Women riders can now find women drivers
Last month, US ride-booking giant Uber made waves in the region when they bought local cab company Careem, for a record $3.1billion (approx. AED 11 billion). Now, they have introduced a new feature in Saudi Arabia, which gives riders the option to choose the driver by gender.
This new feature, which is titled ‘Women Preferred View’ will allow Uber users to filter their driver by gender. This option aims to connect female riders to female drivers. This option, which is a first for Uber, was first tested last year, and after popular demand, the option has now been incorporated, exclusive to women drivers in Saudi Arabia. This feature support
The launch of this feature comes in support of the cab company’s Masaruky initiative, which aims to increase the number of women in the workforce by providing them with affordable transportation. It also caters to the increasing number of Saudi women who are interested in the flexible and economic opportunity that Uber offers its employees.
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Other than the trial run, this feature under went months of research to help the brand understand the country’s cultural landscape and Saudi women’s perspective on transport and driving. The study took place in February of 2018, with the help of Ipsos, which revealed that: “31% of those surveyed indicated that they were interested in driving as an earnings opportunity.” More recently, the company also found that: “74% of prospective women drivers interviewed would only be interested in driving women riders.”
In a statement, Tino Waked, the General Manager of Uber Middle East and North Africa, said: “Last year we announced the launch of Masaruky, an initiative aimed towards empowering women with economic opportunities by providing accessible transport solutions. We have seen an incredible response in the Kingdom thus far. As part of this initiative, this newly introduced feature will open new doors and opportunities for women as Uber driver-partners, while being conscientious of local cultural norms”
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He further added “We launched this feature in response to the feedback we received from women drivers in Saudi Arabia and we are committed to always being thoughtful of how we can always improve their experience driving on the app. This is just the start, and we will continue working with experts to leverage our external research as we move forward to ensure that this is in the best interest of women driver-partners in the Kingdom”
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