Following a number of fruitful discussions with driver-partners in the Kingdom, we announced the launch of a series of new features designed to streamline and improve the Uber driver-partner experience. The features, which are being rolled out across the MENA region, aim to address three key areas: Flexibility, Efficiency and Earnings – demonstrating our willingness to translate feedback into direct action.

To start, we will be rolling out a series of new products which driver-partners have asked for. These include:

  • Arrival Destination & Time: Driver-partners can now set their own personal arrival destination and time so that when accepting a trip, they can still get where they need to be even while dropping a rider off on the way – allowing for more flexibility to when they have time to use the Uber app and allows them to make a little extra money on the way.
  • Long trip notification: Driver-partners will now get a heads-up when a trip is estimated to be 60 minutes or longer, so they have the information they need to fit driving around their life, and not the other way around.
  • Paid waiting time – Long wait times can be stressful for drivers-partners. By the time they arrive at the pick-up location, the partner has already invested time and effort in getting to a rider, so now we are ensuring they get paid while they wait, after a grace period for the rider.
  • In App Chat – The aim of this technology is to make the pick-up experience as frictionless as possible, both for the rider and the driver-partner. Streamlining the whole experience, the In-App Chat allows driver-partners and riders to coordinate the pick-up  faster, since there’s no need to switch between apps to get in touch. For driver-partners, chats are read aloud and one tap to the app will send a “thumbs up” confirmation to their rider ensure they can stay focused on the road.

What does this mean for driver-partner? For example, when Mohammed – a university student and an Uber partner-driver – wakes up in the morning, he logs in to the Uber app and takes trips, and closer to the time he wants to head to his class, he can use the “Arrival Destination and Time” feature to input the university address and at what time he needs to be there so whatever final rider he picks up is also heading in that direction. This ensures he gets to where he needs to be, while benefitting from doing one more trip.

Or take for example, driver-partner Hamad, who has been driving for quite some time that day and wants to end his time on Uber in the next hour so. “Long trip notification” allows for him to know in advance if the next trip will be more than 60 minutes so that he can choose to accept it or it goes to the next available driver-partner.

At Uber, the health and wellbeing of driver-partners using the app is a priority, which is why we have partnered with the Saudi German Hospital, to offer all Uber driver-partners discounted services across the Kingdom. The agreement which is in effect, allows any active Uber driver-partner to avail discounts on Consultation services,  Lab and X-Ray tests.

But this is only the start. Over the next couple of months, we aim to launch even more products which can improve the driving experience. As part of the company’s commitment to change, and to continuously improving the overall experience on the app.

We will continue to listen to both driver-partners and riders on further improvements we can make. More changes are on the way – watch this space.