When Piti began working as a Grab delivery driver at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 26-year-old Bangkok resident had little trouble earning a decent wage. But after two years of delivering food to homes and offices, Piti’s earnings have taken such a dramatic hit that he is looking to switch jobs.
The past few months, Piti says he has been receiving a starting rate of 38 baht ($1.07) per food order, down from 40 baht ($1.12) in the past.
Worse still, Piti says he picks up far fewer gigs due to a sharp rise in the number of drivers on the road.
“I used to earn about 2,000 baht [$57] per day, but now some days I earn just 900 baht [$25],” Piti, who asked to use a pseudonym to avoid retaliation, told Al Jazeera.
In Thailand, one of Southeast Asia’s most competitive markets for “super apps” like Grab, food delivery drivers are seeing their earnings fall as platforms cut costs amid tough business conditions. Grab Holdings, which controlled about 44 percent of the Thai market as of 2021, went public in New York in 2021 following a blockbuster $39.6bn merger with a blank cheque company.
But despite ranking as Southeast Asia’s most valuable tech unicorn, the Singapore-based start-up has struggled to rein in its losses and has yet to turn a profit.
In June, Grab cut more than 1,000 jobs, the biggest round of layoffs since 2020, when the firm cut 360 jobs.