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.
A continuous ‘Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign’ will include promotional events and activities to encourage responsible drinking habits by passengers and discourage drunk driving by partner drivers. This includes in app notifications, regular training, out of home marketing campaigns and many advertisements.
The safety forum, which is a first step in the campaign, took place on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at the Alisa Hotel in Accra and covered topics such as recognizing 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 over 150 participants which cut across Yango’s partners, partner drivers, passengers and authorities from many safety organizations across the country.
As part of the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign’, Yango and Guinness organized 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.
The campaign will also include promotional events and activities to encourage responsible drinking habits by passengers and discourage drunk driving by partner drivers. This includes in app notifications, regular training, out of home marketing campaigns and many advertisements. Yango and Guinness are working together to create a safe and welcoming environment for all members of the community
“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 wellbeing 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,” said Ofonime Tom, Country Manager of Yango Ghana.
The Safety Forum also featured a panel discussion which had experts from the health and safety industry to 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 Kwakuyi, 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.
Lynessa Darko, Sustainability and Responsibility Manager at Guinness Ghana PLC expressed optimism about the campaign and safety training while encouraging more ride-hailing companies to follow the footsteps of Yango in ensuring the safety and wellbeing 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.”
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 for drivers to be able to skip orders to the alert zones, display of passenger profile picture, rating form to evaluate riders and in-app calls to support.
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 form to evaluate trips, display of driver rating, safety center (this houses the share route, ambulance and police, trusted contacts and emergency situation buttons), SOS button, support team which acts promptly, drivers document checks among others.
This move is in line with Yango’s launch of the ‘Safety Talk Series’ last month which saw the company visit and educate students, faculty members and the general public at the University of Ghana during their SRC week celebrations. Yango and Guinness are working together to create a safe and welcoming environment for all members of the community.
