RIYADH — Saleh Al-Zuwaid, spokesman of the Public Transport Authority, said on Monday that the number of Saudi women drivers has shot up by over 500 percent from 600 to 3,900 drivers working in the ride-hailing applications during the year 2021. Addressing Annahar program on Al-Ekhbariya channel, he said that there is also a huge increase in the number of ride-hailing and sharing applications for which PTA had granted license during the current year. "The authority is in full contact with the ride-hailing applications to further improve the services and offer incentives for the customers," he said while citing examples of transporting people to and from the vaccination centers at discounted rates. It is noteworthy that the ride-hailing giant Uber offered discounted rides during the ongoing vaccination campaign against coronavirus. It offered two free trips up to the value of SR50 each way in over 300 vaccination centers in 19 cities including Riyadh, Jeddah, Asir and Taif. Al-Zuwaid pointed out that there is an initiative with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, and the Human Resources Development Fund (HADAF) to provide financial support of up to SR2,400 to the ride-hailing Saudi drivers if they commit to provide a number of specific trips. As of August this year, about 21 million trips were operated by 27 licensed ride-hailing applications in the Kingdom, he said, adding that it is one of the activities that are 100 percent localized and supervised by the Public Transport Authority
