Bolt says offline trips reduced by 42% in 3 months as it launches Public Safety Summit

Bolt, a leading e-hailing company in Nigeria, says it has successfully reduced offline trips by 42 per cent over the last three months. The company disclosed this during a media parley on safety held in Lagos.

Offline trips have become increasingly common in the e-hailing space as drivers aim to maximise their earnings in a business that is becoming increasingly difficult to survive in. Essentially, the drivers negotiate a fare different from and higher than what was prescribed on the app, effectively taking the trip offline.

This is one challenge that e-hailing companies find themselves struggling with, and Bolt prides itself on finally having a solution to it. Speaking about the huge drop as announced, the company’s General Manager, Osi Oguah, said the success recorded was down to competitive commission, improved earnings and other financial rewards for drivers.

“What we have done, from my experience, is that we make sure that we are competitive on the commission for drivers, and we are continuously monitoring and watching the trends and making sure that we offer the best earnings. Once we have that, we believe that we have a scalable platform to have reliability on our service, and when there are more drivers, there are lower wait times, and then passengers come and we keep it moving, so that’s essentially what we’ve done,” he said.

Aside from the reward side, there is also a punishment side as the company, responding to a Technext query on the removal of Economy class rides for some drivers in Rivers State, noted it was meant as a deterrent for drivers who have been involved in multiple incidents of offline trips

See also: Bolt says the Economy category is only deactivated for drivers guilty of offline trips in Rivers

Quizzed on whether this punishment also contributed to the drastic reduction in offline trips, the GM said it wasn’t as much a punishment as it was a need to guarantee safety and give passengers a nice experience while using the service.

“Essentially, what we developed is a speed test system that is able to detect and flag drivers who are taking trips offline and then proactively restrict their activity. We had to do that because there is a safety aspect to it. The driver might be trying to harm somebody or putting himself in harm’s way doing that. Also, the majority of our riders just want a simple trip, and the offline trip is a bad experience for them, and we decided we have to do something about it,” he said.

He also pointed out that the 42 per cent reduction is just the beginning, as the company is still testing and improving its solutions, so that with time, they will get to a point where offline trips will be the exception and not the norm, and people will feel more confident on the platform.

Bolt launches Public Safety Summit

The company also announced that it is carrying out its first-ever Public Safety Summit, an event geared towards bringing every stakeholder, riders and drivers, regulators and operators to the table to hash out the pertinent issues around safety affecting the ecosystem in its entirety.

Describing it as an industry-first, Bolt’s Senior Public Policy Manager for West Africa, North Africa and Central Africa, Weyinmi Aghadiuno, said this summit became necessary because many safety incidents involve drivers and passengers and unlike previous summits, which involve participation from drivers only, this time, the other parties will be involved.

“Today, we’re launching, and we’re having the first-ever Bolt Public Safety Summit. We are bringing our passengers into the room; and our drivers and our regulators, into the same room. It is going to be a robust event where they will have cocktails, a bite and talk about all things safety. It is the first one in the industry, and we thought it was important for us to actually create this unique rider-first focus summit to hear from the riders,” she said.

She noted that the essence is to educate riders and help them become aware of Bolt’s safety features. It also aims at exposing them to the company’s safety supports like contacting customer care, its walk-in centre and board offices where drivers and riders can walk in and have real conversations with real people behind Bolt.

On his part, General Manager Osi Oguah noted that safety is more than just a feature, and the Public Safety Summit is an opportunity to re-educate passengers.

“At Bolt, safety is not just a feature, it’s fundamental to the service we provide. We are consistently investing in tools and partnerships that prioritise the well-being of our users. The Public Safety Summit represents a major step forward in how we engage with our riders. It will be a rider-first platform to listen, learn, and collaborate on new ways to make our services even safer and more responsive,” he said.

He further emphasised that the summit marks a new chapter in Bolt’s community-driven innovation, with a focus on transparency, safety education, and continuous dialogue with users. The initiative also aligns with Bolt’s broader vision to elevate safety standards in Africa’s ride-hailing sector.