Uber’s safety kit for riders, drivers

Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ride-sharing company which celebrates three years of existence in Sri Lanka, considers the safety of the riders and drivers its greatest responsibility and to ensure this safety, the company has introduced a three-pronged  ‘safety toolkit’.  

Prabhjeet Singh, Director, Bsiness Operations, India and South Asia, Uber announced this at a media briefing held on Wednesday at Movenpick Hotel, Colombo. The kit comprises an insurance scheme which is first of its kind for riders and driver partners in Colombo, considered to be the 11th largest city in South Asia for trips.

In this toolkit riders can find safety tips built in partnership with law enforcement and learn about their insurance protections, and community guidelines which puts key safety information and features for riders all in one place which is helpful for riders.  Riders can modify the settings to share all trips, night-time only trips or none at all.

The kit provides an emergency button for riders to have direct access to 119, the police control room which will be placed under the shield button in the safety toolkit umbrella and will offer a quick swipe feature for riders.  The insurance cover is underwritten by Allianz Lanka Insurance Ltd and will be offered at no cost to the driver partners. 

Mr. Singh said that in Colombo they have enabled micro-entrepreneurial opportunities for more than 25,000 driver partners and they have at least 35 women partners. He said that in the weeks and months ahead they will continue to engage with their driver partners and riders to work towards using Uber, which remains the most attractive opportunity for driver partners and the preferred choice for their riders.

He pointed out that the safety toolkit is a one-stop-shop for technology enabled safety features for riders using the Uber App.  It enhances safety of riders in Sri Lanka and improves both awareness and usage rates of some existing and newly introduced features. (Quintus)