Lahore Police and the Safe City Authority have launched a security barcode system for all public transport and online taxi services across the provincial capital, with the barcodes set to store complete details of every driver, conductor, and vehicle operating within the public and private transport network in the city. Police and the Safe City Authority have already begun generating and assigning these security barcodes to all registered transport operators, with records of online taxi drivers, motorcycles, private ride-hailing vehicles, and all public transport units currently being compiled and digitised by authorities.
Passengers will be able to scan the barcode before boarding any vehicle to instantly access complete details of the driver and transport. The barcode system will also allow online ride-hailing users to verify full vehicle and driver information before accepting any ride booked through applications. Police in the city have stated that the barcode system will prevent individuals with criminal records from working as drivers in any transport category. The system creates a publicly accessible verification layer that puts identity confirmation directly in the hands of passengers before they commit to a journey, a meaningful shift from the current model where most rider verification depends on the platform’s internal screening processes rather than any mechanism the passenger can independently validate in real time.
Online food delivery riders have also been brought under the new security framework, with character certificates now made mandatory for all delivery personnel. DIG Faisal Kamran said the new measures would help identify individuals involved in serious crimes operating under the cover of delivery work. Authorities have formally requested complete employee records from all food delivery companies currently operating within Lahore to support the ongoing verification process. The extension of the barcode framework to food delivery riders reflects the growing recognition that the rapid expansion of gig economy delivery platforms in Pakistan has created a large and largely unverified workforce with frequent access to residential addresses and vulnerable recipients, making some form of structured identity verification a public safety necessity rather than an optional enhancement.
The barcode initiative sits within Lahore’s broader Safe City infrastructure, which has been progressively expanded to cover more aspects of urban public safety through digital tools and real-time data systems. By creating a standardised, scannable identity record for every transport and delivery operator in the city, the system builds toward a unified digital registry of gig and transport workers that can be cross-referenced against criminal records, verified against national identity databases, and updated in real time as new information becomes available. For a city of Lahore’s scale, where millions of ride-hailing trips and delivery orders are completed every month, the successful implementation of this barcode verification system could set a replicable template for other major Pakistani cities looking to bring greater accountability and transparency to their rapidly growing urban mobility and delivery ecosystems.
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