Getting around Dhaka city, these days, has become bit of a plight for those who were reliant on their chauffeurs to drive them around.

For fear of contagion, many households have packed their chauffeurs off to their villages in the last week of March, when the government had enforced countrywide shutdown with the view to flattening the curve on coronavirus.

The shutdown has been lifted but the state of contagion remains more heightened than ever before, meaning many of those households are still without their chauffeurs and completely housebound, even if it is not by choice always.

Against such a backdrop, global ridesharing giant Uber yesterday introduced on-demand rental service to cater to the city's residents who have been struggling to get a safe ride.

Uber Rentals, the first of a kind launched by any ridesharing company in Bangladesh, promises to provide a personalised experience to passengers, allowing them to book a car and its driver for several hours at a stretch and make multiple stops on a journey.

"As Dhaka reopens, many of our riders will have new use cases and different needs from Uber, one of which will be keeping their Uber with them for a longer duration in the day," said Ratul Ghosh, head of Bangladesh and East India, Uber, in a statement.

Uber Rentals caters to such a need by allowing users to book their Uber for multiple hours with flexible and affordable packages and also gives them the option to make multiple stops on their journey, he said.

Starting price of the service is Tk 899 for a two-hour and 20 kilometre-package. Riders will have the option of selecting from multiple hourly packages that can be booked for up to a maximum of 10 hours.

Rides would conform to health guidelines and provide the highest possible safety standards, Ghosh said. "For our drivers, this offers them yet another opportunity to earn on the platform," he added.

Before Uber, another ride-hailing platform, Obhai, introduced such a rental service in late April called Obhai Sheba.

The emergency transport service aims to cater to patients, doctors, nurses and health officials who are failing to get to hospitals timely due to a lack of safe means of transportation under current circumstances.

To avail Uber's new service, customers have to select "Uber Rentals" for trips on the app. Then they will have to select an hourly package -- from two hours to 10 hours -- and tap "Confirm Uber Rentals" to request the ride.

Over the past few weeks, Uber has launched safety measures and have distributed safety kits consisting of masks, hand sanitisers, soap bars and tissue paper to their driver-partners along with placing safety placards in cars to create awareness among riders.

Last month, Uber spearheaded the formation of a "Transport Safety Alliance" to generate safety awareness amongst consumers and to equip drivers with health and safety supplies.

After a three-month-long suspension of operations due to the coronavirus, Uber has resumed services with "Uber X", an on-demand car service, in Dhaka last week after a hectic battle with Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) over enlisting vehicles under the authority.

Although road transport services have been allowed across the country on June 1 after an over two-month suspension due to coronavirus, the ridesharing platforms were not permitted to resume their services due to the enlistment issue.

Ride-hailing companies, including Uber and Pathao, wrote to the BRTA, requesting it to allow them to resume operations.

The BRTA, however, did not accept their request and instead took a hard line on vehicles that had been providing service without being enlisted.

Enlistment with the BRTA is a necessity for both companies and their vehicles to provide ride-sharing services.

Uber Bangladesh has sought intervention from the Prime Minister's Office to be able to resume operations in Dhaka and other cities.

Road Transport and Highway Division Secretary Nazrul Islam, BRTA's acting chairman and officials from Uber Bangladesh, among others, took part in an online meeting with Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Ahmad Kaikaus over the issue.

The next day, the BRTA allowed the ridesharing companies to resume their service only with 255 vehicles.

Later on July 1, the regulatory body decided to allow a total 1,890 cars, microbuses and ambulances affiliated with various ridesharing services to resume operations, according to a BRTA notice.

Of the permitted vehicles, Uber topped the list with 1,657. No other company has more than 100 vehicles enlisted at present, according to the notice issued on July 1.

Another major platform, Pathao, also resumed its car service last week. Pathao has collaborated with the e-commerce Association of Bangladesh (eCAB) to develop and implement safety protocols.

The BRTA, however, has not allowed any platform to resume operations of their popular motorcycle service saying that social distancing is impossible in this mode of transportation.

To cope with the ever-changing situation created by the virus, Uber has been seen reversing its strategies.

The company closed down its food delivery service Uber Eats in Bangladesh in June.

The San Francisco-based tech giant, in the middle of June, rolled out of its new service Uber Connect, which would enable residents in Dhaka to send and receive parcels from each other and also order items from shops within city limits.