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Ola commits ₹500 crore to enable safe mobility for its customers and driver-partners

The brand will launch a host of initiatives across technology innovation, driver training and vehicle standards, and ensure strict adherence to hygiene and safety.

Ride-hailing service Ola has committed a sum of ₹500 crore over the next year towards various initiatives to enhance safety in mobility. The brand has already resumed operations across India, and is now available in 200-plus cities with enhanced safety protocols.

Ola commits ₹500 crore to enable safe mobility for its customers and driver-partners

Unveiling its new initiative ‘Ride Safe India’, Ola is reaffirming its long-term focus aimed at providing its driver-partners and customers with a safe and reliable mobility experience.

Resolute in its approach to enhancing cleanliness and hygiene protocols, Ola will aim to drive various safety initiatives. These include the highest levels of driver standards, a host of technology advancements, like a newly designed COVID-ready app, hygiene and safety benchmark for vehicles, and an industry-wide collective mission to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

‘Ride Safe India’ centres on Ola's commitment to enable customers and drivers-partners to collectively enjoy cleanliness with prevention and sanitisation protocols. This will cover all modes of Ola’s offerings, be it four-wheelers, three-wheelers, or two-wheelers.

Ola has set up a network of over 500 fumigation centres at various hotspots and airports across the country to enable mandatory fumigation for all vehicles every 48 hours. This will be above and beyond the routine wipe downs and sanitisation of high touch surfaces of vehicles by drivers after every ride.

Driver safety will continue to be a focus for the company, with the introduction of dedicated training modules and certification. This will also include strict adherence to daily temperature checks and wearing of masks through the selfie authentication mechanism. From monitoring wellness of the drivers to integration with the Aarogya Setu app, technology innovations will help shape the new norm in the mobility industry. Ola has also introduced five layers of safety, that include strictly adhering to steps that ensure the highest standards of safety and hygiene for every ride.

Customers and driver-partners will also be able to access the Ride Safe India Microsite, which will have information on Ola’s safety initiatives across the platform, community and the industry. Ola is also inviting feedback and ideas from customers, through this platform, that can help towards building a safer mobility ecosystem for the country.

Meanwhile, Uber has also launched marketing campaign ‘Safer For Each Other’ to underscore that safety can spread if every rider sanitises his/her hands, wears a mask, and doesn’t travel when sick, thereby making the entire platform safer for the next rider.

By sharing the responsibility of safety and taking all appropriate measures, riders can start a chain reaction, whereby each one makes the platform safer for the next one boarding the car. The campaign highlights ‘self-care spreads safety’. Through this campaign, Uber will reach out to its riders through a 360-degree amplification plan to ensure greater awareness about their safety.

Over the past few months, Uber has launched a comprehensive set of safety measures. This includes the Go Online Checklist and a mandatory mask policy for both riders and drivers, pre-trip mask verification selfies for drivers, mandatory driver education around COVID-19 related safety protocols, and an updated cancellation policy, where both the riders and drivers can cancel trips if they don’t feel safe. Moreover, Uber is distributing over three million masks and 200,000 bottles of disinfectants and sanitisers to its drivers, free of cost.

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