Uber rolls out Insurance and Safety Toolkit in SL

Cutting the anniversary cake from left: Uber Sri Lanka Senior Marketing Manager Mohan Gamage, Uber Sout Asia Head of Cities -Prabhjeet Singh, Uber Female Drivers Dinesha Sujani and Niroshima Sanadamali, Uber South Asia Trust and Safety Head Krishnaveer Singh and Uber Sri Lanka City Lead -Ankit Gupta. Pic by Indraratne Balasuriya 

By Divya Thotawatte

Celebrating three years in Sri Lanka, Uber, the world’s largest on-demand ride-sharing company launched a Global Safety Toolkit and a first-of-its-kind insurance program this week serving the riders and driver partners in Colombo. 

Speaking at the launching ceremony, Uber South Asia Head of Cities Prabhjeet Singh commented, “Sri Lanka has welcomed Uber with an overwhelming response over the past three years and left us inspired to make sure we are constantly improving ourselves to stay relevant and serve the residents in the country. To reiterate our commitment to this market, we have launched our ‘Safety Toolkit’, with its inbuilt emergency button, and no cost insurance coverage for riders and drivers while using the Uber App.”

The Safety Toolkit enhances safety features available to riders in Sri Lanka while improving awareness and usage rates of some existing and newly introduced features.While the safety toolkit can be accessed on the home screen of the app from the moment the driver accepts a trip, riders can find key safety tips and information all within the toolkit.

According to the producers, theUber Safety Toolkit also enables riders to access the ‘Trusted Contacts’ feature which helps them to designate up to five loved ones with whom they can share the trip allowing them to follow the ride to make sure the rider arrives safely. Moreover, ‘119 Assistance’ which works as an emergency button, is another interesting feature that is to be launched for riders to have contact with the emergency police help line directly. This will be placed under the shield button in the safest toolkit umbrella and will offer a quick swipe feature for riders during an unwanted emergency. 

The insurance program produced by Uber in collaboration with Allianz Insurance Lanka provides both riders and drive partners with complementary coverage for accidental death, permanent disablement and hospitalisation in case of an accident while on-trip using the Uber app. The insurance cover will be offered at no cost to driver partners. 

Singh also mentioned that Sri Lanka is the fastest growing market for Tuk trips in South Asia and that Colombo is the largest city in South Asia for trips. He added that over 25,000 driver partners has joined Uber and that more than 35 women partners have also started working with the company. 

Uber Sri Lanka City Lead Ankit Gupta said that the company is set to “making Uber the preferred ride-sharing company in Sri Lanka for riders and driver partners by enhancing mile connectivity through a multimodal platform approach.”