Careem to bring more women drivers to workforce
Ride-hailing service, Careem Pakistan, after introducing ‘Female captains’ initiative last year, has now expanded the network of its females captains to drive around the city.
Careem Pakistan has recently launched its new initiative program #HerJourney which aims to encourage women empowerment by female drivers to break the stereotypes in a male-dominated profession.
Careem Pakistan is dedicated to paving the way for women drivers while removing the gap between the genders. The project #HerJourney aims to over new avenues for females across Pakistan.
Fouzia Farrukh is one of the Careem’s first female captains, just secured her loan, allowing her to take ownership of her vehicle.
Fouzia has been a Careem Captain for more than two months and is now the proud owner of a car, provided by Careem and JS Bank.
“Work is not easy, especially as a mother with young children”, says Fouzia, “However, Careem allows me to work hours that suit me and has helped increase my household income”.
Fouzia is on the path of empowerment and is excited to welcome more women to the small but growing cohort of women Captains at Careem.
Managing Director Careem Pakistan Junaid Iqbal while addressing the media on Wednesday said when they first launched the service they thought that women would not use it often due to safety concerns.
To address this issue they provided they completed background checks on their drivers and provided details to the user.
“Around 70% of our users are female so we planned on launching an initiative ‘for women by women’ but that’s impossible as we would need around 20,000 to 30,000 female drivers available at all times to cater to the female users,” he said.
“So why not have women drive men around too, it should be an ordinary thing to see a woman drive. That is our main objective,” Iqbal reiterated.
Careem’s goal is to have more than one thousand women captains on board by December, so much so that a women captain becomes as integrated into the labor as their male counterparts.