In an attempt to become a multi-national cab-aggregator, Ola has announced to expand its business to the United Kingdom. After entering Australia, Ola has now received licenses to operate in South Wales and Greater Manchester in the UK and plans to expand nationwide by the end of this year.
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced the company’s decision to expand on Twitter:
We’re bringing Ola to the UK! Very excited to offer a responsible, new ride-hailing service to one of the world’s most sophisticated transportation markets & one that we share so much history with. It’s a momentous moment for @Olacabs @OlaInUK https://t.co/jPmuKB7ruG
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) August 7, 2018
In its press release, Ola added,
“Ola seeks to lead the industry with its approach to passenger safety including DBS screened drivers and processes such as 24/7 voice support, options to share ride details with emergency contacts and in-app emergency features.”
However, Tweeps were not impressed by the cab aggregator’s announcement, with many complaining about how improperly Ola drivers behave with the riders:
You are not able to solve complaints here in 25 days ….
Congratulations for introducing services in UK but ….
— Suresh Nakhua (@sureshnakhua) August 7, 2018
Dude first set the base correctly your freaking cab drivers are raping your customers and you boss are busy expanding. Really.
— U D is the Name (@udayrao007) August 7, 2018
Wow. You have extremely rude drivers, now and then there have been criminal cases against them and you are expanding instead of making rides safer, especially for women. I’m amazed.
— Pallavi Shah (@PallaviShah25) August 7, 2018
Finally u decided to cheat UK people also very good…..
— seeni y (@seenusairam) August 7, 2018
Some reminded Ola that they were expanding to another country without expanding to some major cities in India.
Congrats @Olacabs . We hope one day we see Ola in north east India 🙂
— E-cell NIT Agartala (@nita_summit) August 7, 2018
While others just wanted to know ‘how to start company’.
Sir how to start company
— Prasanna Gouda (@prasannagouda23) August 7, 2018
Both Ola and Uber have been facing problems of ensuring rider safety in metropolitan cities in India. There have been several cases of sexual assault and kidnapping reported against the drivers. Just last month, an Ola driver in Bengaluru was arrested for abusing and hurling slippers at a female commuter. In June, another Ola driver in Bengaluru allegedly forced a woman to strip and pose for pictures while en route to the airport.
As measures to ensure the safety of riders, especially female passengers, Ola announced that it would enable facial verification of its drivers as well as introduce a mechanism to call them up if they deviate from the designated routes.
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