As ride-hailing apps begin to dominate the transport landscape in major cities of Pakistan, there is no shortage of interesting stories on the riders’ part who use the service to commute from one point to another. However, less voice is given to the perspective of drivers whose service is valuable to the commuters and the society at large. To gain an insight into a ride-hailing driver’s experience, we got into a conversation with Fahad, a top-rated Uber driver. Fahad, who has thousands of rides under his belt and a staggering rating of 4.9, talks about his riding experiences, the importance of good work ethic and tips for new partner drivers.
A resident of Lahore, it was Fahad’s dream to become a taxi driver in America and he would badger his father to get him a car so he could work for a pick and drop service. However, after graduating from college, he himself bought a brand new Mehran. It was at that time his cousins suggested him to start driving for Uber – a service he had never heard of before. On their insistence, Fahad got himself registered with Uber in November 2016.
Narrating about his first ride in November 2016, Fahad said that it was an interesting experience because the rider helped him navigate the app at the end of the ride. It was then learned of the rating feature, through which he could rate his experience with the rider. Another memorable experience, he says, was on White Friday, when several women booked rides to various shopping venues in Lahore.
Fahad cares deeply about his service quality and offers the following advice to partner drivers: keep your vehicle clean, keep change in a pocket at all times and credit in your cellphone to contact the rider. These are, he says, the secret to his own incredible rating of almost five-stars. Further, he suggests sparing some money from one’s pocket, before first ride, to fill up the vehicle with fuel to explore the routes of the city. This way the driver can get a hang of the directions to important places which will ultimately help find the rider’s chosen location without trouble.
Fahad’s commitment to customer service did not go unnoticed by the ride-sharing giant he has been working with and he was rewarded. One day in 2017, Fahad received a call wherein a woman on the other end of line informed him that he had been selected by Uber to go and watch the Pakistan Super League Match in Dubai. He first dismissed it as a prank but lo and behold, it was not. Fahad narrates he was ecstatic beyond belief to win an opportunity to travel out of country to watch a live cricket match.
Uber prioritizes the safety and convenience of its drivers as much as the riders. To a question about Uber’s safety standards, Fahad expressed his satisfaction with the community guidelines set by the tech company. He stressed the importance of being fully informed about these guidelines on part of every customer and driver. As the app innovates to provide greater safety for its riders and drivers, the addition of safety toolkit feature has been an important step. Fahad narrates having used once the emergency button in the safety toolkit to call the police when a rider was harassing him to go to Sheikhupura. The police arrived promptly to help him.
On being asked what customers can do or avoid doing to make the job of drivers’ easier and convenient, Fahad suggested riders not to deliberately place their pin on a different location under the pretext of safety so their place of residence is not known to the Uber driver. He says “I want to tell riders that Uber is a safe app and by doing these things, they are only creating problems for drivers in finding their location”.
Uber is providing flexible and safe work opportunity to thousands of drivers across the region. While the latter are playing an integral role in making Uber a success in Pakistan.
