2023 was the year when the goods and services tax (GST) rose to 8%. And if you haven’t heard yet, the GST rate will be 9% next year (2024).
With the rising cost of living, it’s not surprising that the prices of everything around us are also rising.
From food to public transport prices, everything we see is going up up up.
Now, even Gojek is implementing a new transaction fee for cashless payments.
Whatever happened to encouraging the use of cashless payments?
Here is more about the Gojek transaction fee and what you can expect.
Gojek Will Add a New Cashless Transaction Fee for Rides on 1 November 2023
If you run late to work or want to get a car to drive you back after a wild night out, which ride-hailing app do you reach for?
Is it Grab, or is it Gojek? Or perhaps something else?
Those who are Team Gojek may want to take note that the overall amount they have to fork out for a ride is set to increase next month.
Starting 1 November 2023, Gojek will introduce a new fee for users who make cashless payments.
The fee can be anywhere between $0.10 to $0.60. The amount charged depends on the distance travelled, and of course, the longer the distance, the greater the charge.
Gojek said this will be a new line item in their users’ receipts, indicated under “Payment Transaction Fee”.
While the increase in the total fare is a pain, at least it’s still in the “cents” region and hasn’t crossed over to “dollars”.
For those unaware, Gojek was founded in 2010 and is a “leading on-demand, multi-service tech platform providing access to a wide range of services including transport, payments, food delivery, logistics” within the Southeast Asian region.
While Gojek users are down in the slums, the drivers who work for Gojek may be laughing all the way to the bank.
Well, at least in part.
Gojek also announced that it will reduce the commission collected from drivers on 1 November 2023 as well.
The reduction is 5% so that the commission will be 10% instead of 15%.
While the reduction may not be permanent, it will at least be until “the end of 2024”, as reported by The Straits Times.
The motivation behind this decrease in commission percentages is to “support drivers” and ensure that they can have a “sustainable livelihood” on the Gojek service.
The additional benefit would be getting more drivers to improve the users’ experience of catching a ride when they need it.
In a way, it seems like the additional fees charged by Gojek to consumers are “passed on” indirectly to the drivers, which may not be a bad thing after all.
Let’s hope other ride-hailing services don’t increase their trip fares in the near future.