Bolt South Africa is rolling out a rider verification feature nationally on its e-hailing app, which gives riders the option to verify themselves.
According to the e-hailer, as part of this in-app feature, customers will be given the option to take a selfie before they are able to place a ride-hailing order.
The nationwide rollout comes after Bolt announced in December that it was testing the feature, as part of its ongoing investment in safety features on its platform, enhancing driver-rider trust and offering drivers more reasons to pick up a ride request.
For the selfie to be valid, it needs to be an authentic picture of a physically present person, with the face clearly visible.
The rider will also need to upload an identification document, which Bolt will check against the selfie. The validation process takes from a few seconds to a couple of minutes and requires the latest version of the Bolt app to use, says the company.
Weyinmi Aghadiuno, Bolt’s acting head of regulatory and policy for Africa, explains:“Being able to verify that riders are who they say they are is the number one feature requested by driver partners in South Africa.
“The launch of rider verification acknowledges the importance of mutual trust between driver partners and riders. With increased investment in verification features like this that consider the trip as a whole, we aim to continue building driver and rider trust, which is critical to the safety of the platform.”
The rider verification feature forms part of a suite of driver safety features recently introduced on Bolt’s app.
These include Driver Alerts, Trip Count, as well as the in-app safety feedback escalation.
The features aim to upgrade driver safety by providing more information about riders, ensuring all driver’s safety-related feedback is escalated to the team for further investigation.
- Trip Count: Enables drivers to see how many trips the rider placing an order for a trip has taken on the Bolt platform in the past, including the rider’s star rating.
- Driver Alerts: In-app alerts for driver-partners that flag areas on a trip’s route where high volumes of driver and rider safety cases have been reported to Bolt’s customer support team.
The new driver safety features join existing trip verification features, including driver verification, trip count, trip details, driver score, and rider ratings.
These are part of Bolt’s existing safety features, including the in-app safety toolkit enabling drivers to share their ride details with a friend or loved one, the Emergency Assist button, and an audio recording feature, to record the trip during a ride.
Aghadiuno adds:“By providing more information about trips before they begin through new safety features like Trip Count and Driver Alerts, we aim to upgrade driver safety in South Africa.
“With these features and the continued rollout of rider verification, we acknowledge the importance of mutual trust between driver partners and riders and the critical role trust plays in the safety of the platform as a whole.”
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