Bookmycab.com launches safety feature called 'SOS Button'

MUMBAI - Bookmycab.com announced that they have introduced the 'SOS' button on their mobile app. This unique feature has been introduced in accordance to the guidelines issue by the State Transport Authority (STA) for enhancing the safety of passengers.

The STA had issued various guidelines in December 2014 to be implemented by licensed fleet taxi operators as well as app-based taxi aggregators. The STA also declared that they do not recognize operator or aggregators operating without license. The STA had issued these guidelines after a meeting of all the operators and aggregators to enhance safety of the passengers availing these services.

Bookmycab.com has introduced the 'SOS' button on their latest version of the app. SOS is the international Morse code distress signal and a short form for 'Save Our Souls'. The passenger can register upto 3 mobile numbers and email IDs where a message will automatically be sent if he/she is in trouble.

Bookmycab.com is the only licensed call taxi aggregator who has added more safety features proactively. These include alerting the police by automatically placing a phone call to the number '100' which is the police helpline and also alerting the bookmycab.com control room. The control room will pull out all the details of the taxi used by the passenger on real-time basis. This information is also shared with all the 3 registered mobile numbers via SMS and email.

A sample SMS is: "SOS! Your friend Mr. Rakesh, +91 9000000000 travelling with bookmycab is in need of your help. Taxi Number MH-00-XX-1234, Driver Mr. Suresh, +91 8000000000. His last location was at Domestic Airport today at 05:08 pm".

Bookmycab.com has also ensured that the SMS without location can be sent if the person is in an area where no data/GPS facility is available. In that case a simple SMS will be send to the 3 mobile users and the bookmycab.com control room with the last known location.

On the introduction of this unique feature, Mr. Avinash Gupta, Founder and CEO of Bookmycab.com, said, "We are the only licensed aggregators to operate as call taxi for black and yellow (Kaali-Peeli) and cool cabs. We have always kept passenger safety in mind and not just implemented the directives of the state transport authorities but also added several other innovative features. These include auto dialling to police helpline and alerting our control centre. We are also working on installing the SOS or Physical Panic button in our cabs. This will be in addition to the existing SOS button that we have introduced in our app."

sourced:traveldailynews.asia