From its humble beginnings 10 years ago as a call centre connecting a mere 20 motorbike taxi drivers with passengers in Indonesia, Gojek has grown to become Southeast Asia’s leading super app, and has seen the number of drivers on its platform increase to more than 2 million. Given the sheer volume and diversity of Gojek’s driver community, many people wonder what the company is doing to inspire their enthusiasm and keep service quality consistent.

Billion-dollar idea started from motorbike taxi drivers

Nadiem Makarim founded Gojek in 2010 in Indonesia, following a ‘eureka’ moment when he was stuck in traffic in Jakarta.

He realized that escaping the gridlock required not a car, but a motorbike taxi that could weave through the cars stuck in traffic and ‘break the siege’.

Gojek was born from that simple idea, and is based on the word “ojek”, which means motorbike taxi in the Indonesian language.

Starting as a call centre that matched passengers to an initial 20 motorbike taxi drivers, Gojek quickly grew to the super app as it is today, connecting users with over two million driver-partners and 900,000 merchant partners. It provides access to over 20 services and has a presence in cities across five countries in Southeast Asia - Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines.

As the company was founded to help ojek drivers gain access to new income-earning opportunities, the company has ensured that it stays true to its philosophy of ‘always being driver-centric’, despite expanding its platform to offer many more services.

This is the reason why all decisions made by Gojek are aimed at fully taking care of its driver-partners’ lives, both physically and mentally.

Enabling driver-partners to earn a stable income

Phung Tuan Duc, the General Manager of Gojek Vietnam, said: “Most of Gojek's services are dependent on our fleet of two-wheel vehicles, which means that the quality of service offered by our driver-partners is instrumental to delighting our users - and ultimately, to our platform’s success.

“That is why we are continually thinking about what we can do to increase income-earning opportunities for our driver-partners.”

With the introduction of many new services on the Gojek platform, the average income of an ojek driver has increased significantly, with earning even double the minimum wage in Indonesia.

“In Vietnam, many driver-partners had to pay income tax as they earned over VND100 million within just a few months of joining the Gojek platform, even amid last year’s challenging circumstances,” said Duc.

However, driver-partners have to spend the entire day on the street no matter the weather condition and bear the challenges that come with a customer-facing job, so it is important to find ways to give them recognition and encouragement.

Even the smallest gesture of concern is an invaluable source of motivation

Quoc Trung, a Gojek driver-partner, said: “During the pandemic, some of our friends lost their jobs as their companies were dissolved. Fortunately, I am still able to earn a steady income. Gojek even provided us with face masks and hand sanitizers to protect us, as well as financial support to ease our daily burden, which gave me a lot of assurance”.

In fact, just giving driver-partners a few cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival or a bottle of cool water is enough to make them happy

In addition, to give the ‘warriors’ behind the wheel even more opportunities to relax and have fun, Gojek also organizes entertainment competitions such as Go Idol 2020.

Finally, beyond providing encouragement to its driver-partners, Gojek also acts as a bridge to a thriving community of merchant-partners on its platform, resulting in some heartwarming connections. Thuong, a Gojek driver-partner, cannot hide his happiness when he recounts his relationship with Mai, the owner of a chicken rice shop in HCM City’s District 8: “I am leading a happy life now thanks to our ‘matchmaker’, Gojek. Gojek has given me a job with good income, as well as the opportunity to find a life partner who can share all my joys and sorrows.”

Duc said: “We believe that the physical and mental encouragement will enable driver-partners to continue trusting and staying with Gojek for the long term.”

“And when the driver-partners are happy and comfortable, they will share this joy with others and provide better service to all types of customers.”