Careem has officially announced surpassing one million captains on their platform.
The Dubai-based ride-hailing app and only tech unicorn with presence in more than 100 cities across 14 countries is now one of the biggest tech job creators in the region.
The company set a target to have one million Captains and Captainahs on its platform by 2018 and today they announced they achieved this target one quarter early. The company, earlier this year, highlighted that it is creating between 60,000 and 70,000 jobs per month across its regional footprint.
“We are humbled about achieving our target of creating one million jobs in the region,” Mudassir Sheikha, CEO & Cofounder of Careem said.
“We started Careem with a mission to simplify and improve the lives of people. Whilst we wanted to solve local problems with reliable transportation and help people get from A to B, we also wanted to address the high rate of unemployment. We truly believe that our region has untapped potential and resources, and our expansion to 100+ cities in under six years is testament to that. So four years ago, we set ourselves a target of creating one million jobs and here we are.”
Careem’s strategy when hiring Captains is to invest in their long term well-being. This means training them on their day to day services as well as beyond the car. To ensure this is successful, the company has created a special Captain Experience team dedicated to understanding the needs of Captains across the network.
Johan Persson, VP of Captain Experience, said, “We have Captain operation centres in all our major cities which serves as a hub for Captain trainings, problem solving and feedback and dedicated 24/7 protection through our all centers – no other ride-hailing company in the region does that! Our aim is to simplify and improve the lives of people, especially our Captains and so we try to provide them with trainings and programs (based on their feedback) that will enrich their lives.”
In the UAE, Careem has launched a micropreneurship initiative with BCG consulting where Careem Captains learn about time management, financial planning and people management skills and the importance of for overall well-being. This allows Captains to not only become micropreneurs but also gives them an opportunity move to corporate jobs within the organization. Caeem has also introduced a new “Taskforce program” with the help of some of their top ranked and longest serving Captains in a bid to increase the quality of rides regionally. Selected Captains in the force will be tasked with carrying out routine and random checks on their fellow Captains and providing them with feedback and mentoring on how they can improve.
As part of its commitment to safety and security, Careem also provides its Captains with health insurance schemes and in-ride insurance.
“In the past six years, our Captains have taken passengers on more than 310 million trips with a total driven distance of over 6.6 billion kilometres – that’s the equivalent of to the moon and back almost 9000 times which is an integral value of ours here at Careem – going above and beyond for our Captains so that they take care of our 24 million users across our 14 countries and provide them with the best possible service,” Mudassir Sheikha continued. “We are thankful to our Captains for bringing our mission to life everyday and are excited to open up more job opportunities as far and wide as we can in this region we call home.”
The company looks forward to their next target of welcoming 20,000 Captainahs on their platform by 2020.
Captain Faisal Saleh from Hail in Saudi Arabia was the one millionth person to sign up to Careem.
