Ride-hailing firm Grab rolled out a number of initiatives yesterday designed to improve safety standards for both commuters and drivers, including enhancements to its app and training programmes for drivers and delivery partners.

The initiatives were announced at the company's Health and Safety Carnival held at The Star Performing Arts Centre in Buona Vista.

Grab drivers will now receive notification reminders to rest when the app detects that they have been driving for too long.

Drivers will be assigned a fatigue score, which is calculated based on several real-time metrics such as the drivers' age and how many hours they have been driving.

When their fatigue score exceeds a certain threshold, the app will send them a notification reminding them to take a break.

Commuters will also be able to exercise greater control over the personal data that the Grab app collects about them through a new privacy centre feature.

By the fourth quarter of this year, passengers may be required to provide additional information for verifying their identity as well. This is intended to protect the safety of Grab drivers. Currently, drivers are required to take a selfie when logging into the app to confirm that the car is being driven by a verified driver.

Aside from this, Grab also announced partnerships with various government agencies, such as the Health Promotion Board (HPB), to implement optional training and educational programmes for its private-hire drivers and delivery partners, including riders, cyclists and personal mobility device users.

For example, Grab and HPB will provide free voluntary health screening and medical consultations and aim to screen 1,000 drivers and delivery partners in the first year of the partnership.

Grab will also provide training in life-saving skills to its drivers and partners, such as how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and how to use automated external defibrillators, through the Dispatcher-Assisted First Responder (Dare) programme. The company aims to train 500 drivers and partners in the first year.

Mr Lim Kell Jay, head of Grab Singapore, said: "This programme, we believe, will literally save lives. We want to equip as many of our driver partners as possible with the capability to be a first responder."