GrabCar for Women service in Indonesia draws criticism

Photo credit: Grab

GrabCar for Women, which is available in selected districts in Bandung, Indonesia, has been raising some eyebrows from users.

The service provides extra safety for women to make them “feel calmer and more comfortable while traveling,” said Grab Indonesia when launching it on March 8.

Driver-partners for the service must pass a psychological evaluation that assesses their personality and traits, including any proclivity towards engaging in sexual violence or other criminal behaviors.

In addition, smoking is prohibited during the trip, and drivers are obligated to perform periodic car inspections to ensure that their vehicles remain clean.

This level of comfort and safety assurance should have been included in regular services, a Twitter user wrote while regretting that users must pay extra for something “bare minimum.”

GrabCar for Women was priced at an additional 3,000 rupiah (US$0.2) compared to GrabCar Protect, an option that features fully vaccinated drivers and stricter car hygiene standards to protect passengers against Covid-19.

The tweet garnered nearly 22,000 likes as of Monday noon. Some supported the company’s move, while others pointed out that the GrabCar for Women service could perpetuate gender stereotypes.

Mayang Schreiber, Grab Indonesia chief communications officer, told Tech in Asia that the service was launched after getting feedback from female consumers through an internal study and has been well-received.

Schreiber clarifies that all Grab drivers are not allowed to smoke during the ride but for the service, the company assigns only non-smoking drivers, as well as provides them with special fragrances for their vehicles.

“We also want to emphasize that all Grab driver-partners undergo mandatory training including customer service, sexual violence and harrassment prevention, safe driving, and others. These are not exclusive to GrabCar for Women driver-partners,” she added.

Currency converted from Indonesian rupiah to US dollar: US$1 = 15,172.

See also: Benchmarking GoTo and Grab against global peers

Update (Mar. 27, 3:44 p.m. SGT): This article was updated to include Grab Indonesia’s official comments.