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An international ride-hailing service, Yango, a part of a global tech company, Yango Group, has partnered with Guinness Ghana PLC to launch a new safety initiative aimed at preventing drunk driving accidents, promoting safe mobility and ensuring both drivers and passengers are safe at all times.
The continuous “Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign” will include promotional events and activities to encourage responsible drinking habits by passengers and discourage drunk driving.
This includes in-app notifications, regular training, out-of-home marketing campaigns and many advertisements.
The safety forum, which is the first step in the campaign, took place on Wednesday in Accra and covered topics such as recognising signs of impairment, strategies for preventing drunk driving and how to use alternative transportation options such as ride-hailing services like Yango.
The training was provided by certified instructors and was available to all Yango partner drivers and passengers free of charge. This was attended by more than 150 participants, which cut across Yango’s partners, partner drivers, passengers and authorities from many safety organisations across the country.
As part of the “Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign”, Yango and Guinness organised a safety training to raise awareness about the dangers of driving under the influence, as well as highlight the many safety features Yango has provided for both partner drivers and passengers.
“We are committed to promoting responsible road practices and ensuring the safety of passengers and partner drivers. By partnering with Guinness Ghana PLC, we hope to raise awareness about the dangers of drunk driving and provide the community with the knowledge and tools they need to make safe and responsible choices.
We are excited to contribute our quota in ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone in the country. Safety is a fundamental need and plays a key role in our vision to create income-generating opportunities for partner drivers while providing affordable and convenient transportation for passengers,” Ofonime Tom, Country Manager of Yango Ghana, said at the event.
The Safety Forum also featured a panel discussion which had experts from the health and safety industry speak on road ethics, crime, safety techniques and measures to ensure the safety and security of both the partner drivers and passengers. The panel consisted of Eric Komla Kwakuy, Regional Safety & Security Officer at Yango; Lynessa Darko, Sustainability and Responsibility Manager at Guinness Ghana PLC; and Damoah Emmanuel Nyarkoh, Director of Safety Campaign Ghana.
Ms Darko expressed optimism about the campaign and safety training while encouraging more ride-hailing companies to follow in the footsteps of Yango in ensuring the safety and well-being of their key stakeholders.
“Safeguarding our community is very important in national development. Ensuring that as brands and companies, we play our roles in providing adequate safety education and awareness to help drivers and passengers stay alert on the roads while knowing the dangers of drunk driving is the first step to achieving a safe and sound environment viable for economic growth,” she said.
The beneficiary partner drivers received certificates of participation to confirm that they have successfully gone through the safety training and are fully aware of the many safety features provided by Yango for partner drivers, such as display of passenger ratings, identity photo checks in special cases, display of alert zones and non-penalty configuration, display of passenger profile picture, rating form to evaluate riders, as well as in-app calls, for them to be able to skip orders to the alert zones.
The passengers who attended the training also expressed their gratitude to Yango and Guinness for putting together this initiative and pledged to use the knowledge acquired to ensure their safety and the safety of other road users.
Some of the safety features available to passengers include rating forms to evaluate trips, a display of driver ratings, a safety centre (this houses the shared route, ambulance and police, trusted contacts and emergency buttons), an SOS button, a support team which acts promptly and driver’s document checks, among others.
