Ola brings insurance program for driver partners

Bengaluru: Cab aggregator Ola on Friday said it has partnered with Bajaj Allianz to offer a comprehensive insurance programme for the driver partners on its platform, offering them a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh.

Ola, which competes with US-based rival Uber in the Indian market, said its insurance programme has been customised after receiving feedback and recommendations from driver partners themselves to make the programme locally relevant and more robust.

Ola claims to have about 9 lakh driver partners on its platform. In September this year, Uber had rolled out a similar insurance programme for over 4.5 lakh of its driver partners in India in partnership with ICICI Lombard General Insurance.

“Chalo Befikar Insurance will be provided to all active driver partners on the Ola platform offering a cover of up to Rs 5 lakh. This comprehensive scheme provides daily benefits in case of hospitalisation that cover business losses, apart from taking care of outstanding car loans and childrens education," Ola said in a statement.

The insurance programme will cover outstanding vehicle loan obligation of driver partners, irrespective of the loan amount; children's education fee (up to Rs 24,000 per year) per child till class 10th and business loss reimbursement of up to Rs 750 per day for three months, in case of temporary disability, it added.

"Over the course of this year, we have spoken with thousands of driver partners across the country to understand their needs to build a policy that better addresses their needs. "This new programme illustrates how a company can leverage local intelligence and work together with its beneficiaries to create an offering that is extremely relevant, but unavailable so far in the traditional structure," Ola Chief Operating Officer Vishal Kaul said.

The policy also ensures that a crucial aspect of their (driver partner's) childrens future - education, is not compromised despite an unfortunate incident, he added.