POLL: Indrive is the most preferred app for Nigerian e-hailing drivers, Bolt falls lower

One of the fastest-growing e-hailing apps in the world, InDrive, has emerged as the most preferred platform for Nigerian e-hailing drivers to work on. This was revealed in a poll done by Technext among e-hailing drivers operating under the country’s e-hailing drivers’ union, the Amalgamated Union of App-based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON).

According to the results of the polls, InDrive recorded forty-seven point four per cent (47.4%) of the total votes to make it the most preferred app for drivers. Nigeria’s premier e-hailing platform, Uber came second with thirty-one point five per cent (31.5%) of the total recorded. Bolt which has been under pressure for a while emerged third after polling just fifteen point eight per cent (15.8%) of the total votes.

The newly-launched app, Rida came last in the pack with five point three per cent (5.3%) of the total.

InDrive veered into Nigeria with its launch in Lagos in August 2019. Known at the time as InDriver, the company launched a model that allows drivers and passengers to negotiate fares rather than depending entirely on a pricing algorithm (which was the industry norm).

While the company has stuck with its model for five years, it has modified it to enable both algorithm and human interference in its pricing mechanism. This model is precisely why drivers prefer the platform above others.

For the drivers, the fact that the app’s model allows them to set their prices and choose where they want to go was quite instructive in making their choice. This is even more so given the high cost of fuelling and spare parts and the reluctance of the larger e-hailing apps like Uber and Bolt to raise their fixed fairs.

The drivers, however, condemned what they described as the “fastest finger” trend of picking rides which the model has introduced as drivers vie for available rides with many settling for lesser fares.

“Indrive is a test of the true personality of drivers. Some drivers, small money they are already shaking,” a driver said.

But in the end, they agreed it would have been the driver’s choice which translates to some degree of independence in pricing. Some drivers described it as a platform which allows them to increase their earnings slowly and steadily. They, however, bashed the platform’s knack for extracting commission even before the ride commences.

Bolt’s ‘acceptance rating’ might be pulling it behind InDrive

As per the results of the survey, leading ride-hailing companies in Nigeria, Uber and Bolt are trailing InDrive as drivers’ popular choice by a significant gap. Indeed, Bolt is two times less popular than Uber and three times less popular than InDrive.

When asked, the drivers attribute Bolt’s dwindling popularity to its ‘acceptance rating’ system.

The acceptance rate is a metric that shows the percentage of orders drivers have accepted from their last 100 requests. A healthy acceptance rate is above 80 per cent. An acceptance rate lower than 60 per cent is unacceptable and punishable by being blocked from the platform.

It also implies that in a bid not to have low acceptance rates drivers have lost the power to choose which rides they want to accept as they have to accept whatever rides they were offered, at whatever pricing.

This doesn’t sit well with the drivers. Consequently, Bolt has experienced a mass exit of drivers from its platform.

Eventually, Bolt suspended the acceptance rating system and proceeded to unblock hundreds of drivers that it had previously blocked. Some drivers believe that the move might have been a little too late.

“Bolt discovered drivers were leaving them so they suspended the acceptance rate and started unblocking all the drivers they had blocked previously. The driver and the car are the most important factors in e-hailing. Generating orders is not the main thing, completing orders is the meat of the industry,” a driver said.

Uber does not have an acceptance rating system. This has made more drivers comfortable with the platform. The platform also has a more competitive pricing and a better system to guarantee drivers’ safety.

See also: Bolt Nigeria now offers fuel and repair loans to drivers on its app in partnership with Advancly