Instacart Unveils New Driver Safety Measures

Instacart has launched a series of safety features for its delivery workers, designed to leverage information from law enforcement, local news and society media to alert them of critical incidents in the area.

As the company announced in a press release on Wednesday (Nov. 17), the Shopper Safety Alert will notify the workers through the Shopper app, allowing them to determine whether they should avoid the area. The app will pause the order automatically if a worker is mid-order, although the company says it will assess incidents and could pause operations completely in specific regions if they pose a threat to workers.

Instacart is also upgrading the in-app emergency call feature it introduced last year, which allows workers to contact emergency services directly through the app. This new version of this feature — made possible through a partnership with emergency response data platform RapidSOS — lets workers share their geolocation and other information for a faster response.

The feature is available now in the U.S. and Canada. As TechCrunch notes, it is similar to a feature that DoorDash recently introduced with the help of ADT.

Instacart is also unveiling new optional safety lessons that give delivery workers information on best practices when it comes to shopping, driving and deliveries. These lessons provide a look at Instacart’s shopper and community guidelines and how to report incidents in the Shopper app.

Read more: MA Ballot Measure Pushes for Gig Workers to Be Treated Like Contractors

Meanwhile, another change could be on the horizon for some Instacart workers, as well as their fellow drivers for services like Doordash, Lyft and Uber.

As PYMNTS reported earlier this week, supporters of a ballot question in Massachusetts that will ask voters to treat these drivers as independent contractors have collected the necessary signatures to get the issue on the ballot.

The signatures will now go to the state’s municipal clerks, who will need to come up with their own version of the ballot question, which is backed by an app-based service provider group.

The Massachusetts Coalition for Independent Work wants voters to dub their drivers as independent contractors and not employees, the latter of which are entitled to minimum benefits.