Male Rapido Pink rider tells woman 'I'm gay' at pickup point, company reacts

A woman’s Rapido Pink booking took an unexpected turn after she said a male rider called her, despite expecting a female captain, and allegedly used a woman’s photograph on the app.

Shalini Chaturvedi, an Instagram user, shared a video detailing her experience and questioning the safety assurances offered by services specifically designed for women.

Shalini, in the video, said she had booked a Rapido Pink ride and received a call from a man asking whether she had reached her pickup location. She said she immediately told him that she had booked a Pink service and was expecting a female rider.

However, the man responded by telling her, “Madam, I’m gay.” She said she ended the call and tried to cancel the booking, but was told she would have to pay Rs 15 for cancelling the ride.

She further alleged that the rider's profile displayed a photograph of a female relative instead of his own. Chaturvedi said she eventually cancelled the ride, but was left concerned that the person had already seen her face and knew where she lived.

“I believe women’s safety is just a profitable deal in this country. It’s a joke,” she said in the video.

In the caption, she questioned whether women were effectively being asked to pay more for safety without receiving the assurance that comes with it, writing, “Apparently, being a woman is a premium-priced experience, with no premium protection included.”

Rapido responded to her post, saying it understood how “distressing and concerning” the experience must have been and apologised. The company said Bike Pink rides are specifically meant to be assigned to female captains and that it wanted to investigate how the booking was assigned to a male captain, along with the captain’s conduct.

The incident also prompted other users to share their own complaints about ride bookings. One commenter questioned whether paying extra for a women-focused service actually guarantees safety if there is no accountability when something goes wrong.

Another user claimed they had faced a different issue in which the assigned driver arrived in another vehicle, and urged Rapido to address such problems.

Rapido's published captain terms require captains to provide accurate information when registering on the platform and state that captains should not authorise others to use their accounts.- Ends