Open letter: Let's help captains fight the coronavirus economic crisis.

Salam friends:

I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and economically secure in these challenging times. Over the last few weeks, many of you have asked us how captains are coping in the current crisis with little or no income and no safety net for their families. I’ve been humbled by your concern and generous offers of support, so I want to share an update on their plight, what we at Careem are doing, and where you can help.

There is no easy way to describe it: our captains are in grave danger of losing everything.

In some respects, the plight of captains is no different to so many others in our communities who are left with no earnings, limited financial cushion, and large families to support. However, as an organization that feels responsible for captains, the economic crisis brought on by coronavirus is of critical concern to us. Captains are self-employed and bear the burden of high fixed costs: many are liable for car payments, license fees, and in the case of expat captains, loans that they took in their home countries in order to find work in other markets in the Gulf. In short, captains are staring down a very dark tunnel, and without meaningful support, they risk losing everything.

Since the crisis started unfolding in our region, Careem has been on the frontline with captains working to solve their challenges. Our teams have launched a 2-week sick pay policy for captains diagnosed with coronavirus; they have led discussions with financing companies to pause car loan payments, and have engaged governments on license fee and stimulus programs. Teams have distributed free sanitizers and masks where they were able to procure them, have launched delivery services and found work for captains as store-pickers, and have also partnered with local companies to provide supplies for captains. Remarkably, across our network of colleagues, many have even donated generous sums of personal money to captains. Some of us have contributed our salary for the rest of the year.

But all of this is not enough.

If we focus just on Careem’s half a million active captains, and assume they need just $500 a month as a bare minimum to cover their most basic financial needs, the captain community needs financial support of $250m per month. It is not feasible for Careem or any other company to fill this gap on its own.

So, here’s where you can help:

If you are in government, please include captains in your relief or stimulus programs. We request you waive license fees paid by captains for the rest of the year. Please support and encourage local banks with payment pauses for captains with loans. And remember, captains are ready to work in support of government relief efforts, so please consider how they can be your partners to deliver aid.

If you are at a financial institution, please allow captains to pause repayment of their loans for an agreed period. It will not serve you or anyone else if captains lose their cars or homes and become a burden on society. For those financial institutions that have already committed this level of support - we thank you.

If you lead a company that works with captains (e.g., telecom, restaurants, fuel stations) or can provide employment for them (e.g., groceries, e-commerce, delivery), please reach out to us at [email protected] with the support that you can provide (e.g., discounts on services) or ways for captains to support your business (e.g., last-mile delivery), and our operations teams will get you connected. 

If you are able, please be extra generous to your captains. When you order your next trip or delivery, please tip generously. You can even tip captains that helped you in the past from previous trips. As we get support from regional institutions and find the right legal structures to collect and deploy charitable donations to captains, we will come back to you with more ways that you can help.

I believe regardless of who you are in the region, Careem’s captains have empowered you. For all of us at Careem, our investors, and the region’s tech ecosystem at large, they built Careem; they’ve enabled the region to move and grow, and they’ve given our nascent tech ecosystem incredible momentum. They most likely helped you or your loved ones to live more liberated and productive lives; they got you to work or college, safely took your kids to school, carefully moved you or your parents to hospital; and, they even delivered babies on the way.

For all of this, we are extremely grateful to them. Now is the time for us to support captains, not just for everything they did for us in the past, but also to make sure they make it through this crisis so we are together again for the future.

Let’s be Careem to them now, and always. [email protected].

Mudassir