Literature Review To Understanding How Careem Has Proved To Be A Harassment-Free Ride For Girls Travelling Alone

Careem’s Success Stories

Careem has proven to be the most efficient and comfortable transportation app and one of the excellent startups in the Asian Subcontinent making it an enchantment in the transportation revolution. Careem is running worldwide in 11 different countries and 50 different cities with 180, 000 registered drivers (Captains) and have the customer base of about 8 million. You have to be ambitious if you want to run a billion dollar business, you have to think different than others, act different, implement differently than others, something unique in every aspect. You can’t just bring out or fabricate a product and expect from it that’ll make you a billion dollar business. Working hard as a team, on individual level both are important and that’s what Careem did.

Thousands of Pakistani’s are now using Careem and prefer it to travel because it’s easy to access through smart phones and internet services like 3g and 4g. Booking a ride is a matter of seconds and the car will be on the way. Careem is well liked and favored by women. Most of the customers are women and the number is still increasing, Careem is in demand by women. The fares are also very reliable and flexible not too expensive, Careem also provides discounts, promo codes time to time for the customers. Careem is also planning to start a submissive and reliable customer loyalty programme.

Careem’s Failure Incidents

Applications like Careem have made the life of Pakistanis very easy. It is very easy to use and move around the town and made travelling more comfortable for masses in Pakistan. However, with the comfort, easiness and most importantly safety precautions as per the promise by the companies, females have faced some dangerous incidents. Unfortunately for Maryam Aftab, she had to face a terrifying incident during her ride with a Careem driver which terrified her very badly and left her very nervous and afraid. She expressed her story on twitter in a series of tweets where she said Careem driver tried to kidnap her with his partner in other car and forced her to go in his partner’s car after she refused to do so and inquired about it they said they are making some funny videos and camera is miles away at restaurant. She asked him to cancel the ride as she will not go with him. Maryam complained about this with Careem instantly. Careem assured to investigate the matter and will take action if driver is culprit. Maryam said that Careem should take security measure to assure full safety to women by screening their captions.

Another case of harassment took place in Pakistan by a Careem driver. As it is not new, every other day harassment incidents by Careem’s driver take place in Pakistan and the victims share their stories on social media and they get viral in no time. This time the student of Iqra University, her friend shared her incident on Face book. She was travelling to Kemari but the captain took another route and drive her towards Shaukat Khanum Hospital in DHA even when she angrily asked him to take the right direction and yelled at him but he continued to go in the wrong direction and then he stopped the car and took his knife and threatened her but she managed to run off from the car safely and went to the Shaukat Khanum hospital. Even after that the caption continued to harass her by calling her from different numbers for several days. This story got viral on social media in no time. These kinds of incidents really put big question mark on women's safety provided by Careem in country like Pakistan where safety of women is still a big problem to resolve.

Careem’s Response to Criticism

Careem has responded to critics related to harassment cases through social media websites. Fizza Atique in her article “Careem Response on How Careem Captains in Pakistan are Sexually Harassing Girls”, wrote that right after a harassment case in Careem approached her and made it clear that they have fired that driver and listed him in block list so that he can never approach Careem’s team. She further added that Careem ensured the security and safety of its customers. As soon as they received this complain they took a swift action and investigated the whole incident. They proudly announced that 70% of their customers are women and they are fully committed t serve for their security. In another website document “Are Uber and Careem Doing Enough to Secure Female Commuters?” Waleed Zahid wrote that Careem is working on minimizing these incidents by holding many training sessions.

Careem has also zero tolerance policy for harassment cases and is also tightening their policies. He also mentioned the words of Managing Director of Careem who said that the most important thing is the safety of customers. If any client feels unsafe, their words are enough to take an action. He further mentioned that Careem keeps a close eye on rating of their drivers. If a driver gets low ratings he gets removed on temporary basis and gets training. But if he consistently gets poor ratings then he is dismissed from the job permanently