MANILA, Philippines – Grab drivers are going the extra mile and may soon save lives in road accidents and help bust crime.

The ride-hailing company launched its Safer Everyday Tech Roadmap on Monday, October 22, which features various programs, including a commitment to train drivers to be part of a pool of first responders.

Drivers will be fully equipped with first aid kits and safety training guides.

Grab also entered into a collaboration with the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) for crime and accident prevention.

Grab, together with the PDEA and the LTFRB, will synchronize efforts to prevent the delivery of packages containing illegal drugs.

The partnership also aims to identify and report timely intelligence information for anti-drug operations as well as keep the ride-hailing service drug-free.

Grab will also conduct road safety, anti-carnapping, and other anti-criminal seminars and training with the PNP-HPG.

“Safety in the TNVS (transport network vehicle service) industry should be a collaborative effort between transport network companies, government agencies, driver-partners, and passengers. Our passengers and driver-partners deserve a safer ride-sharing industry,” said Grab Philippines country head Brian Cu.

Analytics for safety

The roadmap also features enhancements on Grab’s driver platform, which tracks driver fatigue for them to “learn their driving patterns” and “identify how to drive more safely.”

The driver fatigue monitoring system gives drivers reports on their patterns, such as in speeding, acceleration, and braking.

The firm said there has been a 50% reduction in speeding incidents and a 20% reduction in hard braking and sudden acceleration since it rolled out the feature.

“Our goal is to bring to zero the number of incidents that are completely preventable, and as far as possible, reduce the number of road accidents. Key to achieving our goal is to make it easy for users to make an actual change to their road behavior habits,” said Grab co-founder Tan Hooi Ling.

Grab said its roadmap is aligned with the Department of Transportation’s vision to reduce the road accident death rate by at least 20% by 2020. – Rappler.com