GrabTaxi exec Natasha Bautista shines a light on GrabCar’s stoic drivers

The battle in transportation tech raging across Southeast Asia is so top heavy with storylines from the major players – GrabTaxi, EasyTaxi, and Uber – that it’s easy to lose sight of one key group: the drivers.

“Revolution” and its verb form, “revolutionizing,” are often overused in the startup world, but in the case of your average, everyman driver operating a cab today, the term is very much accurate. Just take a look at Metro Manila, Philippines.

All of what Filipino taxi drivers had previously known – such as the fact that you could only earn money by illegally demanding an additional fee on top of the metered fare – is being upended by GrabTaxi and rival taxi apps. Now they can make money through an Android application, through which users can book a ride with you for an additional Php 70 (US$1.61), and you’re free to accept or decline as you wish. Plus, you earn a nifty smartphone. If that’s not a revolution, I don’t know what is.

GrabTaxi Philippines assistant general manager Natasha Bautista believes that Filipino drivers will eagerly embrace this revolution, owing to our national culture. “We are the texting capital of the world. Almost everyone in the Philippines – whatever social status they are in – have one to two phones. Plus, the growth of smartphone penetration is insane. Knowing how Filipinos are, I believe that we are very capable of adapting fast to tech,” Bautista says.

In addition to being the assistant general manager of GrabTaxi Philippines, Bautista is a professional model. Photo Credit: Jar Concengco.

How these drivers respond to the revolution, engage with the pioneering trio of companies, and accept or reject their value propositions will have as much effect on the outcome of the race as any funding news on the frontpage.

See: Reinventing four wheels: 14 apps that are changing the way we get around

A model teacher

GrabCar, which is Bautista’s brainchild, pits the company directly against Uber. Through the GrabTaxi application, users can book their premium GrabCar service, which will send an unmarked vehicle your way, a la Uber, to pick you up.

Despite accessing them both through the GrabTaxi application, GrabCar required a new set of drivers. Bautista explains, “GrabCar taps into the rent-a-car service, meaning GrabCar drivers are different from GrabTaxi drivers.”

As such, she pitched to private drivers, most of whom had never even heard of Uber because it is still relatively new and smallish in the country, on the value of GrabCar.

“I can say that it was easier to pitch to them at this point because GrabTaxi has been very successful for the past year, which meant I didn’t even need to explain to the drivers what our platform does,” Bautista says. She did, however, have to explain the specs of GrabCar as a premium service within GrabTaxi.

L-R: Jesse Maxwell (director), Natasha Bautista (assistant general manager), Anthony Tan (founder and CEO), Brian Cu (director), Franco Varona (former general manager).

Chief among these key specs was compensation. “These drivers are rent-a-car drivers and were paid before with a fixed monthly salary for their scheduled pick-ups – usually two to three jobs per day,” Bautista explains. “With GrabCar, they get paid a fixed salary plus a commission for up to 10 jobs per day.”

Watch as the drivers become digitally savvy

Let them speak