Female drivers sensitised to effective use of safety ride-hailing features

FEMALE drivers in the Greater Accra Region have been sensitised to how to effectively use the safety features in the Bolt ride-hailing application.

The summit, which focused on issues related to transportation and mobility within the ride-hailing industry, was aimed at addressing the safety and wellbeing of female drivers.

It forms part of a six-week long campaign by Bolt-Ghana to educate its stakeholders on critical safety features such as driver verification, emergency button, trip sharing with loved ones and family, driver scoring system, and audio recording among others.

Safety experts took turns to discuss safety challenges and best practices for ensuring the well-being of women drivers on the platform. 

The summit provided a platform for participants to share their challenges, experiences and to engage directly with Bolt management.

Priority

The Bolt Regional Manager of North and West Africa, Lola Masha, explained that as a progressive organisation, the ride-hailing company prioritised the safety of its riders adding, “We believe that it is important to create a safe place for both riders and drivers to have a successful ride”. 

The summit, she said was to solicit feedback from driver partners especially the female drivers due to their unique experiences to better improve their experience on the platform.

“Particularly, our women partners are very critical for our success, and we want to do everything we can to ensure that they feel safe and supported and comfortable taking their rides every time they are on the road. “The feedback that we've gotten has also been quite positive and we take so much pride in providing opportunities for families to be a lot more productive economically and to generate income to allow them to grow and to support their home,” she said. 

To her, the fact that the female drivers had stayed with the company even though they had other options demonstrated Bolt’s true commitment to providing its stakeholders with a platform to make them successful. 

Going forward, Ms Masha, said reiterated Bolt pledge to driver safety adding that other stakeholders in the industry would also benefit from the safety campaign which was launch this month. 

Safety

For her part, a Senior Support Specialist, Alberta Gedzia, urged the participants to report safety issues without hesitation. 

“If a rider does something and you feel it is not right to you, report it through the application and we will address it. Don’t brush it off and say I am in a hurry to go to my next ride,” she said. 

One of the participants who only gave her name as Linda expressed gratitude to Bolt for the opportunity to share their experiences with the company. 

"The opportunity to get them to hear us and give answers, rather than just speaking to robots on the app, makes us feel like they truly care. But we are looking forward to them taking into consideration some of our recommendations,” Linda said.