The online taxi hailing firm app. [Photo/Hivisasa. ]
The online taxi-hailing firm Uber will now start charging its riders waiting for charges to compensate the drivers that are made to wait a long time for customers to be ready.
According to Uber's East Africa spokesperson Janet Kemboi, the new fee will encourage the riders to request taxis whenever they are ready to go and thus avoiding the delaying of the drivers.
Uber will be sending a notification message to the rider on arrival of the driver advising him of the per minute delay charges that will apply after the end of the first five minutes of waiting. “The waiting charges will be added to the receipt where an upfront fare is quoted and when there is a surge the wait time fees will increase as well,” she said.
Uber has also introduced ' share trip ' ~ a new feature to its online app to enable family and friends to track the rider's location at a real time. Since the beginning of the year, the online taxi company has been introducing new features to its app which includes a security feature that runs real-time security checks whenever a driver goes online thus protecting their accounts from fraudsters and also boosting the safety of riders using its service.
Kemboi, however, added that the Uber is committed to ensuring both the rider and driver enjoy uber travel experience and therefore they will continue to make changes and improvements on its app in the next few weeks. “Because of this, we will be rolling out several changes and improvements to the driving experience over the next few weeks," noted Kemboi.