Its country head Sean Goh said it conducts “face-to-face” verification of its drivers, who are required to meet the company’s staff personally to ensure all their documents are in place before they start.
He said this is in addition to them submitting their applications to be partners and completing training sessions online.
“We work with third party vendors to perform a background/security vetting on all our drivers,” he said in a statement.
“Any cases, no matter how minor or significant, will be red-flagged to us, and therefore rejected from being on our platform.”
He added that in the last year, Grab had increased emphasis on passengers rating the drivers to help improve their quality.
He said drivers below a 4.4 star rating would be sent for retraining, and those whose poor performances persist would be removed.
“We also remove any driver below a 4.0 rating from our platform,” he said.
“Our safety initiatives are not exhaustive and we are constantly reviewing our processes to see what else we can do.
“However, we are ever committed to ensuring that every Grab ride is a safe ride for all.”
Questions about safety in using ride-sharing services arose following an incident on May 21 when a pregnant passenger was robbed by a Uber driver and his accomplice, causing her to suffer trauma and emotional stress that allegedly led to a miscarriage six days later.
Wong Mei Yan, 26, was reportedly robbed at knifepoint while taking a ride from Mid Valley to Puchong.
FMT has contacted Uber for information on its screening procedures and is awaiting its response.
The company had said in a statement on May 27 that it was continuously working to improve its services, and that safety was a matter it took “very seriously”.
“We have been working with the police since we were made aware within a few hours of the incident,” it said.
Goh claimed that Grab is the only ride-hailing service globally to receive an ISO 9001:2015 certification for safety and overall processes audited by an external certification body.
“We have a very strict code of conduct and monitor our drivers and passengers continuously,” he added.
“Every complaint received, either via social media, calls or emails, is investigated thoroughly and action will be taken accordingly, pending the severity of the issue.”
The company has also put in place a police “button” that connects a driver to the nearest police station, and a feature called “Share-My-Ride” so that the relevant people related to a passenger can be updated on the status of the person’s trip, he said.
Grab also provides personal accident insurance for its partners and passengers, he added.
“Recently, we began providing Road Safety 101 refresher courses, emergency response and first aid training, as well as self-defence courses for our partners,” he said.
He said the company is ready to work with the authorities and its drivers to review the processes to meet expectations.