After Grab CEO greets his delivery-partners for Father’s Day, a commenter asks if the delivery-partners know they’ll be replaced with riderless vehicles

Singapore — Mr Anthony Tan, the CEO, and co-founder of Grab, recently accompanied a veteran rider on four food delivery orders.

He wrote in a Father’s Day post on LinkedIn on Sunday (June 20) that he had a lot to learn from longtime delivery riders, and commended the “millions” of Grab employees who “do their best daily for their loved ones”. 

While some commenters applauded this as a “great example,” one asked if the drivers know of the company’s plan to eventually replace them with autonomous vehicles.

Mr Tan wrote that this was not his first time to do a delivery, adding that he endeavors to “do GrabFood delivery every few months.”

The Chief Executive Officer of Grab also posted several photos of himself doing the deliveries.

True to his corporate background, he made a four-point, albeit light-hearted, assessment of how he did during the deliveries, wherein he partnered up with a Mr Lim, “an experienced delivery-partner.”

He gave himself a “Fail” for Preparation since he had forgotten to detach the baby seat on his new bike to make room for his GrabFood bag, as well as failed to install the apparatus that would have made the bag close properly.

But when it came to the second point, Picking up the food, he said this had gone smoothly.

For the third point, Getting Around, he assessed that it had been “Slightly difficult” due to the rain and the fact that he did not know where to park.

As for his final point, he wrote “Smooth, I think! Only met 1 person as most chose contactless delivery, so I couldn’t get much feedback.”

Mr Tan added that he had completed four batched orders in 1.5 to two hours, he was told by Mr Lim that more experienced riders are able to do five orders in the same amount of time.

“I have lots to learn!,” the Grab CEO wrote, adding, “So grateful that Mr Lim took time to guide me. He’s a father to a 14 yr old, and he turns up every day, completing 20-30 orders, to support his family. I really admire his work ethic and energy, and hope he takes a break this weekend to celebrate Father’s Day.”

Commenting on the post, a Mr Rob Phillips, whose LinkedIn profile says is a CEO and Executive, wrote that the post was “Good PR,” but added, “However, do delivery drivers like Mr Lim know you are actively working on developing autonomous vehicles to put them out of a job?”

Others agreed with Mr Phillips.

In later comments, Mr Phillips clarified that the app-based delivery sector is experiencing losses, with Grab losing $800 million last year. And they can only make more money if they charge merchants or customers more. Since this cannot be done, they need to cut costs, and the largest cost is the gig workers.

“Society needs to think more thoroughly about progression and change. Just because you can automate and remove humans, doesn’t mean you always should. It’s a path to UBI, government control, and social credit scores. —Big decisions ahead,” he added.

/TISG

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