Features August 16, 2023

Revving Up Philippine Mobility in Service of the Filipino Commuters, According to Booey Bonifacio of Grab Philippines

With the increasing demand for safe, reliable, and efficient public transportation, Booey Bonifacio shares how Grab Philippines is revolutionizing local mobility to serve everyday commuters and provide a viable livelihood for Filipino drivers.

The Philippines has plenty of room to grow in terms of mobility. While it is a complex challenge, Grab, as an active driver of local economic growth through its everyday services, believes it is one worth pursuing.

Since setting its local base here in 2013, Grab has already covered more than 300 billion kilometers in the country—and this is as of 2019 alone. These numbers are expected to grow further as Grab fulfills its commitment to help create sustainable and meaningful livelihoods for Filipinos. Over time, Grab has also diversified its transport service to include GrabTaxi, GrabCar 4-Seater, GrabCar 6-Seater, and GrabShare in over 12 cities across the Philippines.

When the pandemic hit, Grab’s momentum was temporarily interrupted. The lockdowns and restrictions that kept Filipinos indoors paused Grab’s daily operations, especially its transport service operations. As such, Grab thrived and persisted by revolutionizing the delivery service market through innovative services like introducing and fortifying its delivery services like GrabFood, GrabMart, and GrabExpress—all of which helped keep not just the company, but also the economy, keeping the company afloat.

Now that the country has transitioned to the post-pandemic era sans mobility restrictions, the demand for safe and reliable transportation options surged as Filipinos resumed their routines in stores, offices, and schools. In response to the rising demand, Grab Philippines doubled down on the resumption of its ride-hailing services, concurrently unveiling new delivery features to meet evolving demands.

In an exclusive interview with The Business Manual, Atty. Sherielyse “Booey” Bonifacio, the Director for Public Affairs of Grab Philippines, revealed how Grab has become a driving force in the transportation sector in the Philippines—not just for the end-users, but also for their driver- and delivery-partners.

*Driven to revolutionize mobility in the post-pandemic landscape, Booey Bonifacio’s end goal is to make transport and delivery accessible to everyone through Grab’s services.*

A Career Built on Strong Synergies

Booey is the very definition of an empowered woman, whose robust credentials have built her for the role of Grab’s Director for Public Affairs. A graduate of the Ateneo Manila University and Ateneo Law School, Booey took further studies at the SOAS University of London from 2012 to 2013 where she graduated with a Master’s in Law, Development, and Governance.

Booey’s career started at the Asian Development Bank as a legal specialist consultant. By 2014, she took on the role of Assistant Secretary for Planning and Finance at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), before joining Grab in 2017.

“I celebrated my sixth year with Grab last July. I was originally a part of Grab’s regional public affairs team, but when the pandemic hit, the management decided that I assume a leadership role in the local team to help ensure the growth and resiliency of Grab in the Philippines,” Booey says. For her, that meant going back to her roots and focusing her efforts here—a task close to her heart.

Booey views her role as something that transcends plain and simple government relations. “We deeply engage not just with the government but with all of our public sector stakeholders, including civil society, and the academe to name a few,” she explains. In doing this, Bonifacio shares that Grab is better able to serve the hyperlocal needs of the market.

“We foster synergies with the government and with our public sector actors so that we could drive positive socioeconomic impact across the Philippines, particularly in areas or communities that we operate in,” she recalls.

Working with the public sector has always been something close to Booey Bonifacio’s heart and by taking on the role of Director for Public Affairs of Grab Philippines, she is able to spearhead projects that benefit the local community.

The Driving Force of Economic Empowerment: Community Building

Given that the foundation of Grab’s Filipino-first thrust is the economic empowerment of its communities of driver-, delivery-, and merchant-partners, the role of Booey as the community builder became paramount.

With her profound understanding of the communities she works with, Booey embraces the pivotal role of community building. “Empowering people entails knowing and understanding the pain points and needs of our communities—it requires us to be intensively involved,” she says.

Grab, under Booey’s leadership, pioneered programs that have greatly benefited the partners in the transport division. For instance, Booey also played a pivotal role in creating a stronger social safety net for Grab driver- and delivery-partners in the Philippines by educating and connecting them to SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG Fund and subsidizing their first-month contributions. During the pandemic lockdowns, Grab supported some communities for safe mobility.

Pivoting Mobility Strategies During the Pandemic

With restrictions and a country-wide lockdown in place during the pandemic, Grab had to recalibrate its business strategy. “We had to pivot overnight because lockdowns happened just as swiftly,” Booey recalls.

During this period, the transport arm of Grab faced serious cutbacks that impeded its operations. “Pre-pandemic, we were allowed 65,000 Transportation Network Vehicle Service (TNVS) cars,” Booey shares. “We were able to onboard tens of thousands of driver-partners that traverse the roads of Metro Manila daily. But when the pandemic happened, the government cut that supply by half.”

