InDrive drivers may earn extra with map work

InDrive regional director for Asia Pacific Mark Tolley on Jan. 9 2024 speaking to reporters during a roundtable discussion in Makati, highlighting their plans in the Philippines this 2025. (Photo by Alden M. Mozon)

Apart from the passenger fares, drivers of ride-hailing app InDrive can potentially earn up to P18,000 per month by collecting map data during their trips.

InDrive has teamed up with cryptocurrency exchange Coins.ph and global mapping network Hivemapper for this revenue-generating feature.

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For drivers to earn, their cars must be installed with Hivemapper dashcam, which will capture the map data when they are driving.

READ: Ride-hailing firm inDrive plans to add 5,000 to 11,000 more drivers

In return, drivers will be rewarded with Honey tokens, which they can trade or encash via Coins.ph platform.

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InDrive business development head Sofia Guinto, in a press briefing on Friday, said the collected tokens could amount to as much as P18,000 per month when converted to cash.

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A pioneer batch of about 20 drivers are testing this feature this month, with the hope of further rolling this out nationwide after. As of end-2024, InDrive has 13,000 driver partners.

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“Coins.ph is excited to pioneer this groundbreaking collaboration together with InDrive and Hivemapper. By layering token rewards on top of ride-hailing services, we’re giving drivers a way to boost their earnings from work they’re already doing,” Coins.ph CEO Wei Zhou said.

“By empowering our drivers with new income streams through decentralized mapping, we’re not just enhancing their earning potential but also contributing to a smarter, more connected world,” said Mark Tolley, InDrive’s director in the Asia-Pacific region.

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This offering provides another use case for blockchain technology that supports cryptocurrency, an alternative form of investment that has been gaining traction in the country.

According to a global survey conducted by data analytics group YouGov, 52 percent of the Philippine respondents bought cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum.

This put the Philippines in the second rank in terms of crypto adoption next to South Africa, whose 65 percent of the respondents have digital asset ownership.

The latest figure for the Philippines showed an increase in crypto ownership from 45 percent in 2023.

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The adoption of cryptocurrency in the Philippines, to recall, accelerated during the pandemic because of play-to-earn games like Axie Infinity. At one point, Filipinos made up about 40 percent of the game’s player base.

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