Uber adds safety features to app for women commuters
The taxi aggregator earns positive reviews after conducting gender sensitisation workshops
13/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI
To give a push to commuter safety in the city, Uber has brought in several features in the application software in recent times. It has also been organising awareness workshops for its drivers.
A team from Uber, during an interaction with mediapersons in the city on Thursday, highlighted the measures the taxi aggregator has developed in the application software to help commuters have a safe ride.
Uber, which has a stringent driver verification programme, has been earning a lot of positive reviews from women commuters through gender sensitisation workshops conducted for drivers in several cities, including Chennai. The workshops are organised by Manas, a non-governmental organisation.
Pavan Vaish, head of operations, India and South Asia, Uber, said, “Uber is committed to providing safer transport, particularly for women, and to train drivers to handle women passengers gently.”
More than 6,900 drivers have participated in the workshops across the country. As a result, the drivers have pasted the sticker ‘We respect women’ in their cars, he added.
A representative of Uber said as drivers come from diverse backgrounds and different regions, gender sensitisation helps in making them treat women passengers with more respect. She said the technical team has been adding several new safety buttons to applications to enable women passengers have a safe journey.
Any passenger wanting to make an emergency call can tap the safety shield icon on the map for immediate contact with the Uber representative and also the law enforcement official.
Centralised number
To keep the passenger contact information secret to prevent drivers from making abusive calls for any reason including rating-related issues, Uber has started routing calls and messages of drivers and passengers through a centralised phone number.
The representative said this two-way call anonymisation does not reveal the contact numbers of the drivers as well as passengers until they themselves share the contact details.
The taxi aggregator earns positive reviews after conducting gender sensitisation workshops
13/09/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ,CHENNAI
To give a push to commuter safety in the city, Uber has brought in several features in the application software in recent times. It has also been organising awareness workshops for its drivers.
A team from Uber, during an interaction with mediapersons in the city on Thursday, highlighted the measures the taxi aggregator has developed in the application software to help commuters have a safe ride.
Uber, which has a stringent driver verification programme, has been earning a lot of positive reviews from women commuters through gender sensitisation workshops conducted for drivers in several cities, including Chennai. The workshops are organised by Manas, a non-governmental organisation.
Pavan Vaish, head of operations, India and South Asia, Uber, said, “Uber is committed to providing safer transport, particularly for women, and to train drivers to handle women passengers gently.”
More than 6,900 drivers have participated in the workshops across the country. As a result, the drivers have pasted the sticker ‘We respect women’ in their cars, he added.
A representative of Uber said as drivers come from diverse backgrounds and different regions, gender sensitisation helps in making them treat women passengers with more respect. She said the technical team has been adding several new safety buttons to applications to enable women passengers have a safe journey.
Any passenger wanting to make an emergency call can tap the safety shield icon on the map for immediate contact with the Uber representative and also the law enforcement official.
Centralised number
To keep the passenger contact information secret to prevent drivers from making abusive calls for any reason including rating-related issues, Uber has started routing calls and messages of drivers and passengers through a centralised phone number.
The representative said this two-way call anonymisation does not reveal the contact numbers of the drivers as well as passengers until they themselves share the contact details.
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