Booey reveals that the supply challenges of GrabCar were also exacerbated by the inactivity of some of the remaining driver-partners: “When we did a survey, we discovered that some of our driver-partners needed to go offline due to health-related issues, migration to provinces, and most unfortunate of all, the repossession of cars.”

For Grab, this meant recalibrating its operations—specifically in the scope of mobility.

Food Deliveries

Thankfully, the company was able to shift focus to another vertical: on-demand deliveries. “During the pandemic, the company was able to stay resilient thanks to the GrabFood business. As we served the needs of consumers restricted to the confines of their homes, we were also able to provide a viable livelihood to our delivery-partners.”

Booey also led the appeal to the government to allow some driver-partners to operate as delivery-partners, cushioning the impact of the pandemic on their livelihood as mobility was in a standstill. “We leveraged our relationship with the government to collaborate in sustaining the livelihood of our driver-partners during those difficult times. And we are grateful that our partners from the public sector listened.”

During the pandemic, besides growing its delivery fleet, Grab also beefed up its merchant acquisition initiatives by signing in new partners week after week. This allowed the leading superapp to connect more Filipino entrepreneurs with their consumers.

“With the influx of merchants that wanted to partner with us, we had to create meaningful and efficient ways to serve all of them. This includes the development of an online mechanism for merchant self-registration that hastens the onboarding process. It was a tough job, but it was all worth it,” Booey shares.

“The pandemic brought about novel challenges that are unique per sector. Consumers needed their essentials while merchants needed to find a way to be able to offer their goods. We are just glad that we were able to bridge that gap,” she adds.

With the best interests of end-users and driver-partners in mind, Booey Bonifacio explored transportation services that are accessible and affordable for the commuting public, while also offering viable livelihood for the thousands of driver-partners on the platform.

Revolutionizing Mobility in the Post-Pandemic Era

The reopening of the local economy was a much-welcome development for private enterprises. Nevertheless, businesses from across the nation found themselves compelled to swiftly adapt to the rising demand for services that had been put on hold by the pandemic, with transportation being a prominent sector among them.

“It was really a tough situation. When the economy opened, we were reaching pre-pandemic levels in terms of economic activity. However, our supply of cars was still at pandemic levels,” Booey explains. “So it was really a slow clawback of that supply.” Adding to the challenge was the need to adjust to the transition in government, which decelerated government engagements and activities.

In tandem with the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), Grab has accelerated the onboarding of thousands of new drivers onto its platform, making it more convenient for more passengers to book a ride. This commitment echoes the national agenda of livelihood creation and the DOTr’s priority of providing convenient, safe, and affordable mobility options for all Filipinos.

“We’re very inspired by the new government. They’re open, so we’re able to gradually recover the supply and consequently serve the demand of the public for safe, reliable, and convenient transportation. Thankfully, our partners from the government are collaborative. There were recent slot openings for TNVS so it has been increased. “

While this is still below pre-pandemic levels, Booey remains optimistic about the changes that have been happening.

“We are not there yet but we are confident we will be soon. We are exhausting our efforts to make sure there are enough driver-partners on the road, which in turn will allow us to serve our passengers better and much quicker.”

Aligning with the eased safety protocols within vehicles, Grab has reintroduced its GrabShare feature in beta mode in late 2022, rolling it out in select areas in Metro Manila. Maximizing the number of current GrabCars is crucial to ensuring that the reliability of the service remains high as the superapp grows its fleet to an optimum number.

This endeavor, coupled with the introduction of new TNVS slots in the second quarter of the year, resulted in passengers experiencing a noticeable improvement in booking reliability starting in early June. Ride confirmations now occur twice as swiftly as compared to the final quarter of 2022.

Committed to efficiently meeting the growing demand in the post-pandemic landscape, Grab will continue to work hand-in-hand with all branches of the government to ensure that driver-, rider-, and delivery-partners have meaningful livelihoods while providing a safe and reliable mobility service to the everyday Filipino commuter.

How Grab Redefines Mobility

The return of Grab’s transport services may be a cause for celebration, but if there’s anything the pandemic has taught Booey, it’s that mobility has taken a whole new meaning. After all, people’s needs have changed and with that, Grab needed to bring in new services to cater to these new preferences.

Airport to Anywhere

These include the Airport to Anywhere service as a response to the transportation shortage for arriving airport passengers.

The pandemic lockdowns triggered a pent-up demand for travel, and now that there are no longer strict safety restrictions in place, revenge travelers started to regain their confidence to fly across the globe to make up for the lost time. “Everyone wants to travel, but given that our current supply is not even enough for the daily to and from the grocery, school, and offices, what more for the people traveling to and from the airport?”

Cognizant of the lingering problems of transportation shortage that prompts unfair fare charges, Booey reached out to the airport authorities, and suffice to say, the supply cannot keep up with the demand.

