Uber, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways join hands for road safety awareness

Taxi aggregator Uber on Tuesday reinforced its commitment to road safety today in the presence of Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari by announcing a slew of measures and initiatives.

As part of its ongoing efforts to encourage road safety awareness, Uber will be jointly promoting road safety messaging on the Uber app and social media through Ministry of Road Transport and Highways co-branded materials and mediums.

Several advertisements and videos targeting prevention of drunk driving and promotion of rear seat belts and hands on the wheel among other themes will be prepared and disseminated across the country as part of this safety campaign.

Another key initiative towards impacting road safety awareness and education among lakhs of budding drivers both on and off the Uber app is the decision to jointly develop learning aids and informational tools that shall guide the driver training program in driving schools across the country.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Uber will jointly be preparing the learning materials which will be shared and utilized by over 200 driving schools including many of the govt's Drivers Training Institutes (DTIs) across the country.

"We are committed to reducing fatal road accidents by 50 percent by 2020, being a signatory to the UN Decade of action for road safety. This effort to make our roads safer has to be a collaborative multi-pronged initiative that needs joint action from policymakers, civic authorities, automobile industry, civil society and commuters in general. Sensitizing the public about their roles in ensuring road safety is as vital as the placement of curbs, underpasses and safety features for pedestrians," said Nitin Gadkari.

"By jointly promoting road safety messaging among lakhs of riders and by guiding lakhs of driver partners on road safety measures through learning aids, as a part of this alliance, we are focussed on empowering people to make better, safer choices and playing an enabling role in making our roads safer," said Pradeep Parameswaran, Head, Operations, Uber India and South Asia.

The announcements were made in the presence of Nitin Gadkari, Pradeep Parameswaran and Prabhjeet Singh, Regional General Manager, Uber India and South Asia.

Commemorating the occasion, 15 top rated driver partners from amongst the driver partner community in Delhi NCR were felicitated with the Service Quality Excellence Award. The awardees were singled out for their dedication and willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty towards providing riders a superlative experience.

Safety is a key priority for Uber. Through a combination of technology and two-way feedback, we endeavor to improve safety for riders and driver partners before, during and after a ride. Riders can access driver name, vehicle make and registration details before getting into an Uber while drivers undergo a stringent background and license verification process before joining the platform.

During a ride, features like share your status, GPS, Emergency button are aimed at creating strong deterrents against unacceptable behavior. Finally, two-way feedback for riders and driver partners through the rating system, as well as in-app support help, strengthen the safety paradigm after a ride.

Every day in India 16 people is killed in road accidents. That's one person every 90 minutes. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, some of the deadliest nights on the road due to drunk driving occur unsurprisingly, during the holiday season when people are out celebrating.

At Uber, we're changing the way people think about drinking and driving. Since our launch, we've worked hard at empowering people to make better, safer choices by providing a reliable ride at the tap of a button??no matter the time or place.

-ANI