Company will roll out a number of features for a more flexible and efficient experience
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Uber has today announced, following a number of fruitful discussions with driver-partners in the Kingdom, the launch of a series of new features designed to streamline and improve the Uber driver-partner experience. The features, which are being rolled out across the MENA region, aim to address three key areas: Flexibility, Efficiency and Earnings – demonstrating the company’s willingness to translate feedback into direct action.
To start, Uber will be rolling out a series of new products which driver-partners have asked for. These include:
- Arrival Destination & Time: Driver-partners can now set their own personal arrival destination and time so that when accepting a trip, they can still get where they need to be while dropping a rider off on the way – providing more flexibility when they have time to use the Uber app and allowing them to make a little extra money on the way.
- Long trip notification: Driver-partners will now get a heads-up when a trip is estimated to be 60 minutes or longer, so they have the information they need to fit driving around their life, and not the other way around.
- Paid waiting time – Long wait times can be stressful for drivers-partners. By the time they arrive at the pick-up location, the partner has already invested time and effort in getting to a rider, so now we are ensuring they get paid while they wait, after a grace period for the rider.
- In App Chat – The aim of this technology is to make the pick-up experience as frictionless as possible, both for the rider and the driver-partner. Streamlining the whole experience, the In-App Chat allows driver-partners and riders to coordinate the pick-up faster, since there’s no need to switch between apps to get in touch. For driver-partners, chats are read aloud and one tap to the app will send a “thumbs up” confirmation to their rider to ensure they can stay focused on the road.
What does this mean for the driver-partner? For example, when Mohammed - a university student and Uber partner-driver - wakes up in the morning, he logs in to the Uber app and takes trips, and closer to the time he wants to head to his class, he can use the “Arrival Destination and Time” feature to input the university address, as well as the time he needs to be there – ensuring that his final rider is also heading in that direction. This ensures he gets to where he needs to be, while benefitting from one more trip.
Commenting on the new features, Zeid Hreish, General Manager, Uber KSA said: “Our driver-partners in the Kingdom have helped make Saudi Arabia one of the most important markets globally – with many of them recognizing that Uber is the right choice for anyone who wants a way to earn a living on their own schedules. These features are designed to support Uber driver-partners, and our focus is to make sure the app work best for them first so we can continue to form a partnership where they play a key role in defining Uber’s future together with us.”
At Uber, the health and wellbeing of driver-partners using the app is also a priority, which is why Uber has partnered with the Saudi German Hospital, to offer all Uber driver-partners discounted services across the Kingdom. The agreement which is in effect, allows any active Uber driver-partner to avail discounts on Consultation services, Lab and X-Ray tests.
But this is only the start. Over the next couple of months, Uber aims to launch even more products which can improve the driving experience. As part of the company’s commitment to change, and to continuously improving the overall experience on the app.
The leading ride hailing app, awarded a certificate for regulatory alignment by the Public Transport Authority (PTA) in April, announced last month that it has on-boarded more than 140,000 Saudi partners in the Kingdom on the app, as part of its commitment to providing economic opportunities to Saudis.
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About Uber
Uber’s mission is to bring reliable transportation to everywhere, for everyone. We were founded in 2009 to solve an important problem: how do you get a ride at the push of a button? More than five billion trips later, we've started tackling even greater challenges: making transportation safer with self-driving cars, delivering food quickly and affordably with UberEATS, and reducing congestion in cities by getting more people into fewer cars.
In the Middle East, Uber is already in Dubai, Cairo, Alexandria, Amman, Casablanca, Riyadh, Jeddah, Eastern Province, Makkah, Madinah, Hail, Qassim, Kharj, Yanbu, Ehsa, Taif, Manama, Beirut, Doha, Istanbul, Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, and Gujranwala with plans for expansion across the region To request a ride, users must download the free application for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Blackberry 7, or sign up at uber.com/app. For more information, please visit: https://www.uber.com/cities/
