It’s been more than 15 minutes but Rahman is yet to get any ride. Though two drivers accepted the request before they wanted to go offline. He is already running late for office. At the time, when the 3rd driver wants to go on contractual, he accepted. Such is the situation for many of the riders who willingly or unwillingly ride on contractual trips.
Dhakaites lose around 19 million of working hour each day due to traffic congestions. For this reason, commuters started to move on two wheeler. But now the street hailing or offline trip situation is worsening every day, especially after COVID outbreak. Moreover, the main difference between riding with a ridesharing platform and offline is the lack of safety. There were many news of unpleasant incidents while taking a ride offline. And to aware the mass and halt this unethical practice Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had banned the street hailing back in September, 2020.
Unfortunately, the offline rides are full of dangers and one of the main danger is lack of accountability. If rider meets with any accident or faces any unpleasant incident, he/she can easily ask for help or file a complaint through the respective service provider’s hotline. Like Uber provides access of ‘Safety Toolkit” to riders within the app which also allows the riders to call emergency number 999 at the touch of a button. But on offline trips, there’s no option to reach out if they meet any sort of problems during the trip.
Moreover, these apps allow the rider to share live location of their trip through cutting edge GPS technology. Through this tracking system, your close one can always know about your whereabouts which they won’t know if you take an off platform ride. Furthermore, to ensure safety Uber, the leading ridesharing service in Bangladesh provides insurance policy to protect and compensate if the riders meet with any unfortunate event.
Let’s avoid offline trips and discourage the drivers to take offline trips. Remember, a mistake can cause lifetime of pain.
