702<\/a>, Western Cape E-hailing Association chair Siyabonga Hlabisa said the organisation was shocked by the statement and wants Bolt to investigate riders as well.<\/p>\n“We were shocked when Bolt released the statement about the 6,000 blocked drivers,” said Hlabisi.<\/p>\n
“We contacted them and they clarified that there was an issue of compliance. A big concern from my side is that they should do the same thing to riders as soon as possible.”<\/p>\n
He indicated that many riders on Bolt’s platform may be non-compliant.<\/p>\n
When asked what he meant by drivers not being compliant, Hlabisa said “suspicious” and “fraudulent” documents were being used, and some users created fake accounts.<\/p>\n
This, combined with reports of drivers \u2014 or criminals posing as drivers \u2014 robbing ride-hailers, meant that Bolt had to intervene and look into its drivers.<\/p>\n
“I think that’s why they went deeper. Bolt has been in the spotlight for other issues concerning drivers and riders,” said Hlabisa.<\/p>\n
Bolt released a statement in early June 2024, announcing that it had permanently blocked 6,000 drivers from its platforms over the past six months.<\/p>\n
It said the drivers were blocked due to non-compliance and safety-related issues.<\/p>\n
“This move is part of Bolt’s ongoing commitment to providing top safety infrastructure within the ride-hailing industry,” it added.<\/p>\n
This includes the safety of drivers and riders. Bolt said it will continue to block drivers and riders who are reported for misconduct.<\/p>\n
According to Bolt’s acting head of regulatory and policy in Africa, Wyinmi Aghadiuno, the company is taking proactive steps to ensure the well-being of riders and drivers.<\/p>\n
“We believe that one incident is too many, and we want to ensure that our platform consists of top-rated drivers, which will result in a better overall ride experience,” she added.<\/p>\n
Bolt said blocking drivers is just one step the company takes to ensure safety on its platform.<\/p>\n
One example is its emergency assist feature, which it offers in partnership with the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA).<\/p>\n
“Bolt offers an emergency response service in its app that shares driver details and location with AA’s 24\/7 contact centre, deploying security and emergency services immediately,” it said.<\/p>\n
Bolt’s platform includes trip audio recording, which riders and drivers can use to record trips for safety. They can submit recordings to Bolt’s customer support channels.<\/p>\n
It also introduced Trip Monitoring, through which the app proactively engages riders and drivers when a vehicle is stationary for an extended period.<\/p>\n
Bolt will prompt customers and drivers to see if they are okay, and they can tap the “Yes, I am okay” button should there be no concern.<\/p>\n
The ride-hailing platform is currently testing a rider verification feature that will require new customers to upload a selfie and an ID, which Bolt verifies before allowing ride orders.<\/p>\n
Bolt has also implemented stricter compliance measures for drivers to enforce platform guidelines.<\/p>\n
“Any driver or rider found violating safety standards or non-compliant will face swift and decisive consequences, including permanent suspension from the platform,” it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Western Cape E-hailing Association was shocked by Bolt blocking drivers and said it wants the company to investigate riders as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":466441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49317],"tags":[26172,35,46908,95357,95355,95359],"class_list":["post-540643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-services","tag-bolt","tag-headline","tag-ride-hailing","tag-syabonga-hlabisa","tag-western-cape-e-hailing-association","tag-wyinmi-aghadiuno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}