Who manages Grab and Uber drivers?

Grab denies responsibility?

Recently, Ms. LD (Hanoi) shared on social media about the incident where her daughter, TDN, forgot her crocodile leather wallet worth more than 10 million VND, containing 16 million VND in cash and cards in a Grabcar, but when she contacted the driver to get it back, the driver blocked her number. Ms. D. said that as soon as she realized she had forgotten her belongings and tried many phone numbers to contact the driver without success, she contacted the Grab operator and was told by the operator that she did not know who the driver or the vehicle was or what it was like.

“Four days after the media got involved, a person claiming to be from Grab VN’s customer service department contacted us, saying that the driver said he couldn’t pick up the item. When we asked Grab to explain what the company’s responsibility was and why it was so slow to respond to customers, this person couldn’t answer, and up to now, Grab hasn’t taken any action,” Ms. D. informed.

Need to quickly have regulations to manage Grab and Uber drivers

After the incident, Grab VN responded stating that the company had contacted the NDT partner and the passengers on the next trip to find the lost wallet, but both the driver and the passengers who traveled afterward confirmed that they had not seen the DN's wallet. The NDT driver also agreed to allow Grab VN to notify his phone number to the DN customer for direct communication, but in fact, for several days after the incident, the driver's phone number was still unreachable. After the incident, the NDT driver continued to cooperate with Grab to drive normally until February 28 when he was summoned by Team 5 - Criminal Police Department, Hanoi City and confessed to the act of appropriating the forgotten property of the DN customer.

Previously, in August 2017, the Social Order Crime Investigation Team (Tan Binh District Police, Ho Chi Minh City) also resolved the case of a Grab driver who took a foreign passenger's bag and did not return it. Not only Grab, many passengers also reported that Uber Vietnam drivers dropped them off in the middle of the road, assaulted them, and even broke their lips. For drivers who committed violent acts, Uber immediately blocked the driver's access to the application.

Grab and Uber must take responsibility

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, Chairman of the Vietnam Lawyers Commercial Arbitration Center, said that Uber’s handling of the case partly reflects the company’s responsibility for causing risks to passengers, but it is not enough and does not solve the problem at its root. Meanwhile, Grab’s response of completely denying responsibility is unacceptable.

He analyzed that software providers directly sign contracts to transport passengers with drivers, provide software to drivers, are the management units that decide fares, decide the economic capacity of drivers, and must be responsible for managing drivers. In cases of risks like the above, the first responsible is the driver, the software provider such as Uber, Grab has related obligations. Grab said that it has accident insurance for passengers and partners during the trip, so it must first compensate the customers and then work with the insurance company.

“The inadequacies and ambiguities in the pilot regulations have led to difficulties and ambiguity in naming the unit responsible for managing technology taxi drivers. The Ministry of Transport needs to quickly introduce specific policies, mechanisms and sanctions to more closely manage the driver force, both for technology taxis and traditional taxis,” said lawyer Hau.

The Taxi Transport Association must develop a set of rules for drivers (both traditional taxis and technology taxis) under the approval of the Ministry of Transport. Uber and Grab must be managed as a transport business. Drivers who register to use the software will be under the management of the business, must register with the tax authority and pay social insurance. Thus, driver management and tax collection will be carried out at the source, which is the business, both effectively preventing tax losses and solving the problem of drivers and social security.