European ridehailing company Bolt, has announced a new addition to its security and verification layer for the rider/passenger side of the platform. This verification exercise “invites riders to verify their identity by uploading a selfie and an ID document”. To reduce friction on the customer’s onboarding journey, Bolt has assured this exercise will only take “couple of minutes at most”.
As a data-driven company, Bolt clarified that its driver partners specifically requested for this update. Going further, Bolt revealed a reduction in incidences of safety cases since it commenced initial tests of this feature. It appears this feature was tested in the company’s South Africa market.
When fully implemented, we should see more nightly trips on the platform as safety concerns reduce and trust is gained. In the recent past, we have seen cases of car theft, assault and robbery by riders in Lagos , Abuja and South Africa. In addition, we would likely witness an uptick in trips to locations notorious for these criminal acts and misdemeanors against driver partners.
In the past, the company implemented safety and security measures such as masking passenger’s phone number during an in-app call and monitors extended stationary trips between rider and passenger.
