Bengaluru: Woman tells how Ola failed her after driver misbehaved

Bengaluru: Woman tells how Ola failed her after driver misbehaved
12 Dec 2018

Taxi aggregators need to get serious about women's safety, a woman's journey in Ola has shown once again.

Not only is it important that Ola fixes its emergency button, but it should also do a thorough screening of its drivers, said Akanksha Hazari, who had an ugly experience on December 10.

Hazari, who is the CEO of m.Paani, narrated her ordeal on Twitter.

She booked a cab from Bengaluru airport, driver took detour
What happened

Hazari revealed on the night of December 10 at 11:31 PM, she boarded a cab from Bengaluru Airport to the city.

The driver didn't follow the route the app showed and took his own path, saying he doesn't have change for a toll. He turned the cab around and sensing trouble Hazari asked him to follow the prescribed path.

He didn't.

When she told him to turn around, he misbehaved

Aggression

Not only did the driver refuse to follow the route, but he also asked Hazari to leave the cab. The road was secluded and barring few men, no one was seen around.

Hazari immediately pressed the app's emergency button and got a call. The executive spoke to the driver and assured her the ride will be tracked.

She felt relieved but things got ugly.

Driver kept making calls, spoke in Kannada
Fear

Few minutes after the call, the driver called someone from his phone. Hazari asked him not to do that.

She wrote, "Because like every woman I was wary of who he could call to our location at this time of night. He spoke in Kannada so I couldn't understand the conversations."

Then he turned the engine off and continued to make calls.

Helpless Hazari dialed emergency again, nothing happened
Details

Hazari said her phone's battery was dying and she didn't know what to do. She was also wondering about the safety executive who said her ride would be tracked.

"I immediately start to press on the emergency button again. 1..2...3...5...10 times, no callback," she wrote.

She called the police too and gave them the registration number of the vehicle.

She had to call service center again, explain everything
Second call

A crying Hazari then called the service center again, and explained everything, again. She said her call was referred to another safety executive.

He spoke to the driver and directed him to drop her safely. Hazari was asked to keep the driver's phone to ensure he doesn't make further calls.

She reached her destination and paid the money, despite the horrendous experience.

Upset with the experience, Hazari tweets about it
Questions

In multiple tweets, Hazari explained to Ola how they failed her. She asked why was the driver given this job and why was he continuing.

She also slammed the company for charging her money and not taking action despite promising to do so.

Hazari questioned why did the first safety executive didn't track the ride and why the emergency button didn't work.

Meanwhile, here's what Ola has to say
Fact

"We deeply regret the experience that the customer had to go through. The driver in question had been off-roaded immediately, and has been blacklisted from the Ola platform. We have extended support to the police in sharing all information to help them with the investigation," Ola's statement read.