Ride hailing giant, Uber, is reportedly piloting a 24×7 helpline number for passengers safety in India. The company is currently testing the project in Chandigarh for two months.
The helpline will allow passengers to make calls and connect to an Uber agent to address their safety and security concerns during an ongoing ride, reports PTI. “We are piloting a security call centre 24×7 in Chandigarh since the last one-two months. This allows a passenger to make a call and speak directly to an Uber agent for any security and safety related concern during an ongoing trip,” the sources told PTI.
The new security measure will provide direct human intervention instead of a callback response, which generally takes time. The report highlights that based on the response, Uber will roll out the 24/7 helpline to other cities as well. However, there is no timeline regarding the rollout of the service. As of now, the existing SOS feature will help passengers to directly connect with the police.
Meanwhile, Uber announced it now serves in 40 cities across India having recently inaugurated its ride-hailing services in Agra, Kanpur, Amritsar, Varanasi and Prayagraj in the past few months.
Uber previously partnered with the National Health Authority to offer free healthcare benefits to its drivers and delivery partners. The scheme was developed under Ayushman Bharat and offers up to Rs 5,00,000 of healthcare benefits per year for free when undergoing secondary and tertiary treatment in government and private hospitals.
The ride-hailing App also added a new feature in its interface which brought Voice over IP calling to enable free-calling between riders and drivers for seamless connectivity.