You guys should know first, that I started off from UBER. about 1 month before It got purchased by GRAB.

When doing UBER, I dun think they have a system of hourly guarantee or some sort. They have a consistent price hike tho, like 1.2x nor mal price, 1.5x normal price etc etc at all time depending on region and traffic.

So when I first started off at UBER, I just kinda got laid off work, u see... So I had to start raising money. At this time, The only money reserves I had in bank amounted to like RM1,000 only. I had more before that, but I used those money as investment to buy a 2nd hand car, and to pay deposit for my condo taht I live alone in. I have my reasons for living alone, trust me. I knew what I was doing back then. Its not a matter of living outside my means. I was preparing for something that will happen in the future, and for that to happen, I must live alone in my own unit

Ok so, back to uber. when I first started uber, I started working only 3 days the first week. I remembered first day I got only about rm30+ but I had full tank (which was quite rare for me. I never had full tank before except at start of the month after payday). The next couple days, I scored between 80+ and rm100+ ... I remembered that week I got slightly less than rm200...

So I kept doing uber several times next week but still my income never exceeded rm300 per week... entering 3rd week, my family came to visit, so I stopped doing uber for a while. so during those times, I earned about rm500+ only doing UBER. i was starting to doubt my decision...

then grab bought uber on the same week my family went back home. they were with me for almost 2 weeks, so those 2 weeks I didnt work at all. I cant leave my family alone while i work for money, that just doesnt sit right for me...

soa fter uber/grab merged, I lost my money source. my final rm1000 in bank I had to ration it. I skipped paying house bill for 1 month the month after that. that same month, I received BRIM rm450 but i used everything to pay my bills... and I had to borrow some money from parents. My financial downfall started at this point...

so after the merge, I was left jobless for about 3 weeks. I spammed so many companies for work, but to no avail. then entering the 4th week, I finally received a surprise email, saying my GRAB acct has been activated. i was dumbfounded. I never applied for grab, dafuq...

then someone told me they just used my info from uber and used everything and now i work for grab instead of uber lol

so when I started off doing grab, i remembered just to test the water, I did grab only for 3 days the first week. then gradually I increased the number of days, but I still try to limit my working days. if possible at least 1 week, i must rest for 1 day. usually ill take 2 days off.

so during the first month, or specifically the first 7 weeks I did GRAB, here are the mistakes that I did:

1. Everyday I spent rm20~rm30 covering up for tolls of my passenger!

*when I did uber, toll was inclusive in the fare. so when I started doing grab, imagine everyday I "subsidized" my riders for their tolll. everyday my poket bocor rm20~rm30 covering for their tolls, and they know they had to pay for tolls, but nobody even mentioned it to me. not even once! so in the end, I calculated my loss here about roughly rm500~rm700 those first 7 weeks...

2. I was on a flexi plan instead of Hourly Guarantee

*so I only learned about the existence of HG the moment I first started this thread, imagine my noobness lol...

when I was still on flexi, everyay I received jobs and I noticed that GRAB fare is much lower than uber. but the only thing that I can say is better than uber is grab has a policy of rm5 minimum fare. when doing uber, I was getting as low as 20 cents per trips (of course they reimburse the full amount later but that takes times, and my wallet is as empty as they can be. my acct was already negative at taht time, I had to borrow money from sister...)

but I noticed in incentive tab, theres incentive of cashabck from low 10% to highest 20% IF i get to drop riders as specific part at klia1 and klia 2 dafuq... imagine me doing flexi grab for 7 weeks, dropping people off at klia, and not even once those klia/klia2 cashback incentive qualified tab ever increased. it kept staying at 0... dafuq?!

I remembered before this when reading forums or from hearsay, grab players always says "main insentif, main insentif, etc etc..."

but as u guys can deduce now, from my first 7 weeks of doing grab, I have no idea how this incentive system works, probably because i never get any... and even if I get max incentive of 20% cashback from klia, imagine if I make a steady rm200~rm300 back then, my cashback would only be rm20~rm40++ every week PROVIDED IF I actually scored it, in which case, I never did...

so imagine the depression I was having at this time, with lower fare than uber, almost non existent incentives, my debt stacking up, my maxis main number already barred cuz I havent paid bills for 2 months, (I have that smartphone maxisone oackage so i am paying rm300+ per month), my house bill is overdue 1 month even tho I just rented the place for 3 months, and to top it off, back then my income was a steady rm500+ nett profit working my ass off from 7am till 11pm, 6 days a week...

imagine me giving fake smiles to riders saying i must be making lots of money doing grab full time, but only I know the truth that I only can barely make rm1500 every month! and my meals everyday is below pathetic! those gardenia bread are staple food.

