Taxify drivers welcome launch of safety app
A DRIVER for the e-hailing app Taxify says he is excited that he can now work in improved safety‚ with the launch of an SOS button that promises to bring police or emergency services to his location within seconds.
Brian Maphosa said he worked in fear as intimidation by conventional meter-taxi drivers persisted.
Maphosa was among the drivers who attended the launch of the pilotphase integration of the Namola crime prevention and security application into Taxify at Newtown‚ Johannesburg‚ yesterday.
“Rider and driver safety is our first and foremost priority. The safety button will allow Taxify drivers to access rapid deployment of the correct emergency response‚ should they find themselves in danger‚” Taxify’s country manager, Gareth Taylor, said.
The emergency button is available for drivers on the application.
Namola chief executive Peter Matthaei said: “The partnership with Taxify will help alleviate some of the distressing situations drivers face.
“The app is available to all South Africans and has been found to be particularly useful in volatile areas.”
Taylor‚ commenting on the attacks on e-hailing drivers and the police response to the problem‚ said they were committed to engaging the police but could only do so much.
“There are some issues. We know about them. What’s in our control is to be transparent‚ on the information we get‚ with them,” he said. “We don’t have any control on the police force.”
Taxify drivers have previously highlighted the concern that they do not know a passenger’s destination beforehand.
Defending why drivers did not have destination information‚ Taylor said putting in a destination was not compulsory, because they wanted to make the ride as flexible as possible.
“Sometimes you want to go to more than one place and the app is not going to limit you in that sense‚” he said.
However‚ the application will soon make it compulsory for passengers to enter their destinations.
Taxify plans in future to also give drivers the option to reject cash payment rides‚ which most drivers say makes them vulnerable.
Namola‚ in a separate statement‚ said 150 000 South Africans had so far downloaded its free crime response app.
The app promises to give people access to emergency services at the press of a button – sharing the nature of the incident as well as an exact GPS location with a 24/7 response call centre for rapid response.