If you’re looking for a new way to travel to and from Johor Bahru and Singapore, GrabHitch may be the way to go. The carpooling service offered by popular ride-hailing platform Grab will soon be allowing people to use it and share a ride across the border between Singapore and JB.
For those unfamiliar, GrabHitch is a service that lets regular drivers with extra space in their vehicles pick up passengers who are heading in the same direction or along a similar route on their way to their destination. It’s a way to reduce the cost of travelling while at the same time promoting carpooling which is greener for the environment.
Soon, Grab will let commuters who need to travel to and from JB and Singapore to use this service for their commutes too.
To make things a touch more convenient, Grab will let you pre-book rides up to 7 days in advance and up to 30 minutes before the pickup time. Simply select a convenient pickup and drop-off location and both drivers and passengers will be notified when a route is successfully matched.
One good thing about GrabHitch’s ride-sharing service is that, like Grab locally, the fare is shown upfront so you always know what you’re getting yourself into. The fare calculation is based on distance and a fixed cross-border surcharge. To give you a rough idea of what using GrabHitch to and from Singapore and JB would cost, here’s a table of what Grab says are popular routes taken by commuters between JB and Singapore:
After checking with bus services, cab services and our in-office Singapore expert, we found that GrabHitch’s fares aren’t exactly cheap. But, they aren’t exactly expensive either. Our Singapore expert also highlights several pros and cons with using GrabHitch to travel between our two nations.
The first thing you need to consider is, if you’re going to be travelling every day for work, this may not be the quickest way to get across the Causeway because you would still be stuck in a traffic jam like everyone else. So, if you’re planning to commute to work, you might be better off with the bus.
However, this service should allow you to travel in relative comfort between the two locations so it might be a more comfortable alternative to cabs considering the prices are in the same ballpark. There will also be a 24-hour customer service hotline available to provide assistance to commuters should they need it.
Drivers who are interested may apply to be a GrabHitch driver from 13 June onwards while passengers may book their ride starting the 20th of June. Grab will also be knocking SGD5 off all weekday JB-bound rides that are above 10km from the 20 June to 20 August as part of an introductory promo. Simply enter the promo code hitch2jb when making a booking.
For more information on this, head on over to Grab’s website. If you want to sign up as a driver, head over here instead.
To those who travel often between the two cities, what do you think about this? Will you give it a try? Let us know in the comments below!
