San Francisco, May 13 (EFE).- The Uber ride-hailing service announced Wednesday that starting next Monday it will require all drivers and passengers to wear facemasks, with the former being required to take a selfie before every fare to verify their compliance with this directive.
In a digital press conference, the firm headed by Dara Khosrowshahi said that the new protection measures against the coronavirus will be obligatory in almost all markets – the US, Europe, Mexico, Canada and across most of Latin America and Asia.
Although Uber had already recommended to its drivers that they wear facemasks, now it will demand that they all take photos of themselves and post them on an app before a passenger boards the vehicle.
Regarding passengers, although they will not be required to take a photo of themselves, Uber recommended to its drivers that they cancel any trips if passengers are not covering their faces.
The San Francisco-based company also recommended that drivers keep the windows of the vehicle down during trips to improve air circulation, limit the number of passengers who ride in the vehicle to three and prohibit any of them from riding in the front passenger seat.
Last week, Uber announced losses of $2.946 billion in the first quarter of 2020, coinciding with the spread of the coronavirus around the world, in-the-red figures that are almost three times greater than the $1.016 billion the company lost during the same period last year.
When the first quarter 2020 figures were released and despite the poor results, Khosrowshahi put out an optimistic message saying that after “touching bottom” in mid-April, Uber’s earnings had been recovering little by little in recent weeks and, although it seems clear that the aim of making the firm profitable will not be achieved this year, the delay in getting there will be a question of “quarters” not “years.”
Also on Wednesday, the firm said that it will issue $750 million in corporate bonds one day after it was learned that the country is negotiating the purchase of home meal-delivery service Grubhub.
