Many partner-drivers of the ride-hailing brand Go-Viet, a unit of Indonesian firm Go-Jek, have voiced their opposition to a new policy of Go-Viet to increase the commission rate to 20% from the current 0%. Some drivers have even quit though the firm announced it would refund 10% of the fares to them.

Go-Viet drivers express their opposition to the new policy, which is designed to increase the commission rate to 20% from the current 0% 

Go-Viet said in a recent notice that it plans to apply the 20% commission policy to the total fares of its motorcycle-based services: the ride-hailing service Go-Bike, the on-demand delivery service Go-Send and the food delivery service Go-Food.

The notice indicated that those drivers who had successfully registered the app Go-Bike Partner before August 10, 2018, in HCMC would still be entitled to the zero commission rate, until later this month.

Many Go-Bike drivers told Nguoi Lao Dong Online newspaper that they were shocked and unhappy with the new policy.

Thanh, a driver from Binh Thanh District, remarked that upon being informed of the new commission rate, many of his fellow drivers decided to suspend their services, and some are looking for new jobs to earn a higher income.

A young driver, named Dong, whose hometown is in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, said that Go-Viet drivers pay the firm VND8,000 for each short ride, whereas its ride-hailing competitor Grab collects a higher sum of VND10,000.

However, if Go-Viet applies the 20% commission rate, its drivers will likely earn very little money or even incur losses due to their fuel costs, he added.

Many drivers claimed that Go-Viet earlier did not collect commissions when headhunting Grab drivers and expanding its ride-hailing market share in Vietnam.

They reasoned that since Go-Viet has gained an increasingly firm foothold in the local ride-hailing market since its debut in August 2018 and former Grab drivers cannot rejoin the Singapore-based firm, Go-Viet deliberately manipulated the policy.

SGT