Ola launches in London with market-leading safety features and driver support

  • Ola’s services went live at midnight across London
  • Leading the way on safety and quality with market-leading features and partnerships
  • Over 25,000 drivers registered in London

London, 10 February 2020: Ola, one of the world’s largest ride-hailing platforms, is now live in London. The platform is fully operational with three categories: Comfort, Comfort XL and Exec ride classes. Ola has over 25,000 drivers registered on the platform, bringing scale to its London offering immediately. The company will maintain its differentiated focus on drivers, safety and a collaborative approach with local authorities and regulators.

Today, Ola is also pleased to announce three partnerships with established leaders in their respective fields to raise driver standards across the market. Ola has teamed up with DriveTech (Part of the AA), Mercer and Pearson in groundbreaking initiatives to ensure that Ola riders in London will benefit from the highest standard of driving skills, and driver customer service and communication.

Ola will partner with DriveTech (part of the AA) to use their driving risk assessment to improve the level of driving skills and knowledge of all drivers on Ola in London. Each driver has completed a risk assessment and is given complimentary E-Learning modules to further accelerate their professional development. On completing these modules they will receive a DriveTech Permit to Drive, attesting to their skills.

In addition, every Ola driver in London has passed the Versant spoken English test, from education experts Pearson plc, ensuring a high level of communication in English.

They have also successfully completed Ola’s Customer Service Test, developed with global selection experts Mercer, ensuring they have the skills and mindset to deliver a great experience to their passengers.

London drivers joining the platform will benefit from six weeks of zero commission and market-leading commission rates thereafter, so they can keep more of their earnings. Ola’s commission commitment ensures drivers always receive the best commission rate in each market.

Ola will continue its collaborative approach with Transport for London and local authorities, as well as its clear focus on safety, drawing on industry-leading and global best practices.

Ola is raising the standards of safety in the UK ride-hailing industry and bringing global best practice to the market. In a number of pioneering moves for the UK, Ola is launching its flagship global safety feature, ‘Guardian’, which uses AI and machine learning to automatically detect irregular vehicle activity, a ‘Start Code’ feature to ensure customers and drivers are correctly matched, 24/7 voice support for riders and drivers, and a cap of six penalty points for drivers on its platform.

Simon Smith, Head of Ola International said: “We are thrilled to now be live in London. This is a major milestone for our business and represents the next step in our ambitions to connect people in cities throughout the country. We are proud of the progress Ola has made in the UK and we look forward to building on our success by offering a differentiated service to Londoners, focused on quality, safety and reliability.”

To celebrate the launch, Ola’s passengers will benefit from up to £25 worth of ride vouchers for signing up in the first week after launch.

 

About Ola:
Ola is India’s largest mobility platform and one of the world’s largest ride-hailing companies, serving 250+ cities across India, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Ola was pleased to launch in the UK in August 2018 with operations in Cardiff, expanding to towns and cities across the UK, covering a total of 27 local authorities. The Ola app offers mobility solutions by connecting customers to drivers and a wide range of vehicles across various forms of transport, enabling convenience and transparency for hundreds of millions of consumers and over 2 million driver-partners.

Ola is recognised for its collaborative approach, working with national governments and local authorities, to help solve transport issues. Ola’s service is available in 250+ cities around the world, in India, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In Australia and New Zealand, Ola has passed all regulatory audits so far, adhering to safety standards that are similar to those of TfL.

Ola has expanded rapidly across the UK since its launch last year, operating across 27 local authorities. Cities including Birmingham, Coventry and Warwick have seen more than double-digit growth in rides in the last quarter. To date, Ola has provided around 3 million rides with over 11,000 drivers operating on the platform outside London.

Ola is committed to leading the industry with its approach to passenger safety including 24/7 voice support, options to share ride details with emergency contacts and in-app emergency features. Ola is on a mission to build mobility for a billion people and beyond!

Ola was founded in 2011 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati with a mission to build mobility for a billion people. For more details, visit www.olacabs.com/media.

 

Contact
Murali Sashidharan | +91 9901991060
Amogh Yenagi  | +91 9113649626
media@olacabs.com