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- Uber South Africa recently started offering free access to health and well-being services to women drivers and couriers.
- Partnering with Zoie Health, a women's health digital clinic, the ridesharing company has given women drivers and couriers free access to the services offered by the clinic.
- Uber SA communications head Mpho Mutuwa said access to these service were also extended to the families of the women drivers and couriers.
Uber South Africa recently started offering free access to health and well-being services to women drivers and couriers.
Partnering with Zoie Health, a women's health digital clinic, the ridesharing company has given women drivers and couriers free access to the services offered by the clinic.
It includes virtual consultations with doctors, lactation consultants, dieticians, contraceptive consultations and prescriptions, and virtual therapy. The services will be available for the next year.
Uber SA communications head Mpho Mutuwa said access to these service were also extended to the families of the women drivers and couriers.
"Eventually, once we see the results and how well it works, we can also look at alternatives for male drivers," Mutuwa said.
Zoie Health co-founder Thato Schermer said she was excited to be working with the platform on this initiative.
"Alongside their work as drivers and couriers, they also take care of loved ones; with this benefit, we hope not only to help keep them safer in their daily lives, but also to give them healthcare that saves them time and money," she said.
Key challenges facing women drivers
The biggest challenge facing women drivers on the Uber platform is safety, which Mutuwa said was a high ranking barrier for women on the platform.
"This is why we designed a product, called 'woman rider preferred', so that women drivers who prefer to operate at night can ask to only transport female riders," Mutuwa said.
"It's something that we're also thinking about introducing for riders, where they can also opt to only request for a woman driver, but this functionality doesn't exist on the platform yet."
Other key challenges for women drivers on the platform include issues associated with earning and operating in a male-dominated environment, Mutuwa said.
She added:
"We need to be intentional about it, and that's what we are trying to do with some of the initiatives that we've targeted towards women specifically," Mutuwa said.
Women Uber drivers make up 10% of its base, while women couriers make up 27% of total couriers on the platform, a number that Uber SA is hoping to grows significantly over the next few years.
