Dego Ride is offering customers the option to purchase either a RM50 or RM100 pass, giving them an additional RM25 and RM100 respectively. The passes last exactly one month from the day of purchase, with them being valid only for its bike-hailing service and any unused credit may not be carried over. Announced just today by the local start-up, the rollout of the passes doesn’t seem to be well thought out. The monthly passes are currently advertised on the app but nothing happens if you tap on it. A customer service representative told us that currently, the only way to purchase the pass is to manually transfer the amount to their bank account and share the receipt in the live chat. Alternatively, you can top up either RM50 or RM100 in the Dego Wallet, which you then must also present the transaction receipt to their customer service in order for them to credit the pass into your account. The lack of a direct in-app purchase method for the pass seems counterintuitive, as it’s meant to be more convenient for users.
Bike-hailing has seen a turbulent introduction into the country. Back in late 2019, the government had greenlighted a trial run of the service, allowing Dego Ride and even Indonesian giant GoJek to start operating on a limited basis. However, Deputy Transport Minister Henry Sum Agong clarified last year that there were no plans to legalise bike-hailing due to high motorbike mortality rates. This means that the e-hailing service has not gotten approval from regulators to operate legitimately, though its CEO Nabil Feisal Bamadhaj has said that the company has seen a 400% surge in demand in the past few months. Nabil recently told The Malaysian Insight that while it previously had around 1000 full-time and part-time riders, it recently shifted to only employing full-time riders, with 20 people currently on its payroll with plans to recruit more. (Source: Dego/Twitter)
