Updated: Safety tips for Uber

Uber is a great way to get from A to B and enjoy some peace of mind while having someone get you home safely. As fantastic as this service is, it’s important to keep your safety in-check at all times. Today we’ll share a few safety tips to help you get more street-smart.

The “hiring a driver on demand” App takes the safety of their riders and drivers pretty seriously, but it’s important for you to keep yourself safety-smart so that you don’t get caught in an unfortunate scenario.

Check your Uber vehicle

After confirming your ride, the App features include a way for you to easily identify the vehicle that’s on its way to you. Before getting in, check that the colour of your vehicle matches your App. Check that the make and model of the car correspond with what has been listed on the App, and make sure you’ve checked the registration number before climbing in.

Identify your driver

In addition to letting you know what car to expect, the Uber App will also give you access to a brief driver bio. This includes a photograph as well as the name of your driver. Know your driver and make sure that the right person is behind the wheel.

Did you know: Uber checks their Driver-Partner ID’s more than you may realise! From time to time, Driver-Partners will receive push notifications prompting them to “take a selfie” before allowing them to go online. These selfies are then verified with Uber’s facial recognition technology, to ensure that the new selfie matches the profile for the driver that Uber has on record. (read more – Uber’s driver ID requirement)

Share your trip details

Recently, Uber has been beefing up their safety and security features even more and implementing new safety features that will give you more peace of mind.

One of these new features is being able to let your loved ones know where you are and when you’ve arrived. App users can now select up to five contacts with whom to share their trip details.

Open the Uber App and enter your destination. Then swipe up and select “Share Status”. From here you can select the person from your contacts list with whom to share your ride.

Follow along in your app

Right, you’re all buckled in and ready to go, great time to relax. Well, almost! Keep your Uber App open so that you can follow along to ensure that no dodgy route shifts are being made.

Take the back seat

While you may think you’re being all fancy climbing into the back seat, there’s more to it than looking super cool when you arrive at your destination.

If you’re riding alone, the backseat is the best place to sit. It ensures that you have space on both sides of the vehicle to exit when you reach your destination.

It also gives you and your driver some space, and a chance for you to feel less compromised than if you were sitting on the front seat with only one place to exit.

What about critical safety incidents and accidents?

While Uber takes every precaution to train their drivers, accidents are beyond any driver’s control. The good news is that Uber offers riders the option to submit a ticket for a critical safety incident or accident through the App. Once submitted, the rider will then receive a call back from Uber’s Global Incident Report Team to get help on the way.

This feature can be accessed on the Uber App under the Help tab.

It’s also good to memorize 10111 for the local Flying Squad or 082 911 for Netcare’s 911 emergency services nationwide.

Did you know that Uber isn’t the only App-option available to you? In South Africa, we also have Taxify. We’ve rounded up a few taxi options for you here: Services to use if you want to go out drinking.