Mobilink and Uber have entered into a partnership to offer a host of services to facilitate the ride-hailing app’s Pakistani customers.
“Our partnership with Uber showcases our leadership in the provision of state of the art communication services to customers throughout the country,” Azfar Manzoor, VP Business Services, Mobilink, said while speaking at the signing ceremony.
“We are thrilled to have joined hands with Uber in assisting them to cater to the transportation needs of our country through new innovative solutions,” Manzoor added.
Uber’s Head of Expansion, Loic Amado, said he was looking forward to working with Mobilink to bring about a shift in Pakistani cities through their services. “We are excited to partner with the largest telco of Pakistan on multiple fronts and look forward to working with them. We are grateful to the Mobilink team for assisting our vision of bringing about a shift in the cities of Pakistan through our services.”
Uber has also teamed up with Lahore-based Rabtt, an NGO with the aim to give guidance to its drivers regarding sexual harassment, according to Tech in Asia. Each car in the city will have a sticker on the windshield that reads “This Uber driver pledges to take action against sexual harassment” in capital letters.
Uber says it will strive to implement a “zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment.” The partnership will also help it with screening potential driver, as well as be “better equipped” in responding to complaints.
“We hope to make the streets of Lahore a bit more safer by doing our part in increasing awareness of an often overlooked issue; sexual harassment,” stated Uber in the post. Similar training has been done by Uber before in Cairo, Egypt, where police recently tear-gassed taxi drivers protesting against its presence in the country.
On March 2, Uber formally begun operations in Punjab’s provincial capital. The launch comes at a time when Punjab is taking the lead in not only upgrading its road network, but also refining the landscape of the transport sector through the Metro bus and various taxi scheme projects.
The ride-hailing behemoth will focus on Lahore for now, but there are plans to unlock more cities in the near future. Karachi is an obvious target while Islamabad is also likely to be on the roadmap as a more affluent clientele awaits.
