A journalist who suffered stress hit emerging transport network vehicle service InDrive after the ride he booked had an accompanying passenger in the front seat of the booked car on Thursday night.

DAILY TRIBUNE chief of reporters, Raffy Ayeng, said he booked a ride from their Makati office to Tondo, Manila, around 7 PM on 10 April.

When the booked ride arrived in front of the publication’s office, he was astounded to see that the car, a black Toyota Avanza, had another passenger seated in the front seat.

“I asked why he has another passenger. Then the driver said its his brother and he was teaching it how to navigate InDrive, as well as to drive. Then I told the drive to cancel it and he immediately fled,” Ayeng narrated.

The TRIBUNE journo immediately reported the incident to InDrive management, even clicking the InDrive complaint button, which is answered by a chatbot.

“I would like to spread awareness because I know, what happened was not right and dangerous,” Ayeng added.

However, the InDrive management reached out to Ayeng and offered apologies for the inconvenience he had gone through.

“Please know that safety of both our drivers and passengers are a top priority for inDrive. The presence of an unexpected passenger in your ride is not in line with our service standards and we take this matter very seriously. Rest assured that we are already looking into this incident to thoroughly investigate it and have appropriate actions taken,” the InDrive Communications team said.

In an earlier interview, Mark Tolley, inDrive's Regional APAC Director, revealed that the company aims to add 5,000 to 11,000 drivers to its platform by 2025.