We shouldn’t pay this much just to get around

Want to feel utterly depressed at how much money you’ve spent commuting around Manila this year? Go to https://hub.grab.com/rides, enter your mobile number and put in the OTP that’s sent to your Grab app on your phone, set the history from Jan 1 this year till Dec. 31.

Grab will generate a total for you on how much money you’ve spent going around with them.

While my personal trip total was quite low because I work from home most of the time and have a car, the amount I paid for per ride was still stupidly high since I paid around Php 420 per ride (I took out 8 rides since those were all overseas bookings).

To be fair I live in San Mateo, Rizal, but in all honesty that’s literally like 5 minutes away from Marikina so my place isn’t some far-off boondock that’s totally cut off from civilization.

If there’s anyone that has the right to complain about how insane prices are for Grab nowadays, it should be Joey. Joey’s a senior-level executive at an international tech company that regularly uses Grab when his car is coding or when it’s in service, commuting from the Gilmore area to Ortigas. Check out his total:

His average fare is around 266 pesos, which is a tad high considering that the route is around 5 kilometers.

We’re not ragging on Grab by the way. Our increased total spend for Grab is a direct result of not having any kind of convenient, safe mass transport at our disposal. Heck, I’d be willing to take a taxi over Grab anytime, if only drivers weren’t so picky, they didn’t drive like maniacs, were actually safe, etc. You get what we mean.

Hilariously enough, Joey actually had a lower total for his Grab last year, since, you know, Uber was still a thing and 24/7 surge rates weren’t:

The key take away here? Our public transport system is way, way messed up, and the government needs to fix it, ASAP. At the very least, they need to introduce more options for consumers and the riding public, and maybe not take away alternatives during the FREAKING HOLIDAY SEASON.

Just saying’.