In addition to its taxi and car sharing platforms, transport company Grab has announced its GrabHitch carpooling service, which “enables anyone to offset the cost of their journey and meet like-minded people”. This post is brought to you in part by Grab.

Moving to a new city can be daunting, especially adapting to a new environment and integrating into a whole new community. The Grab app has now introduced a new way for like-minded people in Malaysia to meet, and you won’t even need to go out of your way to do it.

Introducing GrabHitch, the social carpooling movement that makes commuting more affordable while protecting the environment. It helps cut the cost of driving to and from work as you help others going along the same way by providing an affordable commute and helping them get integrated into the community.

According to a study by The Edge financial daily in 2010, 6 million trips are made in Malaysia on a daily basis using private transport, most of which are single occupancy vehicles (SOVs) – that’s 83% of all travel on a daily basis. To add to that, according a study conducted by AC Nielsen, Malaysia has the 3rd highest car ownership globally whereby 93% of Malaysian households own at least a car whilst 54% have more than one car.

“We’re glad that we’ve finally been able to launch GrabHitch in Malaysia. With the high number of single occupant vehicles in Malaysia we can now put those empty seats to good use,” said Jaygan Fu, Country Manager of Grab Malaysia.

“Our core service areas are starting to and from the Subang area, Damansara Perdana area and KL City Center. But the more drivers we get carpooling, the more routes we get to open and the more we communities we get to help grow.”

Features of GrabHitch

In addition to the convenience and price factor, here are some other benefits of GrabHitch:

• Environment: As GrabHitch is a social carpooling service, this potentially reduces the number of cars on the road and emissions, and in the long term, plays a part to minimise air pollution.

• Safety: To help create a connected ride-sharing community in Malaysia, GrabHitch drivers and passengers are required to log in to Facebook to use the service. This enables both parties to preview their driver / passenger and see if they share mutual friends. Both parties can also indicate that they only want to travel with someone of the same gender.

• Mutual network: Suitable for journeys of all kinds, GrabHitch makes it easier to enlarge your network and meet people with mutual interests. For example, two employees working in the same building may be travelling to work together from Damansara Perdana to KL City Centre, or two moms on the way to drop their kids off at the same school in Subang.

How GrabHitch works

Passengers can pre-book a ride from seven days in advance to up to 2 hours before pickup, simply by entering their pickup location and destination. Drivers and passengers will be notified when a successful match of the route is made.

GrabHitch drivers should pick up only one booking per trip, and the fares will only cover the driver’s variable costs, such as petrol and car depreciation. The fares for GrabHitch rides are calculated based on the distance of the ride and is shown upfront, allowing passengers to decide whether they are comfortable with the price before confirming the booking.

Join or Try GrabHitch

GrabHitch is now open for the driver signup. Drivers can download or update their Grab app to the latest version, which is available for free on Google Play or App Store. To sign-up, just click on the “GrabHitch” icon, select the “Drive” button and follow the instructions.

For commuters, they can start scheduling rides with GrabHitch effective 15 May 2016. In fact, to kick off this new service, on May 16, GrabHitch pioneers, consisting of staff of Grab Malaysia and the very first batch of GrabHitch drivers, will be on the road offering free rides to passengers.

To find out more about Grab and GrabHitch, please log on to www.grab.com/my/hitch