Careem, a ride-hailing service, has blocked a good count of its captains who were found involved in dodging the company through means that were not allowed in the rule book, we have confirmed with sources.
According to details shared with ProPakistani, some Careem captains used to book rides at their own to meet targets and to ultimately qualify for the bonuses that company offers after achieving daily, weekly and monthly goals.
Technically speaking, these captains had found a way of manipulating the system by going into deserted areas such as city outskirts — where chances of other captains on service are usually less — and then booking a ride (from other than their primary smartphone). This way, the same captain used to get the same ride that they had booked themselves.
While captains don’t do this all the time — or they would never make money from the bogus rides — such fake bookings were done when few final rides were needed before targets are missed due to the deadlines.
Bogus rides are also booked at the end of shift when captains are far from home and then they are to ride back to their places anyway. In such circumstances captains used to book fake rides and then travel without any passenger but the ride would count towards their targets and hence the bonuses.
According to sources, Careem’s fraud detection system — they call it Sherlock — was quick to identify such ghost rides and some 374 captains were flagged who were found involved in manipulating the system.
While we know that Careem trains its captains and they are warned about consequences if found involved in any fraudulent activity, such cases happen — as with any department.
We couldn’t confirm this officially but sources said that Careem took the action and blocked the IDs of over 50 captains. Sources said that others were fined, their bonuses were reversed and were given the warnings.
Those captains who were blocked will not be allowed to work with the company again, we were told.
Courtesy: ProPakistani