I remembered 1 night I actually lost it, while eating my gradenia with leftover mineral water in my car, I just started crying for a long time. I was sobbing like a child that lost his favorite toy. I was totally heartbroken and helpless. That night was the night I hit rock bottom, when I decided this is it... theres no future for me doing grab.

thats about 2 or 3 nights before I opened this thread. I stopped doing grab for a couple days after that night. I had already lost my will.

after I opened this thread, I saw the usual /k/ bs in here as well, thats totally normal. then some of the sifus here actually started asking me questions that I have no answers to, such as the jargons they used: MP/UP/P and HG, Time Blocs and Incentives etc etc

with more questions being asked at me, more questions arose from their questions to me in my head, so I started researching again and kept asking in here, then the sifus 1 by 1 started helping me (probably they realized I wasnt exaggerating and wasnt kidding about my bad predicament... and probably they realized at taht time I really didnt know anything, which was true lol)

everyone is still adamant talking about incentives and calculating and showing their spreadsheets of making rm20~rm30 clean profit per hour (whilst I was making clean rm20+ profits every night before bed working from 7am till 11pm everyday, seriously, imagine how I was feeling back then... its like these sifus are throwing salt in my gaping wound, only thing is they dun realized theyre doing it lol)

So I decided. Im gonna play whatever games these sifus are playing. Im gonna try this and give grab 1 more chance. I started researching HG. the next morning I called grab customer service. the person who answered my call was super helpful (probably because it was so early in the morning), he explained to me everything that is to know about HG. and he kept scolding me too, telling me adamantly and specifically that FLEXI plan is for PART TIMER who works according to their mood, while HOURLY GUARANTEE is for FULL TIMER! (imagine how dumbfounded i was ahahaha)... so the guy arranged for my transfer to HG from flexi, but he told me this part is most important:

** In order to opt in to HG from FLEXI, you must do the application between monday~wednesday every week before 12pm on wednesday. after that the application to transfer for that week is closed, and then you need to wait for next week.

IF your application is a SUCCESS, it will only happen on FRIDAY of that same week, BUT it wont be activated yet in your grab driver apps that you have changed to HG. it will still remain as flexi. you will only have your HG started of the following week on MONDAY!

but he also told me, in order to opt in to HG, GRAB HQ will do assessment to your behavior whether youre qualified to opt in to HG or not. they will assess you from your acceptance rating, your activeness (days youre working every week), and your cancellation rate. lastly they will see your star ranking, it must be above 4.8 or was it 4.7? I forgot...

so after I learned about that, I opted to change to HG. to make sure I pass their test, I kept doing what Ive been doing kaw kaw that particular week even tho im still eating gardenia, im still making about rm20~rm30 nett profit everyday, I kept on going for that 1 last week!

so next monday arrives, and I jumped in joy and I remembered shouting happiliy that I got my status changed to HG now haha

(but I didnt start wrking immediately that monday. I took another day off and decided im gonna do more homework and learn more about grabs from reading the official grab thread that someone directed me to read in this forum. I did exactly that!)

so the first week of doing HG, I only worked 4 days taht week. nothing changes. I still carry home about rm20~rm30 everyday nett profit. on good days ill get slightly above rm50 back home if i get jobs at sending people to klia/klia 2...

then I doubted myself again. nothing has changed... wtf? is this it for me?
then I started to get curious the following week, I looked at my history and past earning from last week, then I SAW IT!!!

on those days that I brought home rm20~rm30 home every night, I realized I have received incentives! everyday I earned rm50++ from incentives! so from those 4 days of working, I earned rm200++ from incentives! WOW!!!

I started to smile then. I see what the sifus are talking about! so these are the LEGENDARY INCENTIVES that everyone has been talking about, that I first had the taste of!

so finally, that first week of doing HG, I started seeing a dim lightt at the end of the tunnel. before this, I got rm150++ per week, now im earning 350++ per week. im gonna learn more of this!

I started using my weekend to absorb as much information as I can, religiously while I kept bothering the sifus here with super noobish questions (sorry sifus!)