S. Žemaitytė-Ajutienė spoke about the unpleasant situation on the social network Facebook. She said that as usual, she called a Bolt driver to take her daughter to kindergarten. However, the meeting with him did not end as expected.
After the spread of her story, Lenői.lt contacted the representatives of “Bolt”.
Laimonas Jakštys, Bolt ride service manager comments:
“We regret the passenger’s unpleasant experience. The passenger was automatically refunded for the trip that did not take place, and additional compensation was also provided.
Independent drivers cooperating with the Bolt platform should ensure that children under 135 cm in height are transported only in an appropriate seat. The Bolt app has a special ‘Child Booster’ category, drivers using it have one child booster which is suitable for carrying a child between 15-36kg. About 5-7 percent carriers cooperating with the “Bolt” platform can offer such a chair – “Bolt” is one of the few apps on the Lithuanian market that generally offers such a category.
However, passengers traveling with a small child and having a suitable seat can choose other categories – “Bolt”, “Comfort”, etc. If a small child needs a special seat, but the person traveling has it himself, the drivers can carry out such a trip, even if the category “Boost for a child” is not selected.
However, it is important to emphasize that the responsibility for the safety of passengers rests with the driver, so the carrier has the right to refuse to transport a passenger if, in his opinion, the trip would be unsafe for the passengers, the driver himself or other road users.
In any case, such communication by the driver with passengers does not meet the standards of the Bolt platform, so this case will be carefully reviewed. Bolt does not tolerate aggressive behavior or discriminatory actions. Depending on the situation and the seriousness of the violation, we take appropriate action – in some cases, we may temporarily or permanently suspend the driver’s access to the platform.
Whenever possible, we recommend passengers traveling with young children to choose a special “Child Upgrade” category. Then passengers can be sure that drivers will be ready to transport passengers with minors.”
She was shocked
S. Žemaitytė-Ajutienė also shared her story with People.lt readers.
“I’m not taking Bobos with a child” – these are the words my daughter and I heard from one of the Bolt drivers early in the morning yesterday, so the trip ended before it even started.
This is the first time I have been discriminated against as a mother, and my child has also been discriminated against. Now I understand even better why the birth rate is decreasing every year. When it comes to men avoiding responsibility, the state’s policy towards families, mothers and children, society, or rather the attitude of some of its members towards mothers, contributes to all this. Sorry – “bob with a child” because that’s all we are through the eyes of the Bolt driver we met yesterday. It’s been a day and the emotions are still boiling for both me and my husband.
Personal archive photo/Saulė Žemaitytė-Ajutienė
And the story is simple. When my husband works from early in the morning and cannot take my daughter to kindergarten, I call the driver.
Ordinary morning – I can’t find drivers with a child seat on the Bolt app, so I choose another category because we have our own. The same as drivers specially transporting children have.
By the way, I have carried my daughter this way dozens, if not hundreds of times.
Yesterday morning the Bolt driver arrives, we open the door, we both say hello, and then we hear they won’t take us. I ask – why? They say they don’t belong to the category, they don’t have a chair. I answer – no problem, we have our own. Then he starts to explain that he doesn’t know if our chair is certified, so he won’t take it. I ask again – why, if his other colleagues never refused, and there is no information in the company’s rules about the fact that you can’t go with your own chair? It is explained to me again about the certification of the seats, its presence or absence, and when I ask if he will not carry it because I am with a child, he retorts that “bobos will not carry a child.”
Shutterstock Photo/Bolt, driver
I pull out my phone, please repeat what he said because it’s worth publicity, and the driver hit the gas pedal as we stood right next to the car. I grab the kid’s hand and we jump to the side, and he runs down the street with the back door open. While I press the recording function on my phone, the door closes at speed, my daughter says: “I was scared of that door” because it could have caught us, and I can only answer that the person is just being stupid… Unfortunately, that’s all I managed to record – the speeding car, my daughter’s words full of fear and my regret.
The trip is soon cancelled, we return home to find another driver and file a complaint with Bolt with a short note.
How did it end? With automatic apologies written by Bolt’s artificial intelligence, then by live consultants, and a promise that the situation will be investigated according to the company’s internal rules. There are no answers to the questions – what are the rules, who is waiting for the driver, or indeed those who do not belong to the special category of transporting children and having seats can refuse to transport a “bob with a child”.
Personal archive photo/Saulė Žemaitytė-Ajutienė
During “n” years of driving with taxi drivers, I had all kinds of situations. Both pleasant and very unpleasant, even shocking. One representative of a distant country smoked right in the cabin, and when asked to put out the cigarette, he said that Europe is free here, so you can do whatever you want. I had to deal with those who, after bringing them back late at night, asked to be guests. I have encountered a Russian music lover driving a Tesla who sat in such a way that there was no legroom in the back. When I asked him to switch to something non-Russian and at least free up a little space, he began to explain that we were going in his car, so we would listen to what he liked and in the way that was convenient for him (we went just in the afternoon, we were celebrating our wedding anniversary, I was still feeding my daughter, we were in a hurry to see her, so we were not “overdue”). Later, it was stated that my husband and I had probably not driven in such a luxurious car, so he apparently decided to “take a ride” – deliberately detoured from the specified route and thus extended the already bitter journey. Fortunately, I had already recorded the trip when the explanations about the Russian music we were forced to listen to began – otherwise it would have been our word against his. By the way, he explained to the company that we called him all kinds of swear words, but the recording proved that he was lying.
Personal archive photo/Saulė Žemaitytė-Ajutienė
I’m not saying that all drivers are assholes… More than once, during trips with my daughter, we were treated to sweets, one driver specially turned on children’s songs, and this week one of the drivers gave us a bag with his adult daughter’s dolls and other toys, which made not only my daughter happy, but also the other girls in the kindergarten group with whom we shared. He told me that he kept them at home for two years because it was a pity to throw them away, and finally decided to give them to some girl he met during his travels. Nice.
I understand that not everyone has positive emotions about children – I would have understood the refusal to carry them if they had politely said that, for example, they do not like children, do not want to take responsibility, adhere to the principle of not transporting them for safety, cleanliness or other reasons… I would certainly have understood and accepted such a polite explanation. Therefore, this time I’m just really angry, sad and sorry… it’s a pity that there are still such creatures in society – it’s hard to call them people.
With love to all,
“Boba with a child”, wrote S. Žemaitytė-Ajutienė.
Portal People.lt Bolt has been approached for comment. The company assured that it is interested in this case and will provide a comment later. We will update the article as soon as we receive it.
