Opinion
Riding On Uber Chap Chap Is Death In Waiting
There is no escaping the fact that the Suzuki Alto which is the car used for the ride-hailing service Uber ChapChap comes up short for safety. Pictures of the folded up car that often emerge on social media after accidents look horrifying to say the least. The tiny car is the budget option for Uber users because of its low fuel consumption.
According to Euro NCAP the Suzuki Alto has not achieved the standard safety requirements. This has been proven true over the year with passengers and drivers involved in accidents in the car ending up never making it. the Suzuki Alto 800 achieved a zero-star rating for its adult occupant protection. The vehicle structure was rated as unstable, increasing the risk of life-threatening injuries and making the car unsuitable for the fitment of airbags.
The ‘Dudus’ were not able to meet the UN’s minimum safety requirements in the 56km/h crash test.
The Suzuki Alto should be removed from our roads, the dudus are literally death sentences, the possibilities of survival in case of an accident are minimal to none. (ajali haina kinga). Late 2018 Kenyan taxi drivers took to the streets to demonstrate against Uber’s move to introduce the Suzuki Alto on the roads “to manipulate the pricing”. This led to even lower prices meaning more trips for those drivers in order to make good money which has led to fatigue-related deaths
“They are unsafe. They should not be on our roads. And the drivers using them work literally 24/7 yet they go home with nothing. They make nothing,”Derrick Mbugua of the Liberation Movement had said.
To make money drivers of Uber’s budget service, Chap Chap, were once accused defrauding unsuspecting customers by charging them the more expensive UberX rates, after an investigation by the Business Daily. The drivers were found to have been fraudulently altering their classification in the Uber system from Chap Chap to UberX service, duping unsuspecting customers who request for rides unaware that they will be served by the budget category but end up paying a premium rate.
Chap Chap:
"In the 64km/h NCAP test, the Suzuki-Maruti Alto 800 achieved a zero-star rating for its adult occupant protection. The vehicle structure was rated as unstable, increasing the risk of life-threatening injuries & making the car unsuitable for the fitment of airbags." https://t.co/TZtNIW2iwY
— Sura Mbaya (@surambaya) September 17, 2019
Last month the cab hailing company announced a hike in fares for UberX and Uber chapchap
Uber and Suzuki Motor partnered together to make Uber chapchap which would make ride-hailing services in Africa faster and cheaper. The services were introduced in Nairobi on January 17, 2018
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