Grab Philippines has initiated an investigation into mounting complaints regarding allegedly higher fares charged to its GrabUnlimited subscribers. In a statement released on Tuesday, the ridesharing and delivery company clarified that its platform's pricing is dynamically generated based on real-time supply and demand fluctuations, distance, estimated travel time, road conditions, and the availability of drivers or delivery partners.
Dynamic Pricing Mechanism Explained
"Because these factors shift continuously—sometimes within seconds—two transactions for what appears to be the same route or order, initiated even moments apart, may reflect different prices. This is also why prices may vary between devices, sessions, or times of day," the company elaborated in its official communication.
Grab emphasized that its pricing system employs an identical methodology for all users, asserting that it does not impose varying base prices based on user identity, subscription status, or frequency of platform usage. Furthermore, the company noted that promotional offers, vouchers, and subscription benefits such as discounts are applied on top of the base price visible to any user at that specific moment.
Internal Review and Viral Evidence
Despite these clarifications, Grab acknowledged the fare discrepancy complaints by launching an internal review of specific cases and a broader examination of its pricing algorithms. This move comes in response to recent days where several netizens posted compelling evidence of fare disparities, highlighting that GrabUnlimited users were being charged more compared to regular users.
On March 29, a viral post on Threads showcased a user who was charged P216 for a trip while subscribed to GrabUnlimited, significantly higher than the P192 charged to their mother's regular account for the identical route. Earlier, on March 27, another Threads user demonstrated being charged P438 using their GrabUnlimited and GrabUnlimited Car subscriptions, whereas their child's regular account was billed only P360 for the same journey.
The company's proactive steps aim to address transparency concerns and restore user trust amid growing public scrutiny over its subscription model's value proposition.
