Ola Unveils ‘Ride Safe India’ Initiative, Commits ₹500 Crores To Enable Safe Mobility

India’s mobility platform and ride-hailing company, Ola, has committed a sum of ₹500 crores over the next year towards various initiatives globally, to enhance safety in mobility in our fight against COVID-19. Ola has resumed operations across the country and is now available in 200+ cities with enhanced safety protocols. Unveiling its new initiative ‘Ride Safe India’, Ola is reaffirming its long-term focus to providing driver-partners and citizens, a safe and reliable mobility experience, as India continues its fight against the pandemic, post the lockdown.

Resolute in its approach to enhancing cleanliness and hygiene protocols, Ola will aim to drive various safety initiatives which include highest levels of driver standards, a host of technology advancements including a newly designed COVID-ready app, hygiene and safety benchmark for vehicles and an industry-wide collective mission in its fight against COVID.

‘Ride Safe India’ centres on Ola's commitment to go beyond and enable customers and drivers partners to collectively enjoy the highest standards of cleanliness with prevention and sanitisation protocols. This will cover all modes of Ola’s offerings, be it 4-Wheelers, 3-Wheelers and 2-Wheelers. As a large number of major cities saw operations resuming on the Ola app in the previous week, Ola has set up a network of over 500 fumigation centres across the country at various hotspots and airports, to enable mandatory fumigation for all vehicles every 48 hours. This will be above and beyond the routine wipe downs and sanitisation of high touch surfaces of vehicles by drivers after every ride.

Driver safety will continue to be a focus for the company with the introduction of dedicated training modules and certification. This will also include strict adherence to daily temperature checks and wearing of masks through the selfie authentication mechanism. From monitoring wellness of drivers to integration with the Arogya Setu app, technology innovations will help shape the new norm in the mobility industry. Ola has also introduced 5 layers of safety that include strictly adhering to steps that ensure the highest standards of safety and hygiene for every ride.

Speaking about Ola’s continued push towards providing safe mobility solutions, Anand Subramanian, Spokesperson and Head of Communications, Ola said, “Mobility is at the core of economic and social progress and the country at this time needs substantive action and sustained innovation to be able to revive from the effects of the pandemic. ‘Ride Safe India’ is Ola’s commitment to helping the industry raise its benchmarks and collectively bring best practices and innovation for the larger good of the community.”

He added, “We have already pioneered a series of initiatives including regular driver wellness checks, vehicle fumigation protocols and mask-detection technology amongst others to raise the bar of safety for consumers and driver-partners. We are taking this further by building a robust network of 500+ fumigation centres across the country. Our commitment of ₹500 crores towards various safety initiatives globally in the time to come, will help pave the way for new standards of mobility in the post-COVID world.”

Citizens and driver-partners will also be able to access theRide Safe India Micrositewhich will have information on Ola’s safety initiatives across the platform, community and the Industry. Ola is also inviting feedback and ideas from citizens through this platform, that can help towards building a safer mobility ecosystem for the country.