Business & Money | Tuesday 11 December, 2018 4:00 am |

Careem, the region’s leading technology platform for the Greater Middle East, held the first edition of its Captain’s Excellence Award Ceremony in Riyadh on Saturday. The event which will be held annually, was the first of its kind in the region and welcomed over 300 top-performing Captains across KSA. 

 

The captains were awarded based on different criterias such as: captains with the highest number of trips, highest (customer given) ratings and longest serving Captains. Rewards were also handed out to captain ambassadors, i.e. those with the highest number of referrals and captains that were given a special shoutout on social media by customers for their dedication to their service. Several rewards were handed out with the grand prize including a brand new car up for grabs. 

 

Abdulla Elyas, Chief People Officer and Co-Founder of Careem, opened the event with an ode to the captains in attendance, thanking them for their service and commitment in driving impact through meaningful initiative across the kingdom. Some of these initiatives included the vaccination campaign in collaboration with the MOH, which helped more than 100,000 men, women and children across 17 cities get vaccinated in their own homes. Careem also collaborated with BUPA Arabia during Ramadan of 2018 to donate clothes from customers to people in need in KSA, where over 180,000 donations were collected. 

 

Abdulla Elyas also announced Careem’s partnership with Alwaleed Philanthropies (AP) delivering the first instalment of cars for the empowerment of people with special needs. AP, chaired by HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz AlSaud, delivered the first instalment of vehicles in partnership with The Physically Disabled Adults Association (Harakia), Careem, and Aljazirah Vehicles Agencies, where the Foundation will provide a number of cars over the course of 7 years for the disability beneficiaries of women and men after being trained by the mentioned authorities.

 

“Our Captains are the lifeblood of our business and we wanted to celebrate these men and women for helping us achieve our mission of simplifying and improving the lives of people in the Kingdom,” Abdulla Elyas said at the sidelines of the event. 

 

“We are proud to have 395,000+ Captainahs and Captains registered with us to date in KSA, providing over 122 million rides. This ceremony is our small way to thank them for their service and reward them for the hard work they put in every day so that people have a safe way to get around. Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today” 

 

Eng. Muaaed Al Saeed said: “We are excited to have you all, you have overcome each obstacle you were faced with in a short span of time and for that we are extremely proud. 

Today Careem celebrates the elite Captain who have proven their abilities so congratulation to everyone here.

 

He added: “In this occasion I convey the regards of HE Dr. Rameh Al Rameh, President of Transport Authority. The participation of myself and Mr. Majed Al Zahrani, General Manager of Transport Authority is a prove of our support to all of you Captains".

 

Careem has been operational in the kingdom for more than five years and in 2018 alone we have committed upwards of $2million towards Safety and Security initiatives which includes improved technologies, screenings, real-time driving behavior tracking and in-ride insurance.

 

Earlier this year, it also introduced new in-app features to improve captain’s experience and earning potential. Some of these features included a destination filter which allows captain’s to only accept rides which fall on their route home and in-ride dispatching, allowing them to accept a new booking while ending an ongoing one, as to optimise their earning potential. 

 

Careem is currently one of the largest employers in the kingdom. Spanning 15 countries, in 120 cities, it is recognised as one of the top 50 companies in the world by Bloomberg.