InDrive firms up presence in Metro Manila; makes inroads to other regions
InDrive Philippines held a seminars for drivers in July 2024 as it ramped up recruitment. (InDrive/Facebook)
MANILA, Philippines — InDrive Philippines is targeting to grow the number of its driver partners by 30 percent to 40 percent this year. The ride-hailing platform wants to strengthen its presence in Metro Manila and in the provinces.
Nikolay Olesov, InDrive head of driver operations in Asia Pacific, told reporters in Quezon City they currently have over 20,000 drivers. This shows a significant growth from 13,000 as of the end of 2024.
If they meet the growth target, InDrive will have 26,000 to 28,000 drivers by the end of this year.
“We are growing steadily,” Olesov said.
Vanessa Taqueban, driver operations lead for Philippines, said the company has been continuously onboarding drivers. It is even taking in drivers who are already registered on other platforms.
For now, InDrive operations are concentrated in Metro Manila. But Taqueban said they also intend to go to more provinces after setting up in Cebu, Bacolod, Baguio and Iloilo.
READ: Grab challenger scraps price-haggling feature to secure LTFRB okay
InDrive received its accreditation as a transport network company from the Land Transportation, Franchise and Regulatory Board in December 2023. But a suspension order was issued a month later due to its price-haggling scheme that allows passengers to negotiate fare prices.
This is against the fare matrix scheme that transportation network vehicle service operators follow. The scheme considers a flag-down rate, per-kilometer, per-minute and surge fees in the fare computation.
InDrive was given the go signal to resume operations in June last year after removing the price-haggling feature.
InDrive, founded in 2013, has presence in over 600 cities in 47 countries across five continents.
Grab has dominated the Philippine ride-hailing market in the four-wheel segment since 2018 after it acquired Uber’s business in Southeast Asia.
