Grubhub driver app: rapid sos safety feature
The new feature protects delivery partners every step of the way by providing around the clock access to emergency services.
Role: Senior Product Designer
Time: 7 weeks
THe problem
In the first nine months of 2021, ten delivery cyclists have died in New York City alone. That is three more than all the delivery biker deaths from 2020 (in NYC), according to research done by the Workers Justice Project (WJP).
“In collaboration with RapidSOS, the Grubhub for Drivers App will now digitally route critical data to the nearest 911 center. It does so via three new features that are accessible to delivery partners when they hit the SOS Button in the Safety Services section: 911 Slider, Safety Agent Call, and Safety Agent Text. With just one tap, Grubhub Delivery Partners are connected to emergency assistance by voice or text message.” - Grubhub news letter
Recognizing this, the team proposed an initiative to identify and address the safety challenges faced by our drivers by implementing a new safety feature.
business needs
As gig workers accounted for nearly 40% of the U.S. Workforce in 2020 according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, legislators in many of our largest markets are beginning to prioritize supporting WJP and similar groups in the same way as labor unions. Hearing their calls for action and working with them towards common goals will only benefit GH in the future.
Being able to provide our drivers with a way to contact 911 immediately could be critical in saving their lives as well as showing workers, legislators, and the public that we are invested in the safety and well being of delivery workers.
research
Research the functionalities and cost of RapidSOS, ADT, etc. and what we can create internally to determine how Grubhub should proceed.
● Partner with RapidSOS which Uber and Instacart have already done and create a product with their help that is super customizable to our needs.
● Partner with ADT which Lyft and Doordash have already done and use similar features that they already have to give our drivers faster ways to get assistance.
● Create internally with our product team as much as we can like location sharing, emergency contact information, etc so our drivers feel more safe on our platform.
App functionalities
RapidSOS, ADT, and what features we can create internally and other value-add components are outlined in the table.
After discussions with a cross channel product team, the decision is to partner with a company to add the extra features instead of building internally due to bandwidth and the low cost of the partner adding it.
Next step was to design-led cross-functional brainstorm session
Agenda included:
1. Reviewing existing research
2. Assessing analogous solutions
3. Figjam: A guided sketching session to generate divergent concepts from prompts related to drivers. This was a great way to see how other designers and stakeholders viewed the app along with their product focus.
FLOWS AND design EXPLORATIONS
After brainstorming and aligning what features should be implemented, a few flows and concepts were looked into.
Next steps
This was the MVP layout that was launched with future improvements in mind such as
Panic timer: We would allow for the drivers to set a timer if they felt they were
in an unsafe area or felt anxious making a delivery
Safety timer: Once the driver marks that they have arrived at the diners house
an internal timer will start to go in the background, the driver will not be aware of
it. The average time for delivering an order is 7 minutes. If the driver does not
mark the order complete within 20 minutes or arrival at the diners house the
RapidSoS agent will send the driver a text message to see if they are okay as they
have not completed the order.
Emergency notification: When a driver is connected to an emergency
response team (EMS, 911, Fire) a RapidSoS agent will send a text message to the
drivers emergency contact to inform them that the driver is in a situation and that
emergency responders are on their way.
Added sharable fields: We will provide more information to the emergency
responders such as a photo, make, model, color of vehicle, license plate of their
vehicle, and emergency contact.
Continued tracking of location while on call: When a driver is on the phone
with a RapidSoS agent or has activated a texting conversation with a RapidSoS
agent the location will update on their end every 5 seconds(or 10 whatever we
decide).