Drivers operating on the Moove-UberGo platform have raised the alarm about the crunching lack of requests on their parent platform. The drivers (or customers, as the company calls them) who spoke to Technext on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their contracts said ride requests are drying up on the platform, and it is affecting their ability to feed, take care of their loved ones, and live meaningful lives.
“There is no work on Uber Go and I don’t know what is happening,” one of the drivers, Lanre* told me. “I have deleted my app and reinstalled it again, I have logged out and logged in, but still there are no requests. There is no work on Uber Go and I don’t know what is happening,” he lamented.
Recall that Moove drivers, popularly called Uber Korope because of their miniature hunch-back Suzuki Espresso cars, are only allowed to operate on the Uber Go platform. This is due to a longstanding business arrangement between Moove, the vehicle owners, and Uber, the app company.
This arrangement, however, severely limits the amount of business the drivers could do in a day.
For instance, a possible reason for the dropping rate of requests according to the drivers, is because riders are usually several kilometres away. Indeed, one of the drivers said some pickup locations could be as far away as 40 minutes for a trip of two or three kilometres. It makes no sense for the driver or the rider.
Therefore riders will opt for, and patronize drivers on other apps like Bolt and inDrive, or even the regular Uber whose drivers are a few minutes away.

This, naturally, leads to more requests on those apps than on Uber. A driver, Samson, pointed out that the situation didn’t start recently; it has been ongoing long before the Yuletide.
“My brother, it is so everywhere. It is affecting all drivers on Uber Go. There is no work. There are no orders. I even went from Uber Go to Uber X, but still no work. And it did not just start this January, long before Christmas and New Year we have been experiencing reduced orders and slow working days. There’s no work and that is it,” he said.
More troubles for Drivers over KPIs
The drivers’ plights are made more troubling because they have to meet up with several key performance indices. (KPIs) rigidly enforced by Moove despite the disappearing ride requests. These KPIs are part of the hire purchase agreement for eventually owning the car.
These KPIs include:
- Daily remittance of 9,400 naira from Monday to Saturday
- Daily payment of Uber commission where applicable
- Successful completion of a minimum of 12 ride requests daily (Monday to Saturday)
- Being online for a minimum of 10 hours on the Uber app daily
“Meeting these demands is cumbersome to drivers due to reasons specified above and eats deeply into the net earnings of the driver who has to pay commission to Uber, pay for the car to Moove and buy petrol. All these alongside recurrent expenses of running the home mean drivers have to maximize their time and petrol for profitability in the business otherwise they risk missing on Moove’s daily remittance, piling up debts as unpaid remittance and eventually getting Moove to retrieve the vehicle,” Ajibola Vincent, a former Moove driver told Technext.
Similarly, other drivers currently operating on the Moove platform complained about hitting their KPIs amid the diminishing business. One driver, Joseph, described it as “tedious” and “exhausting”, insisting that without the KPIs, the current scarcity of requests would not bother him so much.
“What I find most exhausting in this Moove work is the KPI. If not for the crazy KPI, I won’t be too bothered about the lack of work and I will just make do with the little ones that come my way. But this KPI is making life tedious. Yesterday I did six rides. Today I have only managed two since morning. My app has been on for more than two hours, no request. And the request that will eventually come in, the rider will be like 40 minutes away from me, yet the ride will end up being just a two-kilometre ride. This thing is giving me a headache,” he lamented.


Lanre, however, says he is not much bothered about the KPIs seeing as it was not his fault that they could not be met.
“I am not bothered much about the KPI because even the Moove people can see there is little work. When there is work, we meet up. Now that there is no work, should I start asking my family members to book rides just to get work all because of KPI? It is not like there are requests and I am running from them. I’m not bothering myself much about the KPI. I just hope to be able to do four or five trips today at least to take care of my expenses,” he said.
Samson echoed a similar thought, asserting that the company hasn’t been on a vehicle retrieving spree of late as they too are aware of the current situation.
“Recently, Moove has not been reclaiming cars because of KPI because they too know that requests are very low and drivers are not getting rides,” he said.
*Names were changed to protect the identity of the drivers
See also: Is the car financing model of Moove and Lag Ride killing the gig in cab-hailing for drivers?