The world is upside down. Everything has changed. Usually Uber is all about moving people, but that isn’t the case now. To support the government in its efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, we are urging riders to stay home.

The one thing, however, that hasn’t changed, is our commitment towards the economy, safety of our communities and to #MoveWhatMatters

Supporting Communities 

Just last week we rolled out UberMedic, a dedicated and reliable service for frontline healthcare workers. A few days later, we formalized a partnership with the National Health Authority, India’s nodal health agency, which manages 18,000 public hospitals. 

To support the communities we serve, we’re partnering with marketplace leaders like Flipkart, bigbasket and Spencer’s Retail to ensure we deliver essential supplies to thousands of their customers. This is keeping India’s supply chains moving and helping authorities enforce a nationwide lockdown for containing COVID-19. This last-mile delivery service also unlocks opportunities for driver partners to reliably deliver essential supplies to as many homes as possible. 

To Help You Move Safely

Our commitment to safety continues to be our priority and we are taking several measures for the safety of our riders and drivers. As part of an ongoing pilot, UberMedic cars supplied to the NHA are being equipped with roof-to-floor plastic sheeting enclosing the driver partner’s seat, thereby acting as a protective barrier between the rider and driver partners. To maintain the highest possible safety and hygiene standards, and wherever possible, UberMedic driver partners are being specially trained and provided with personal protective equipment including masks, gloves, hand sanitizers and disinfectants to sanitize Uber Medic cars after each ride.

Uber Driver Care Fund

We recognize the livelihood of driver partners has been affected tremendously, and yet, many are working round the clock to move what matters. Over the past few weeks, we’ve waived lease rentals, facilitated EMI relief, and offered driver partners access to online medical services, such as DocsApp, at no charge.  Additionally, will be rolling out a Hospital Cash Insurance policy to benefit driver partners, and cover COVID-19 and other illnesses that need hospitalization, for up to 14 days. 

Today, driver partners on Uber’s platform began receiving the first batch of grants from INR 25 crores deposited by Uber into the Uber Care Driver Fund, created in partnership with Give India, a leading online donation platform, and Samhita, a leading social enterprise. The grants can help take care of the urgent and immediate needs of driver partners and their families.

But that’s not all.

Uber aims to raise an additional INR 25 crores, to reach a combined target of INR. 50 crores,  through contributions from its employees, riders, CSR funds and citizens through a partnership with Milaap, a leading crowdfunding organization, to look after the welfare and wellbeing of driver partners on its platform. 

So far, Uber employees have shown great enthusiasm for the cause and within a matter of hours have already contributed more than INR 17 lakhs to become the largest contributors to the fund. 

Please contribute here to ‘Show You Care’. 

There is no blueprint on how to deal with these challenging times.

India will come back strong as will our partners. Uber will be ready to support each and every partner to re-build their business. For riders, we will take each one of you to your destination safely, affordably and reliably.