Cancel ride if details on app don’t match what you see, says Rapido

Bike taxi aggregator Rapido has responded to the ‘gaps’ in safety protocols that a Bengaluru woman had raised via Metrolife after she was sexually harassed by one of their platform riders recently.

Both the rider and the bike that arrived were different from what Athira Purushothaman had booked. She was harassed by Kuruvettappa, now arrested, during a ride from Town Hall to Electronics City and even later as he sent her inappropriate messages over WhatsApp.

Edited excerpts of the email responses by a Rapido spokesperson:

We urge users to not contact riders (captains as they are called) through channels outside the platform, or share personal information. The in-app call ‘masking service’ secures all conversations between customers and captains.

If vehicle details don’t match, decline the ride. In-app banner ‘Did the vehicle details match?’ stays live on the app’s main screen till the ride is completed.

If captains use vehicles different from the ones shown to customers, disciplinary action such as suspension and/or termination is taken. (The team did not respond to our additional query on how many such riders they have acted against at the time of going to press.)

If a ride is terminated 500m away from the destination or further, the GPS tracker triggers a response. The woman (Athira) got off 200m before her drop location.

Any route deviation, abnormal halts, and breach of ETA (expected time of arrival) trigger a message, notification, and a call to the user.

Any person onboarding as a captain has to upload an Aadhaar card, driving licence, valid registration certificate, and vehicle and bank account details. These documents are shared with a third-party vendor to run the background verification. (We did not receive a response to our queries on how many applicants fail the verification, and if a police check is part of the vetting).

SOS button gets activated when the ride is accepted. Pressing it alerts our 24/7 emergency response team. (We did not receive a response on how big their on-ground support ).

Users can alert the nearest police station or their contacts by pressing the Emergency Button, a 24/7 in-app support feature.