Many Misunderstandings About the Removal of Ride-Hailing App's Discount Packages, Here's the Actual Situation
Many Misunderstandings About the Removal of Ride-Hailing App’s Discount Packages, Here’s the Actual Situation
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Following the Indonesian government’s regulation on revenue sharing between ride-hailing apps and drivers (92% to drivers, 8% to the app), Gojek and Grab Indonesia have announced the removal of their subscription-based discount packages for drivers.
GoTo announced the termination of the subscription scheme for GoRide Hemat drivers. The scheme will now follow the revenue-sharing system similar to regular GoRide, with an 8% share for the app.
Previously, the service had a subscription scheme where drivers paid a certain fee for the service.
With this change, the old scheme will no longer be valid and will be replaced with a commission scheme similar to the one applied to regular GoRide.
GoTo CEO Hans Patuwo explained that the subscription program was discontinued after an evaluation following the feature expansion in February 2026. The company concluded that the subscription scheme needed to be better balanced to improve the welfare of drivers. Therefore, it was decided to discontinue the subscription program in the near future.
He also stated that the change in scheme will impact consumer prices, particularly for GoRide Hemat. GoTo ensures that the price increase will be limited and will consider the purchasing power of the community.
“As a result of this, especially for GoRide Hemat, there will be a very limited adjustment in consumer prices. We ensure that this adjustment is carried out in a measured way and still prioritizes affordability for the community,” he said.
Similarly, Grab Indonesia also announced the closure of the Access Hemat Subscription Program for two-wheeled driver partners (GrabBike). The reason is that it is considered necessary to make better adjustments.
GrabBike Hemat service for consumers remains available. However, it is ensured that there will be price adjustments that prioritize affordability for the community.
“For users of the GrabBike Standard service, Grab Indonesia ensures that there will be no price increases at this time,” said Neneng.
However, so far, there has been no further explanation about this policy, including when and how it will be implemented.
Driver Response to the Discount Service
CNBC Indonesia tried to ask several drivers about this policy. They said they had heard about the plan to remove the discount service, but many were confused because the service was still available.
According to the drivers, there has been no notification about the implementation of the new policy so far. “They said the discount package will be removed, but it hasn’t been removed yet,” said one driver we met.
One driver explained that this discount service did allow him to get more orders in a day. However, on the other hand, his income has decreased.
Another driver said that the subscription-based discount package scheme allowed him to get more orders. However, the additional costs were quite burdensome.
“If the app does have a lot of orders, it’s like we pay Rp 20,000 per day for every 10 orders,” he said.
On the other hand, there are drivers who understand and can explain the current discount service scheme. They said that they now get a discount for a number of discount packages they complete.
The amount also varies depending on the number of trips they make. For example, for one to two trips, they get a discount of Rp 3,000, while for 10-20 trips, some are also charged Rp 20,000.
Several drivers explained that the discount is not a problem if they have completed 20-30 trips in a day. Because the income they get is still quite a lot.
However, this will harm those who work for a short time, for example, only a few hours in the afternoon.
“Those who go out in the afternoon at 5 pm don’t want to activate the discount service. They use the standard service instead. Because of the discount, they get 5 trips and are charged Rp 13,500, not including gas and food,” said another driver.
The drivers said they support the removal of the service, including the latest revenue-sharing scheme announced by the government last month.
(dem/dem)