To Grab or to Club: An Analysis on GrabClub's Commute Plans

Subscriptions are all the rage now, and Grab is clearly jumping on the bandwagon. In early January this year, Grab added two new subscription plans in the Grab app, after the first pilot of the monthly food and transport subscription plans in December 2018.

For paying a fixed amount every month, subscribers will enjoy a lower upfront price for Grab services like Grab rides, GrabFood, or both. This also means paying nominal fees for guaranteed discounts – an extremely attractive perk, if you have been as addicted to the convenience of private-hire car services as we are.

In this article, we will be exploring the exact savings of GrabClub’s commute plans, with a focus on the Short Commute and Flat Fare plans. As its title suggests, the Short Commute Pass makes more sense for those who make frequent short-distance trips. Similarly, the Flat-Fare Ride passes would be ideal for those who make long-distance trips.

	Short Commute		Flat Fare
Plan	Basic	Extra	Light	Heavy
Cost per month	$59	$109	$49	$89
Perks	Ten $10 ride vouchers	Twenty $10 ride vouchers	$12 maximum fare for ten rides of your choice	$12 maximum fare for twenty rides of your choice

The Breakeven Analysis

To check if getting onboard GrabClub is worth your while, you need to find out the number of trips you make on a monthly basis. Breaking even and making your moolah worth should naturally be the first thing that comes to mind.

Paying $59 every month for a promised value of $100 in total (Short Commute – Basic) doesn’t seem that bad on first glance, until you find out that there are several trade-offs to consider. For one, it comes with the assumption that you will be taking at least 10 or more Grab rides in a month. This allows you to maximise the receivable savings. Next, you need to find out how much you pay for every ride. Do you travel during peak hours that would cause your Grab trip to cost $18 or more? Or do you use Grab for short and quick rides around the city? Understanding your usage behaviour and estimated expenditure for your intended trips are of absolute importance, as the Flat-Fare plans would be best suited for the former, as the Short Commute plans would for the latter.

These are the assumptions made in danamic.’s GrabClub calculations:

1. You will use up the exact amount of Grab vouchers given

For example, using up ten $10 vouchers for the Short Commute – Basic plan; twenty $10 vouchers for the Extra plan.

2. You will take the exact number of rides

10 rides for the Basic plan, 20 rides for the Extra plan – no more, no less.

1. Short Commute (Basic): $59/month

To enjoy the promised (and optimal) savings of $S41 for paying S$59 a month, you need to spend $10 or more on each Grab ride. Spend a dollar less for each ride (e.g. S$9), and your actual savings decrease to $31. Therefore, you should spend a minimum of $6 for each ride to make positive savings ($1.00, to be specific).

To break-even, you have to spend $5.90 for all ten rides. Then again, have you ever experienced a $5.90 ride? The answer is no – because Grab rides are capped at a minimum price of $6 (applicable to the services that can be used under the GrabClub subscription, such as GrabCar, GrabTaxi etc.).

2. Short Commute (Extra): $109/month

To enjoy the promised (and optimal) savings of $S91 for paying S$109 a month, you need to spend $10 or more on each Grab ride. Spend a dollar less for each ride (e.g. S$9), and your actual savings decrease to $71. Therefore, you should spend a minimum of $6 for each ride to make positive savings ($11.00, to be specific).

To break-even, you have to spend $5.45 for all ten rides. As previously explained, you know that is impossible as the minimum amount you spend would be $6. As long as you take 10 rides or more, you can be assured that you would probably not make a loss with this subscription plan.

3. Flat-Fare Ride Pass (Light Plan): $49/month

Although the Flat-Fare Ride Pass has already been fully subscribed and is no longer available on the Grab app, it will still be included in this analysis as there is a chance that it could be open for more subscriptions again. For just $49 every month, you will only need to pay a maximum fare of $12 for 10 rides of your choice. For example, if all of your 10 Grab rides costs $15, you would only need to pay $12. Therefore, that would save you about $30 in total.

To enjoy the promised (and optimal) savings of $S31 for paying S$109 a month, you need to spend $20 or more on each Grab ride. Spend a dollar less for each ride (e.g. S$19), and your actual savings decrease to $21. Therefore, you should spend a minimum of $17 for each ride to make positive savings ($1.00, to be specific).

To break-even, each of your 10 rides has to cost $16.90.

4. Flat-Fare Ride Pass (Heavy Plan): $89/month

To enjoy the promised (and optimal) savings of $S71 for paying S$89 a month, you need to spend $20 or more on each Grab ride. Spend a dollar less for each ride (e.g. S$19), and your actual savings decrease to $51. Therefore, you should spend a minimum of $16.50 for each ride to make positive savings ($1.00, to be specific).