DRIFE : Surge-Safety-Solution
Surge price and safety have become a topic of concern for riders using the ride-hailing platform.DRIFE aims at making each ride safe and economical for riders.
Let's have a look at the problems faced by riders and DRIFE’s solution for the same.
Surge:
As incumbents have established market superiority in markets and there is either a monopoly or a duopoly situation, the introductory cheap prices are being hiked up in a gradual manner. The prices per ride for hailing a taxi has become more expensive these days, and thus riders look for alternatives.
Practices like “Surge Pricing” are becoming infamous in the industry. During periods of high ride demands and low supply of vehicles or drivers, the firm increases the price of the ride and sometimes these charges are exorbitant. Often times, these leaves customers with no other option to go ahead with the ride even though they are not satisfied with the price. Usually, these surges result from festivity or weather changes, however, in most cases, there is no valid reasoning behind the price surge. This lack of consistent pricing and transparency has disturbed customers, which is very much evident from complaints registered by customers on social media platforms. This problem exists majorly because of the intermediary functions of these platforms.
Solution:
No Surge: DRIFE ecosystem leverages a ‘No Surge Price’ model to sustain rider’s loyalty and create sustainable income for drivers by paying them additional incentive during surge time, which will be tracked using a heat map, which will get activated when demand is greater than demand.
Safety:
There have been reports of harassment, assault and robbing passengers on rides. However, no strict measures could be taken because of the company not having full control over the driver, vehicle and ride. Poor feedback system has also added fuel to the fire. As much as they are filling the gap of better services across the world, there is a dire need of having possible security measures to make sure that rider safety is ensured from the start of the journey till he/she reaches the destination.
A CNN investigation in April found that at least 103 Uber and 18 Lyft drivers in the United States have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing passengers in the past four years.
Ride-hailing companies have had notoriously contentious relationships with drivers, something experts said has an adverse effect on safety by creating high turnover and an ongoing need for more and more drivers.
Safety: We at DRIFE are committed to making the very journey safe, for that, we have worked on multiple solutions which is currently absent from the ride-hailing ecosystem.
- Psychological Test for each Driver -Following successful completion of the KYC process, every driver must undergo an extensive psychological test before being accepted as a DRIFE DriverPartner. Fullbackgroundverification, together with a positive psychological analysis, will enable an applicant to become a DRIFE Partner. The test is designed to analyse such issues as road rage, the general predisposition of a driver and to avoid employing sexual offenders. Not only will our thorough testing methods be conducted as part of the application process, but we will also conduct periodic testing to ensure the drivers are remaining in a sound psychological state.
- Peer to Peer Emergency Management (SOS)- This will allow users to manage any emergencies they may encounter. This will be actioned in a decentralized fashion by calling upon fully trustworthy people in times of need, from their network. When another person accepts such a request, they will be able to immediately see the GPS location of the person in need, so that they can reach the exact location of the emergency caller. The Rider in need will then receive a notification including the ETA and the details of the person coming to provide the emergency assistance.
- Touch ID-Every fingerprint is unique, making it almost impossible for even a small section of two separate fingerprints to be similar enough to register as a match for Touch ID. In fact, the probability of this happening is 1 in 50,000 with a single, enrolled finger. It is mandatory for every driver to scan their fingerprints on their device which then becomes their Touch ID, which will be used to start each ride. Therefore, each trip will only commence after the driver has scanned the device using fingerprint technology to ensure that the DRIFE-registered driver is matched to the driver offering the ride.
- Ride Notification-For Family and friends, this feature will allow riders to share the ride status with their network. When a passenger sends a ‘ride status alert’, the driver will also be notified that the ride is being tracked.
- Incentives for Community members for assisting others during an emergency — Depending on feedback from the person in need, every community member who assists during an emergency, will receive reward incentives for the services they have provided.
- Security Observational Safety Mode (SOSM): Every taxi registered with DRIFE will have a camera installed which can be activated by commuters only. This is useful when a commuter wants a third-party to monitor the driver during a late night ride. They can simply switch on safety mode and their community can keep a track of trip. This feature works only when commuters request for it so that we at DRIFE can keep commuter’s privacy intact.
About DRIFE
While ride-hailing apps have come a long way in the past decade, there remained a demand in the market for a system that truly empowered drivers and passengers. Enter DRIFE, the first-ever decentralized ride-hailing app that runs on a Blockchain network. We connect drivers and passengers with high-speed smart contracts and function with an economic model that is subscription-based. Drivers utilizing the DRIFE app do not pay a commission from their fares the way they do with current ride-hailing apps. Ultimately, the success of our app will bring a much-needed level of efficiency and transparency to the ride-hailing industry.
