if the situation was reversed, there'd be a nationwide angry call for all drivers to be screened, mentally checked, keyboard warriors would call for ban and boycott of grab, ministers would come out and condemn, taxi drivers will again call for ban, SPAD will claim new measures will be taken to improve rider's safety bla bla bla...

i think what is most upsetting to drivers is that current 'law' and rules are one-sided. everyone from public, authority, ministry and Grab themselves are more concerned about Riders' safety.
no one talked about implementing anything for Driver's safety AND still no one is talking about it.

and this doesn't only applies to e-hailing drivers. i've had a female taxi driver (NO OFFENCE, she's not pretty at all, mother of 3 and easily weighs 80kg) in my car before and she told she's been sexually harassed by passengers before. so much so she actually kept a knife in the car and she now refused to allow passenger to sit in front.

there needs to be a fair line between rider's and driver's safety. each driver is thoroughly registered. SOS button. send ride details to family/friends etc. many system in place to make them feel safe.

but nothing for driver. we don't know anything about the person we're picking up! most time, we can't even tell if its a male or female. ma pren or bangla!

Its a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation isn't it?

regardless rider or driver who robbed/rape/kill another, the victim, is the victim whatever punishment the culprit gets. a person raped or killed will never ever get the justice he/she deserved.

but then again, you are missing a critical point. what we're saying is, as a rider, you have all the means to track the driver who committed crime. rider knows this, driver also knows this. What we're all saying is, no person with sane mind will actually plan a crime knowing his/her track are well recorded and easily traceable. When a person commits a crime, he/she will definitely wish to get away with it. As a e-hailing driver, we all know we CAN'T get away with it simply becos within a few minutes, Grab is able to pull down your data which include IC photo, address, IC number, phone number, Car plate, Car type etc etc. Within next hour or so, police will be at your door front knocking.

knowing this as a fact, drivers will not have the balls to actually commit any crimes or any hanky-panky stuff. most drivers even afraid of getting banned for driving for few days! let alone commit a crime!

if u book a grabcar (not grabshare), the grab car comes with 2 person inside. will u as a rider still get in the car? i believe after what happened to the poor pregnant lady who suffered miscarriage last year after being robbed by an idiotic uber driver who was carrying another person, you wouldn't get in the car too. you will maybe call grab CS and file a report and at the very least, cancel the ride. what u got to lose right? just book another ride lur..

BUT....for a driver. u got a ping in some housing area...u waited for your rider to show...he showed up, a 6.5ft 200lb tall ma pren...while he's getting in, 3 more of his friends jump in back seat. Can driver say no? and cancel the ride? it'll be a little racist to cancel for no reason. grabcar clearly says its for 1-4 passenger. rider didn't do anything wrong upto that point. so how?

as a rider, you can monitor driver's route, which way he/she taking. whether its the right direction. u can double check with ur waze on your own phone if driver is taking the correct way. the minute u notice driver is purposely driving wrong way, u can hit the SOS button, call ur friends, call police whatever.

as a driver, we can see where we're going, but not 100% of the time. some times, the destination says some taman name, or street name. we can't be familiar with all roads and taman. say i'm from cheras, get a ping to go somewhere in Klang. fare is RM60 of course u accept la. on the way there, towards destination, u suddenly notice the road getting narrower and narrower, the destination ur heading getting more and more remote. again, driver's can't just stopped the car and tell the rider to get off becos we feel worried.

at the destination, rider might alight and leave us with RM5 tips and say thank u.

or at destination, 3-4 more guys there waiting to rob us

what we're asking for is not exactly a fool-proof mechanism to protect driver. but at least something must be there. (currently there's none)

as riders, you understand you're getting into a stranger's car. you're taking a calculated risk while paying min fare enjoying a personalized ride.
we as driver, also understand the risk of accepting a complete stranger (sometimes upto 4 strangers at a time) into our own cars, we take the risk while earning min wages.
its a mutual business transaction, so be fair to both. that's all we're asking.