Careem appeals to provincial govts to embrace ‘ride hailing’ concept

Managing Director (MD) Careem Pakistan, Junaid Iqbal in a statement issued on social media on Tuesday evening, appealed to the governments of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa along with the respective chief ministers, to embrace the concept of ride-hailing as it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and pave the way for more ‘hailing’ industries.

Read: Action against Uber, Careem 

Linking unemployment as the root of all problems he argued that if there are jobs there will be education and in the end will eliminate resentment and even terrorism. He said through Careem they hope to create 100,000 jobs by the end of 2018.

He explained that Careem is a platform that connects a ride provider and a ride hailer together through its Application, going on to highlight that since the concept and technology is new, globally new regulations are being legislated for it.

Giving examples of India where guidelines are under review and Malaysia which has recently introduced new laws and even Saudi Arabia where all private cars have been declared public and Saudi nationals are allowed to partake in providing transport services.

Giving an example of Europe where a track based transport system has existed for decades,

He argued that in Pakistan specifically Karachi if the government wants to create highways or railway infrastructure it will require acquiring land rights, moving large populations, disrupting traffic during construction phases; whereas ride-hailing can play an important role in reducing the traffic burden on our streets.

To explain the concept of the online platform that Careem is providing, Iqbal cited examples of various online accommodation booking and ride-hailing entities, arguing that none of them owned a square inch or property or a single vehicle nor employed any of those working to provide the solutions.

The government says that Careem needs to register as a car rental service and hence will be governed by all the relevant applicable laws. He went on to argue that Careem was only a platform bringing the ride hailer and the ride provider together if tomorrow Careem launches a doctors on demand service will the government want Careem to register as a hospital, he asked.

He stressed that in order to accommodate such entities, legislation needs to be made.

In order to enable such services, the underlying service providers should and will have to comply with the required laws which Careem was happy to play a part in making possible.

Giving an example of Egypt where Careem has a large setup, Iqbal said the government created ride-hailing friendly laws and went on to say that the government asked to include existing taxi services under their umbrella to make monitoring of vehicles.