MANILA – Ride-hailing firm Grab Philippines said Monday it updated its policy to include a P50 fee for cancellations and no-shows to curb “unreasonable" behavior.

The penalty will apply to passengers who terminate a ride 5 minutes after getting a driver and for passengers who fail to show up at the pick-up points within 5 minutes upon arrival of their GrabCar booking. The window is shorter at 3 minutes for GrabShare.

Cancellation fees are added to the next booking fee if the passenger is paying in cash, Grab said.

Passenger accounts will be temporarily suspended for 24 hours if they cancel a ride twice in an hour, thrice in a day or 5 times within a week, the ride-hailing company said.

Drivers will also be penalized for cancelling passenger bookings without proper reason and for being selective of passenger destinations, the statement said. Drivers may also be “locked out of the platform” if they excessively ignore or cancel requests.

Passengers automatically get 30 rewards points if a driver cancels a ride, while a “tipping feature” was also rolled out allowing passengers to reward their drivers.

“Our intention in implementing this new policy is to create a better ride-hailing ecosystem, where both passengers and drivers practice the responsible use of the Grab platform,” Grab president Brian Cu said.

However, the P50 cancellation and no-show fees will not be imposed if the driver is canceled within 5 minutes, if the driver is not moving towards the pick-up point, if the driver takes 15 minutes longer than the estimated time of arrival, and if the driver indicates he has arrived when he has not, Grab said.

The platform said it was willing to refund wrongly charged fees within 48 hours.

Grab has notified the Land Transportation and Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) about it’s new cancellation policy.