This, however, gave rise to a new idea.

“We told our authorities that we can help put together a special, dedicated fleet just to and from the airports. This service provides passengers with greater comfort and convenience, especially before or after long flights,” Booey says. “Good thing that they were receptive to it.”

Together with airport authorities and the LTFRB, Grab created the service Airport to Anywhere. “Because of the encouraging numbers that we saw and the positive feedback, the airport authorities are extending it until hopefully, it becomes a permanent product. I’ve heard that the Department of Tourism (DOT) saying tourism is really one of our major priorities in the country, so with that product, we hope to be able to support that.”

Booey reaffirmed Grab’s dedication to delivering a safe and reliable service, achieved through a strong collaboration with the government; and the continuous innovation of transportation solutions catering to the everyday Filipino commuter who depends on digitalized mobility.

Proud MOVE IT Partner

To complement Grab’s latest innovations and transportation solutions, the company has become an active partner of MOVE IT, a homegrown motorcycle taxi company that enables passengers safely and efficiently go from place to place within Metro Manila. “Motorcycle taxis are a common sight across Southeast Asia and Grab is actually an operator of motorcycle taxis in Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar,” Booey shares.

“Say, someone orders food delivery from Mercato. He drops it off in Serendra. Someone wants to ride to go to, say, Greenbelt, and is willing to take a motorcycle taxi. Imagine if that same driver who dropped off food in Serendra could fetch the passenger there. In terms of efficiency and productivity of our drivers, we would be able to make significant improvements in this aspect,” she recalls. It all works well as the two operate independently but they both share a commitment to provide safe and reliable mobility services for everyday Filipino commuters.

With Grab as its technology partner, MOVE IT has upgraded its app to provide industry-leading motorcycle taxi service to the Filipino commuting public. The upgraded MOVE IT app touts above-par performance that local motorcycle taxi users have not seen before.

Putting a high premium on the safety of both its passengers and rider-partners, the upgraded MOVE IT app comes with new and improved safety features. This includes in-app internet calling that safekeeps both rider and passenger privacy. With this feature, passengers no longer need to activate a third-party call or SMS app to contact their rider. A 24/7 Safety Center is also active on the MOVE IT app for round-the-clock emergency assistance for both rider-partners and passengers.

The MOVE IT app also has a trip monitoring system that continuously tracks an ongoing ride to detect unforeseen scenarios. This technology allows the MOVE IT app to alert passengers and proactively check on them if they need any support.

“We don’t force Grab delivery-partners to join MOVE IT,” Booey points out. “For interested drivers to join MOVE IT, you still have to apply. You have to pass the test. You have to do the safety training. And then once you become accredited by MOVE IT, then you can use the app.”

Grab recently pledged 500,000 livelihood opportunities to the Philippine government, and this, Booey said, would entail the government’s support in crafting sound policies on motorcycle taxis, GrabCars, and other adjacent services.

Like Grab, MOVE IT is also committed to upholding the livelihood and welfare of its rider-partners through competitive income opportunities, bonus schemes, and insurance packages. MOVE IT proudly maintains low commission rates that allow rider-partners to take home high net earnings for their families.

Booey Bonifacio on Grab’s Success Secrets

Given its many services and how it has innovated since the pandemic, it raises the question of what makes Grab so successful. Beyond being a superapp with a wide portfolio of services, it boils down to being the first in the country.

”We’ve been here in the Philippines for more than a decade and this gives us hyperlocal insights on how our kababayans travel, what their food preferences are, and how—in general—can we better serve them as they go about their day.”

“Those cumulative years is part of the secret of why we’re still able to delight our customers while we meet our commitment to partners and the government to make a positive socioeconomic impact,” she adds.

Sustainable Opportunities for Grab Philippines

Grab still has many things to accomplish but Booey believes it is also equally important to maintain sustainability at the core of its business and operations.

For her, sustainability not just means upholding an environment-friendly platform but it is also about maintaining a business that helps stakeholders sustainably live and support their families. As such, Grab vows to continue working with its partners—be it the drivers, riders, or merchants—to solve the ever-evolving demands of Filipino consumers. Booey believes that collaboration will be key to keeping Grab’s business sustainable.

“We hope to be able to work with our community to experiment on solutions for the next phase of delivery and mobility in the Philippines,” she ends.

In terms of mobility, she commits to continue putting a premium on offering nothing but safe, affordable, and accessible services for everyday commuters. “We hope to be able to lower costs for everyone. This is really the burning desire,” the Director of Public Affairs declares.

“We want to be able to provide mobility for every segment of society,” she says. “Grab is more than just a platform that enables people to move from point A to point B. We are in the business of equipping consumers with everyday services while empowering our tens of thousands of driver-, delivery-, and merchant-partners to grow.”