with the company’s regional plans.

“Food was brought up as a priority vertical for the region. It was a regional decision that food is the next frontier for us to enter into. Philippines is naturally where we are strong in so, it is one of the countries where we would launch food,” Cu said.

He said GrabFood would work similar to how it is in other markets such as Indonesia and Thailand where the service is currently available.

By going to the app, users can select from a list of restaurants, choose food items to be delivered, get a food delivery rider and track their order.

Cu said the food delivery service would be provided by bikes.

“We can’t take away supply from four-wheels because we already have a problem with the (supply and demand) balance,” he said.

Grab passengers have recently experienced difficulty in booking rides due to the low supply of vehicles and drivers.

While the app gets 600,000 bookings a day, Cu said there are only 29,000 to 35,000 active vehicles.

He said there is a gap in the demand and supply as Grab cannot get 6,000 previously active Uber drivers on-board for they are not part of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board’s audited master list.

Grab took over the operations of rival Uber in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, in March.

Cu said Grab has raised the matter to LTFRB, but there is no immediate solution yet.

For now, he said Grab is increasing incentives to encourage more drivers to go online.

“We are spending a lot now on incentives. We spend more than what we did last month and what we did a few months ago,” he said.

“So far, drivers are already stretched,” he added.