Inside Nigeria’s e-hailing business: What users of Uber, Bolt, Ocar think about transportation services
From improving access to transportation, to experiencing safe and comfortable trips for public good, what may be called the future of mobility is becoming a reality in Nigeria. Thanks to technological advancement.
In the last few years, Nigeria taxi market experienced a disruption, which is expected to linger for as long as technology exists. The e-hailing services have posed a healthy competition on the taxi market with Uber, Bolt (formerly Taxify) and the recently launched Ocar, dominating the sector.
These e-hailing companies have technically reduced the value of the traditional Yellow Taxi, popularly known as “Oko Ashewo” in Lagos State.
Before Ocar was launched, Uber and Bolt have had the biggest market share with presence in cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Abeokuta, and Port Harcourt among others.
Uber is an American-owned company, which expanded its presence to West Africa when it launched in Lagos in 2014. It gained its share of the market, using great app and aggressive social media marketing. Asides transport, the taxi-hailing company also offers different level of services depending on availability. It also offers delivery services – in bringing ice cream, and even kittens to users’ doors.
Bolt on the other hand, is an Estonian transportation network company. It was founded by Markus Villig, a 19 years old high-school student in 2013, and subsequently disrupted the country’s e-hailing sector in 2016.
Bolt, since its launch in Nigeria, has competed favourably with Uber, dragging market and mindshare with the already established company.
One of the basic rules of the universe is that, nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist, even in the e-hailing services, despite its vision of making life and transportation easy.
These e-hailing services, unlike the traditional Yellow taxi, have no fixed transportation fare. The amount a passenger would pay for a particular trip, depends largely on time spent on the road mostly as a result of traffic gridlock.
Airing their views to MARKETING EDGE, users of these e-hailing services expressed mixed feelings and experiences.
For Violet Johnson, a student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and a regularly user of Uber and Bolt, the companies need to work on their charges and improve on their customer service.
“Since they use the whole GPS thing to calculate, sometimes the readings are inaccurate which leads to an overbilling,” said Johnson.
She further lamented the attitudes experienced from some drivers of Uber and Bolt, describing them as “bunch of recycled yellow cab drivers who are really rude and impatient.”
Similarly, Dayo Emmanuel, a Nigerian journalist and user of Bolt admitted that the e-hailing transportation service was “safer”, but also lamented overbilling by the company.
“There should be a fixed price with time after which it can start reading,” he said.
Falade Itunu is a businesswoman and an alumna of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). She uses the transportation service of Ocar.
Although Itunu is not a regular user of the e-hailing service, she said that “the amount paid on Ocar cannot be compared to the comfort you get”, adding that the rate was on average in terms of reliability and safety.
Another user of Uber is Teniola Ibitola. She’s a news correspondent with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). Unlike Johnson, Ibitola said Uber drivers are professional in their conducts.
On reliability and safety, Ibitola rated Uber high, adding that the company’s transportation charges were “fair”.
“Lagos traffic can be unpredictable. So, such method of billing is very fair,” she said.
Also, Olaifa Oladunni Victoria, a marketer who uses Bolt, told MAKETING EDGE that the charges on transport were not fair.
According to her, “the pricing is not fair at all because once there is traffic, there is a problem. Your pay is calculated by metre.” She, however, rated Bolt high on reliability and safety.
In her words: “Once you have their app on your phone and you have data, you can reach them anytime, any day. In terms of safety, their drivers are never reckless and are well trained.”
Oladunni further stated that Bolt was unique because of its “prompt service, privacy and comfortability.”
Uber and Bolt just happened to be the most used and popular among the e-hailing companies, but cannot be said to be the best when there are no yardstick for measurement.
However, Ocar remains relevant to this article because it was recently launched and reportedly the cheapest.
Other e-hailing transportation services (though not widely known), available in Nigeria include Oga Taxi, Jekalo, Smartcabs, PamDrive, InDriver and Ola Cabs.
E-hailing services allow users order a car, taxi, or any other form of transportation pick up via virtual devices: computer or mobile device. It matches passengers with vehicles using communication technology since cabdrivers know the passengers’ location.
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