After being driven by a drunk driver and reporting it, James Baloyi was shocked to see the driver still working so he created an app for South Africans to report bad ride-hailing drivers.
South Africa (16 November 2020) – James Baloyi is a software and app developer by trade so when he was faced with a life-threatening situation using a popular ride-hailing app, he put his experience to the test!
In September of 2020, James had an incident with a ride-hailing driver. The vehicle was a mess and it reeked of alcohol, as soon as the ride was over he gave the driver a 1-star rating and wrote a complaint. A while later the same driver dropped off one of the residents at his complex, nothing had been done to take the dangerous driver off the road.
“I knew from that moment that something had to be done, the government is basically powerless and ride-hailing companies can be a little slow when dealing with such incidents.
I set about building an app to basically put the power in the hands of the user, give the user the choice to decide if they want to take a ride with an angry, chatty, drunk or just downright rude driver. DCheck was born, it presents users with a simple interface. As soon as you open the app, a search bar is at the centre, no login screen, no on-boarding and no registration. Just as your driver accepts your ride request, fill in his number plate on DCheck to see if there have been any reports against him. The app displays all current reports in a simple timeline-like list, allowing the user to read as many as they please. It’s then up to the user to decide if they want to cancel or not.”
In South Africa, where often there are reports in the media of drivers behaving dangerously, this app is a breath of fresh air for the ride-hailing user.
“If [the app user] decide to continue with the ride, DCheck has an out-of-the-way, but easy to reach panic button, just as easy to configure. Add two contacts and the moment you press it, they get the vehicle’s number plate, as well as your live location. They don’t need to install the app to track you live – we’ve put that bit on the web, to speed things up.”
James knows that silly season is around the corner and the roads tend to get more dangerous as the days tick by. For this, he hopes that South Africans will make use of his app to make sure the roads are kept clear of dangerous ride-hailing drivers.
“It’s the festive season and that means more and more people will be using ride-hailing apps, but that also means more and more drivers will be consuming slightly more alcohol. Combine that with the stress of busy shopping days, it might result in some combustion. Since DCheck launched earlier this month, we’ve had hundreds of people install the app and a chunk of them use it daily for their home to work commute. We think it would be great if we could expand our reach with your help, help us save lives and make ride-hailing safe again.”
Currently, the app is only available to Andriod users but James is working on getting it to more app stores shortly. The app is also free so it won’t cost you anything to stay safe! You can find out more here.
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