Uber to allow customers to choose only female drivers
New service allows customers to choose only female drivers, but also for female drivers to choose to transport only female customers.
Next week, Uber will launch a new service in Lisbon that will allow customers to choose to travel only with female drivers and for these drivers to transport exclusively female passengers. The intention is to make the mobility experience “more personalised, comfortable and tailored to the preferences” of the platform’s users.
“We want Uber to be the most convenient and personalised platform for all women. This new feature responds to a clear desire of many female drivers and users, and also represents an opportunity for more women to feel motivated to drive with Uber, reinforcing their autonomy and freedom of choice”, emphasises Francisco Vilaça, general manager of Uber in Portugal.
It should be noted that, at the moment, only 9% of TVDE drivers in Portugal are women, which is why he argues that, with this new feature, Uber is also contributing to “making the sector more inclusive, representative and attractive to women”.
“By creating conditions that provide greater freedom of choice, Uber believes that this feature can help attract more women to the activity, making driving a more appealing, flexible and adjusted professional option to the different needs and preferences of each woman”, the platform said in a statement.
At the press conference, Francisco Vilaça also explained that drivers will have total flexibility, i.e. they will be able to choose to transport only women at certain times of the day and at other times return to other types of Uber service, such as electric cars and premium cars.
In this pilot phase, the service will only be available in Lisbon and its availability “may vary depending on the number of drivers available”. “But the option will be available every day of the week, at no extra cost”, guarantees Uber, which says that the service will then be extended to other cities in the country.
“It will most likely follow the size of the cities. Porto, Algarve, Coimbra, …”, emphasised Francisco Vilaça, speaking to journalists.
Last year, the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT) suspended the licence of Pinker, a TVDE platform that wanted to be exclusively for women, pointing out that “there can be no discrimination in the activity of individual and paid passenger transport”.
Asked about this case, Francisco Vilaça pointed out: “We believe that we are adding an option of choice, on a platform that is totally inclusive. Anyone can provide a service. We see this as another option for choice, not discrimination. It’s an additional product.”
He also added that this service is not being launched as a matter of security, but of choice.
At the moment, this service is already available in France, Germany, Poland, South Africa, Argentina and Australia.
