Everyone has the right to feel safe, secure and convenient in the community anywhere, including on the road when travelling from home to any destinations, such as an office, a market, supermarket, mall or vise versa.
However, the transportation-related crimes, mostly occuring in big cities over the past several years, have affected the feeling of safety, security and comfort on the part of passengers. Many of the cases involved online transportation.
According to a report, female passengers appeared the dominant victims on the list. It said that among the cases was that a female passenger suffered a broken tooth and had her money robbed. A female student reportedly endured an extortion and sexual abuse while another female passenger was kept in captivity and robbed.
The National Commission for Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has conceded that violence against women remains its home work. It says two cases related to online transportation sexual crimes were part of a total of 406,178 violence-against-women cases reported to the commission.
The public, especially passengers whether male or female, expect that they can feel safe, secure and comfortable under any condition, including when traveling.
“Grab will never compromise the threats to security and safety. It has become our top priority since Grab was founded 12 years ago,” Grab Indonesia managing director Neneng Goenadi says. “We are the first in Southeast Asia to innovate safety features.”
To provide a deterrence and a quick response to any possible acts of scathing irregularities, Grab constantly improves the features of is Safety Center. Grab’s Safety features include Share My Ride, Report a Safety Issue and Emergency Assistance and furthermore, these features are supported with Face Verification and Free Calls.
All are dedicated to the safety not only for the passengers, but also for the partner-drivers, merchants and even non-app users.
That is the message Grab Indonesia is sending through the hashtag #AmanUntukSemua (safety for all).
For the campaign, Grab Indonesia continues to innovate in the technology ecosystem in order to provide a safe and comfortable riding experience for users, driver-partners, merchant partners as well as making efforts to contribute to the well-being of the Indonesian people in general.
Singapore-based Grab is the leading online-to-offline tech mobile platform business in Southeast Asia with services through its Super App including transport, food delivery, package delivery, payments, financial services and video streaming.
With ride safety being a top priority, it unveiled in 2018 the “Safer Everyday Tech Roadmap” comprised of product enhancements that aim to raise transport safety standards.
The enhanced Safety Center has enabled Grab passengers to access several safety features in one push. Those include:
Share My Ride
Passengers are given an option to share their ride’s information with relatives or any contact number so that they can monitor the journey in real-time. To activate the service, the passengers are required to insert three emergency numbers into the application.
Once the passenger’s contacts receive the message, they can track the journey route, pick-up points, drop-off locations, the driver’s details and the estimated time of arrival.
Report Safety Issue
In the case of encountering safety issues during the journey, the passenger can send an alert signal to enable Grab to take necessary safety actions.
Get Emergency Assistance
In the case of an emergency situation, the passenger can ask for help from Grab’s Response Team through Grab 24/7.
SMS alerts with URLs containing the passenger’s ride details, including current location, will be automatically sent to the registered Emergency Contact.
This feature has also been improved to enable the passenger to track emergency help status.
All these safety features have been an expansion from the already available safety features that Grab offers:
Free calls (VoIP)
The passenger and driver can use “Free Call” which enables them to make outgoing calls without incurring any additional costs in the Grab ecosystem.
The drivers can then call the passengers with ease, using mobile data. This protects the privacy of passengers, as their details can no longer be seen in the caller ID tab of the phone.
Face verification
Grab has introduced passenger verification via selfie as part of efforts to build a safer platform for the passengers and driver-partners.
A new customer is required to provide a selfie that will be used for the customer’s identity verification.
It is also mandatory for the driver-partner to do periodical face verification.
To get people aware of the safety features and ensure that they have a safe ride, Grab Indonesia has carried out roadshows in several cities.
Protection for women
Grab Indonesia is working with the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) to help protect female driver-partners. Grab is aware that the main concern for women to be able to fully benefit from the current digital economy is their personal safety. The International Finance Corporation released a report in March 2019, which described how technology-based transportation services can help women to enter the transportation industry.
Nearly a quarter of female respondents surveyed stated that this service had increased their sense of independence, compared with 18 percent of men who thought the same.
This has since increased their socioeconomic mobility, especially in a field dominated by male drivers.
In response to the survey, Grab Indonesia is expanding the range of safety initiatives it offers.
Among the initiatives, Grab held a training program, the first phase of which was attended by 100 female driver-partners last year.
The program was supported by FPL (Forum Pengadaan Layanan Bagi Perempuan Korban Kekerasan), a forum which provides counseling for female victims of violence. The forum also provides Training of Trainers (ToT) programs for Grab Indonesia employees, so that they can share their knowledge with driver-partners.
On the same occasion, Grab Indonesia also launched a special fleet of "LadyGrab" for both GrabExpress and GrabFood services in the Greater Jakarta area.
As Indonesia and ASEAN as a whole are projected to become the fourth-largest economies in the world by 2030, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that women in Asia have 70 percent less chance than men to join the workforce.
Grab Indonesia managing director Neneng Goenadi, said: "Safety has been our priority since Grab was first established. As an everyday everything app that has become an inseparable part of daily activities of the community, we continue to work to expand our safety commitments to the entire Grab ecosystem, from food delivery, logistics to cashless payments and we are committed to continuing to do so. "
Safety beyond the ecosystem
Grab Indonesia is collaborating with the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK) as part of efforts to help fight human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.
With the application services widely used in 224 cities from Sabang to Merauke, Grab Indonesia has reliable technology and resource infrastructure on offer to contribute to government initiatives and programs.
The driver partners are an extension of the eyes and ears of the authorities in various regions.
Grab Indonesia will also train driver-partners across Indonesia through the Grab Academy in order to be able to take actions where suspicion of human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children.
KPAI chairman Susanto said child trafficking and sexual violence is one of the major challenges for Indonesia because of its complexity.
While calling for actions from government agencies and the private sector, he applauded Grab Indonesia’s initiative to help work on the issue.
LPSK chairman Hasto Atmojo Suroyo spoke about the increasing scale about people requesting for witness protection, which he said was an indication of growing public trust on the institution.
The cases of person trafficking crime (TPPO) and sexual violence against children have continued to increase for the past two years.
In 2018, there were 104 applications for protection of TPPO cases and as many as 284 applications for protection of cases of sexual violence against children. The number increased to 297 as of July 2019, and 420 respectively.
For Grab Indonesia, its participation in the joint campaign against human trafficking and sexual violence against children is seen in the context of providing education to the public about the social impact of the crimes.
Grab also encourages app users’ involvement in helping create an environment, which is safe for everyone.
A well-versed video is available in www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxyrHi-nSic
For information about Grab’s safety campaign, please also visit https://www.grab.com/id/en/blog/perjalanan-grab-mu-makin-aman-dengan-fitur-pusat-keselamatan/
For more information, please refer to https://help.grab
