The E-hailing ride industry has grown into a US$1,380.069 million industry currently with a forecast to grown as big as US$3,084.741 million by 2030, according to a recent report by Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence.
The South Africa e-hailing market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 17.45% over the forecast period, increasing from US$1,380.069 million in 2025 to US$3,084.741 million by 2030. Uber South Africa invited Business Tech Africa to come view their safety management and operations center to provide a view of the Tech driven safety processes and how they work.
Ongoing Improvements
Newly appointed head of communications, Cassie Jaganyi, spoke of the need for an ongoing process and conversation around safety. “It requires continuous improvement. It requires continuous investment, continuous insights, continuous learning to get it right” Cassie mentioned.
“We’re not ever going to be able to say that we have a 100% incident free platform. Unfortunately, that’s not what we can do. But what we can do is work to make sure that we get as close to that number as humanly possible” contends Cassie.
Crime rates in South Africa are a headache for all industries, but for an industry that daily interacts with and transports tens of thousands of commuters, ensuring safety is a challenging undertaking that requires advanced systems and technology to make it a reality.
Extensive Systems & Protocols in Place to Improve Safety
The extent of the safety skills that are required are underpinned by the fact that their safety management team includes former senior members of the South African secret service as well as internationally from ex Mi6 and CIA members.
The security protocols include an extensive driver vetting process that inclides a criminal background check, aprocess that according to Uber is conducted annually. Drivers are also required to go through an independent driver evaluation process.
All documentation is controlled via a biometric control system that uses biometric facial recognition to ensure the person with the licence is the driver in the vehicle.
Drivers are also required to have a vehicle, no older than 3-years old that needs to pass a full DEKRA vehicle safety check and secure commercial insurance cover, in order to qualify to opperate as an Uber driver.
App Safety Features
Safety features include Verify Naran. a feature where the passenger can set up a security pin before taking their trip. Is ensures that you are going to get into the right vehicle and have the right driver when they provide the passenger with the pin.
The Uber App also provides a phone number anonymisation feature so a passenger will not need to provide their number to the driver to speak to them so drivers and riders can still communicate, but they don’t have to share their personal details.
There is an additional level of safety built into the e-hailing App that allows passengers and drivers to record the audio of what is happening in the vehicle. This becomes a useful tool in the instances when a driver or passenger becomes threatening.
As an additional safety feature Uber has launched a feature called DocScan, which enables riders who are taking a cash trip and who are new on the platform to scan their ID document before you request your first trip to ensure there is a verification of Identity.
Tech Tracking System Impact
The biggest safety impact offering from Uber however, is their emergency assistance service that is easily accessable via the app. Uber has a fullu opperational national emergency assistance network in place, supported by a security tech company Aura. The service is linked to a 24Hour armed private security, medical emergencies, and road assistance.
By simply pressing the emergency button on the App, immediately triggers a message to the emergency control room where the riders location will be tracked with emergency response crew deployed to the riders location.
According to Warren Myers, CEO of Aura, they have a network of over 400 pre-vetted security and medical emergency companies connected to their emergency response system.
This aggregates support across the country so that response times are minimised and assistance provided within the least possible time.
“We ring fence 10 minutes”, Says Myers, “that’s why we always guarantee a 10-minute ETA, and we always bring on average five vehicles within that radius, He states.
The big advantage of their system is that the responders can track the live location of the passenger and that there is always a guaranteed call out responder who will intercept the vehicle with a live location even if moving. The responder will also not stop until they verify that the driver or the rider is safe according to Myers.
