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28 March 2024

Do this and get 25% off your Dubai cab fare; skip it and get offloaded…

Published
By Shuchita Kapur

Don't be surprised the next time the driver of your private chauffeured cab in Dubai refuses to ferry you.

If you fail to buckle up, that is.

Chauffeur cab booking service Careem says it has empowered its captains to refuse passengers who choose not to buckle-up.

In short, if you refuse to buckle up, the company will choose not to provide an unsafe trip.

“Though this might sound drastic, we hope our passengers will value their safety as much as we do and hope that our community will welcome this bold move,” says said Christian Eid, General Manager of Careem UAE.

The company is asking all of their customers to formally pledge to buckling-up and become advocates for road safety. In return, it has committed to rewarding all pledgers with 25 per cent discount on their next five rides.

Several campaigns in the UAE have previously highlighted the importance of buckling up in the back as well as installing child seats in order to reduce the risks of fatal injury.

Even as a rear-seats’ seat-belt law has not yet been implemented in the country, it is the safest thing to do while travelling.

Dubai Police has previously said that they found that the risk for children sitting in the back seat doubled because they rarely buckle up, with their parents believing that sitting in the rear would automatically protect them in case of an accident.

“According to World Health Organisation (WHO), car accidents are the second biggest contributor to fatalities in the UAE, and continue to grow every year,” says Thomas Edelmann, Founder and Managing Director at RoadSafetyUAE.

“Based on a survey we have conducted internally last month amongst chauffer driven cabs, only 57 per cent always wore their seat belts while sitting in the back seat,” he added.

“For Careem to choose to be an advocate for educating its passengers on the importance of buckling-up is something we aspire all companies to do. We hope this campaign will not only raise awareness but will save lives as well,” Edelmann concluded.