PickMe driver returns Rs. 2 m to passenger

Tuk driver Sathish Kumar who handed over 2 million in the center with the CEO of PickMe Jiffry Zulfer(Right) & Head of Operations of PickMe Fathhi Mohamed (Left)

Brands are all about performance and trust and, ‘PickMe’, Sri Lanka’s own mobile taxi hailing solutions provider is a great example of this adage. Whilst the main focus of this technology driven company seems to be in the direction of driving an efficient service through an innovative app, there is also a great human element attached to it.

This new startup’s journal now records a string of accolades from their customers who have given high praise not only to their service but also the honesty of their drivers.

PickMe CEO Jiffry Zulfer says, “The most recent was an incident when a customer accidentally left a parcel on the taxi seat. The driver seeing this had examined the parcel and finding a large amount of cash had promptly returned it to the customer.  The customer came to our office personally to commend the driver.”

PickMe’s high standards of integrity could largely be attributed to the stringent background checks maintained by the company as well as the training in service and ethics given to their driver recruits.

However, the CEO says that here are no absolute guarantees as to the best behaviour of drivers as there might be an exception to the rule, which is beyond their control. “But the most important thing is we have proper systems in place and this system supports good behaviour.  The traceability and trackability at all points is the hallmark of our technology and this goes a long way towards supporting both the customer and the driver. We also take customer complaints very seriously and take immediate action on any negative feedback.”  

A good example of the safety factor is the ‘ETA Sharing’ option on the PickMe app, where a passenger can share their trip with someone they trust until they arrive at their destination.  

“Likewise, our control centre can track the drivers at all points, which is yet another safety measure installed for the driver as well as the passengers. This not only aids in creating extra security, but also encourages trustworthiness and accountability.”

Highlighting this further, he gives another example where a customer had accidentally left her home keys behind in one of their minicabs one morning. “She had been contacted by the driver in the evening, because that’s when he had discovered the key and the customer had not even realised she had misplaced it when he called. In this case she panicked and called the Centre who immediately contacted the driver and asked him to come to a convenient spot to hand over the set of keys to the customer. The customer was naturally worried since several hours had elapsed before the loss was discovered but all was safe and she was happy in the end.”

According to the Risk Management team at PickMe, the instances where valuables had been handed back to customers intact have been numerous. Some of the recent incidents include the returning of a wallet with Rs. 45,000 cash in it to a Maldivian passenger by one of their tuktuk drivers Priyanka Kotigala. The notified passenger who had come to the company head office to pick up the wallet had confirmed that there had been some important documents as well as a number of credit cards in it and greatly commended the driver and the taxi service. He has also gone on social media reporting the incident.