SHANE SU­PERVILLE

Se­nior Re­porter

Po­lice in the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion are warn­ing dri­vers em­ployed with ride-share com­pa­nies to ex­er­cise cau­tion when agree­ing to meet po­ten­tial cus­tomers, not­ing there has been an in­crease in re­port­ed rob­beries.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia Ltd on Thurs­day, one of­fi­cer con­firmed that there have been six re­ports of ride-share dri­vers be­ing robbed af­ter be­ing lured in­to ar­eas in and around Port-of-Spain by ban­dits pos­ing as cus­tomers.

In the most re­cent in­ci­dent, on Wednes­day night, po­lice said a 25-year-old man work­ing with a ride-share com­pa­ny re­spond­ed to a re­quest for a ride and picked up a cus­tomer on Eighth Av­enue, Barataria.

The dri­ver took the pas­sen­ger to Laven­tille Road, Laven­tille, where he was ap­proached by a gun­man.

At the same time, the pas­sen­ger be­gan chok­ing the dri­ver, caus­ing him to crash in­to a parked car near­by.

Six men then ap­proached the ve­hi­cle and or­dered him out be­fore ty­ing his hands and feet and blind­fold­ing him.

The dri­ver was bun­dled in­to the trunk of the car and tak­en to a house where he was beat­en.

Po­lice said the ban­dits left in the man's car.

The vic­tim lat­er freed him­self and was as­sist­ed by near­by res­i­dents.

The ve­hi­cle was found in Ovid Val­ley and towed to the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion.

Last Sat­ur­day night, an­oth­er ride-share dri­ver re­port­ed that he went to Eight Street, Barataria, to pick up a cus­tomer who made a re­quest through a mo­bile app.

The dri­ver took the pas­sen­ger to the des­ig­nat­ed lo­ca­tion on Rigs­by Street, Gon­za­les.

On ar­rival, he re­port­ed that the pas­sen­ger slipped a strap around his neck and be­gan stran­gling him, as two ban­dits, one of whom had a gun, ap­proached the car and dragged him out.

The ban­dits tied the man's hands and feet be­fore steal­ing his keys and car.

The ve­hi­cle was al­so found and towed to the Besson Street Po­lice Sta­tion short­ly af­ter.

When con­tact­ed for com­ment, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of TT Ride Share (TTRS) Dwight House­nd said the com­pa­ny was aware of the in­ci­dents and con­firmed that they in­volved dri­vers on its plat­form.

He not­ed that while the dri­vers op­er­ate with TTRS as in­de­pen­dent part­ners, they were part of the com­mu­ni­ty.

House­nd al­so said the com­pa­ny con­tin­ues to en­gage with the TTPS, co-op­er­at­ing by pro­vid­ing dig­i­tal in­for­ma­tion to as­sist in in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

"Our pri­or­i­ty is not just ad­min­is­tra­tive co-op­er­a­tion; it is do­ing what is in our pow­er to help the po­lice bring those re­spon­si­ble to jus­tice and en­sure dri­vers are pro­tect­ed."

When asked if TTRS was con­sid­er­ing any ad­di­tion­al safe­ty mech­a­nisms to pro­tect dri­vers, House­nd said new­er pro­to­cols fo­cused on dri­ver safe­ty were be­ing con­sid­ered.

"We are deeply con­cerned for the lives of our dri­vers.

"We are cur­rent­ly work­ing to­ward the roll­out of stricter, mul­ti-lay­ered pas­sen­ger and dri­ver ver­i­fi­ca­tion sys­tems along­side a con­tin­u­ous iden­ti­ty reval­i­da­tion process that sup­port ze­ro trust dig­i­tal iden­ti­ty frame­work.

"We are com­mit­ted to build­ing a safer en­vi­ron­ment so that no dri­ver feels vul­ner­a­ble while try­ing to earn a liv­ing."

En­quiries are con­tin­u­ing by of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain CID.