The era of ride-hailing services started off very well, with them giving access to instant cab rides without having to spend heavily and giving people another option besides public transport. Ola and Uber were the first ones, and since then, a bevvy of other names have joined the sector, like Rapido, inDrive, BluSmart, and more.
Since then though as the usage of these services increased so did those who would misuse them and endanger the lives of the passengers. A lot of reports started to come from drivers scamming the passengers, threatening them and more with even some cases where the passenger would misbehave with the driver.
As with all things though, it was the issue of women’s safety that came up with more and more women calling out these apps about how the drivers would misbehave with them, harass them both in real life and digitally, take them off their routes to sexually assault them and more.
With this in mind, most of these apps have an emergency feature in them to alert in case of any mishaps. However, a recent post by a woman who was in a scary situation during a cab ride has revealed that this emergency button might not always work.
What Did The Woman Reveal?
Shazia A, a senior manager at Genpact, posted on her LinkedIn page about a “nightmarish” experience with OLA cab while she was going to Gurgaon one afternoon.
In her post, she wrote, “I had a nightmarish experience with OLA CAB yesterday on my way to Gurgaon. Sharing this incident hoping to raise awareness about the safety concerns that passengers, especially women, might encounter while using these cab services.”
She went on to reveal the date it happened, which was 20 December, and the time was 1.30 pm in the afternoon.
She wrote, “After crossing the toll, the driver inexplicably slowed down the cab. When I asked for the reason, he did not respond. Shortly after, I noticed two men ahead of the cab, gesturing for the driver to pull over to the left. Shockingly, the driver complied, parking the car as per their instructions.”
She further wrote that when she “questioned the driver about why he was obeying strangers, but he ignored me. The situation escalated when I saw two more men on bikes parking to the left of the cab, making it a total of five men, including the driver. This occurred outside the National Media Centre, where traffic was sparse and the road was relatively deserted.”
She added, “The driver then mentioned, “Meri kist pending hai” (my instalment is due), which left me terrified. I responded that his personal matters were not my concern and insisted he continue the trip. Instead, the men began to approach the cab, and the driver appeared complicit in their actions.”
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She then explained, “Feeling unsafe, I opened the right-side door and ran for my life. It was an extremely traumatic experience, and I cannot emphasize enough how terrified I felt.”
The one thing that jumped out from her account was when she mentioned, “To make matters worse, when I tried to use the SOS button on the Ola app, it did not work.”
Shazia had also already filed a complaint with Ola however she revealed that “it has now been over 24 hours, and I have not received any response. This lack of accountability and urgency from Ola’s team is both shocking and deeply disappointing.”
Concluding her post she wrote, “Passenger safety is not just a feature—it’s a fundamental responsibility.”
The post garnered much sympathy for the woman and what she went through with some even recounting similar incidents they’d faced with cab companies.
Aishwarya Lahiri a LinkedIn user commenting on the post wrote, “I’m so incredibly relieved that you’re safe! Honestly, don’t expect any action from OLA. Their customer service doesn’t exist. Uber isn’t any better. I had an experience earlier this year when my Uber cabbie was driving with his feet, no kidding, feet on the wheel and steering. I was with my child and alone, I couldn’t even risk protesting. Not to mention the constant stare in the rearview. I complained and Uber said they’ll take action but for all I know he’s still out on the roads.”
Another user, Neha Jain wrote, “It’s not only with Ola, even Uber is like that. I am petrified of taking their cabs for overnight or early morning airport transfers. The cabs are usually filthy, the drivers demand to take the trip offline, there was one time I cried for my life and the driver only agreed to drop me if i paid him in cash even when the cab was prepaid online. At 11pm you definitely have no choice. Coming back to the cab quality, the cabs are usually filthy, stinky and lack basic hygiene. Blue cabs lately are no different unfortunately.”
User Raviteja Kakarala also wrote, “This happened to me twice when I was in Noida. Some random guy stopped midnight when I was travelling by cab to airport midnight. He asked for money. Driver stopped and replied no money and drove. The guy outside hit the car behind. Driver spoke some bad words and moved on. It was an unofficial collection of money. Second incident also happened in afternoon. It’s exactly same as you mentioned. I asked the guy outside to leave us as I was already late. He said how can I leave him. He didn’t paid road tax. So I left the cab and booked another. Luckily flight also got delayed. I explained everything to ola support. Then they refunded the fare. Ya But it was not deserted place. Don’t know if your case is similar but i being a guy was only worried about getting late. But ya i can feel your experience.”
User Tanya Bhartia wrote, “A similar incident happened to me on 18th Dec in Gurgaon. The worst part was that my husband had booked an Uber and I couldn’t even use SOS. I also got out of the car and booked another cab to reach the destination. Still no response from Uber on the incident.”
Rajat Bandopadhyay also recounted his experience writing, “I was once chased by bikers and my Ola driver was also scared, I asked him not to stop and continue to drive and after reaching a crowded place we got safe. The SOS button did not work at that time as well.”
In the comments, Shazia also posted an update writing, “Ola has reached out to confirm they are taking action against the drivers involved. However, I am still waiting to hear from them on how they plan to prevent such incidents in the future. Specifically, I’m keen to understand what measures will be put in place to ensure that drivers with significant dues are not allowed on the road and that loan sharks cannot stop drivers during trips, jeopardizing passenger safety.”
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Hindustan Times, India Today, News18
Find the blogger: @chirali_08
This post is tagged under: Ola, Ola cab, Ola India, Ola cab India, Ola woman, Ola experience, Ola review, Ola sos button, Ola sos feature, passenger, passenger safety, woman, indian woman, indian woman safety
Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, or copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.
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