Introduction
Careem is a Dubai-based company offering transportation services. Founded in 2012, it has become popular in forty-seven cities in the Middle East as well as North and South Africa (11 countries in general) with an ambition to outperform the well-known Uber (Russell). Just like Uber, the foundation of Careem’s operation is a smartphone application for booking private cars. At the same time, there is an option for ordering a car online via Careem’s website. The whole system is developed in a way to maximize the satisfaction of peculiar customers’ needs, including different classes of available autos (from economy to first-class), payment options (cash or credit card), planning trips in advance (including distance and selecting a driver), specifications of a car, such as its size and passenger capacity (“Our Values”).
Careem Drivers
In addition to selecting different journey options, Careem guarantees that its captains are the most experienced drivers so that the quality of the provided services is exceptional. Therefore, reviewing the process of becoming a Careem driver and joining the young, ambitious team is an issue of special interest to find out whether the abovementioned statement is true. As for now, there are more than 90,000 drivers in the Careem network.
The specificity of the service is that the company does employ female drivers regardless of the conservative Muslim postulates. It has launched a woman employment initiative across all regions of the company’s operation. That said, as for now, female drivers make up around 22 percent of all captains working for Careem (Sattar and Bukhari).
Becoming a captain for Careem is not a time-consuming and complicated procedure. To join the team, several steps are determined. Filling in the application form is the first one. During this stage, some general information is requested, including name, city, telephone number, and such details as owning a car and having a driver’s license. This phase is associated with uploading appropriate documents, such as identity card, driver license, candidate’s photo, current address, IBAN, and car specifications if an individual has one (vehicle registration and car insurance). The second stage is reviewing applications and inviting appropriate candidates for training sessions.
During the third step, training sessions, all candidates are trained and their driver skills are tested. They are informed about policy requirements and service provision specificities. Moreover, they are obliged to pass a captain’s test. Once the procedure is over, an individual can become a captain (“Become a Careem Captain”; “How to Join Uber”). At the same time, it is essential to note that there are different options for employment (part-time and full-time driving) as well as the ability to select working hours.
All of the abovementioned information (name, telephone number, national identity card, registration address, driver license, and driving experience, testing results, etc.) is available to the Careem human resource department. Nevertheless, when it comes to passenger access to these details, all they know is the captain’s ID and telephone number for contacting them in case of necessity. Therefore, they do not have all information they may be interested in because of the message promoted by Careem management – high-quality services due to captains’ experience. It means that only the best professionals are selected so that the clients do not have to worry about drivers’ experience.
Careem’s Development: Current Trends and Forecasts
Even though Careem does not publish its annual reports, it is still possible to speculate on the company’s current development based on senior management’s statements and press releases. As for now, it is valued for $62.5 billion that is a significant success for a young company (MacBride). It is beating Uber in most of the cities of its operations-basically due to its foundation in the United Arab Emirates (regional and mental proximity) as well as the high quality of the provided transportation services.
Also, the company is constantly investing in different countries across the Middle East region as well as North and South Africa with the purpose of the further development of its network. More than that, it is essential to point to the fact that the number of both registered captains and users of Careem services is continuously increasing. For instance, in 2014, there were 40,000 captains. As for 2017, there are 90,000 drivers. It means that this figure has more than doubled over two years.
On the other hand, in 2017, there are more than 4 million registered users, while there were 2 million users in 2012 (King; Sattar and Bukhari). That said, the increase is nearly the same. Finally, the region of the company’s operation expanded from sixteen cities in 2012 to forty-seven in 2017 (King; Russell). To sum up, based on the figures mentioned above, it is evident that Careem will continue its growth and expansion. As for now, it has a plan of selling shares to the public (initial public offering) in 2019 that will make it even more influential and help increase its market share without allocating additional funds that point to its financial power and health (“Company Overview of Careem”).
Works Cited
“Become a Careem Captain.” Careem, 2017. Web.
“Company Overview of Careem Network FZ LLC.” Bloomberg. 2017. Web.
“How to Join Uber and Careem.” More. 2017. Web.
King, Neil. “In the Driving Seat: Careem.” Arabian Business. 2015. Web.
MacBride, Elizabeth. “How a Startup from the Middle East Is Beating Uber, and Its Lofty Ambition for the Future.” Forbes. 2017. Web.
“Our Values.” Careem, 2017. Web.
Russell, Jon. “Uber’s Middle Eastern Rival Careem Raises $350M at a $1B Valuation.” TechCrunch. 2016. Web.
Sattar, Waseem, and Mubasher Bukhari. “Cab-hailing Company Careem Launches Women Drivers in Conservative Pakistan.” Reuters. 2016. Web.