When Uber first arrived in Nigeria in 2014, we were all excited. We heaved a sigh of relief as we can now easily move around Lagos seamlessly.
After a few years of dominance by Uber, Taxify came and Uber’s position as the leading ride-hailing platform in Nigeria came under threat. Meanwhile, the yellow taxis have been grumbling because Uber and Taxify are pushing them to the brink.
The strategy that Taxify adopted was to cut the prices of their rides which swept many Nigerians towards it. Uber had no choice than to respond. It seems both ride-sharing giants focused on how to outwit each other rather than vetting or conducting background checks on their drivers. This inadvertently meant that anyone that has a nice looking Toyota can become an Uber or a Taxify driver.
Although both are culpable, it seems Taxify has been seriously lagging behind when it comes to vetting drivers. The experience of some Taxify riders has not been really good. Apart from the drivers lacking courtesy, some of them tend to harass riders especially the female folks.
https://twitter.com/juiciestofjays/status/890938316023111681/
Last year, a Taxify driver was arrested for allegedly assaulting a female rider. Now it seems this has gotten beyond just harassment, these drivers have started kidnapping innocent Nigerians.
Again, it is Taxify is in the spotlight. This time, a Taxify driver named, Henry Nnaemeka attempted to rape and abduct Nollywood actress, Dorcas Shola-Fapson.
While narrating the incident on her Snapchat page she said:
This Taxify just tried to fvcking kidnap me!!!! He fully locked me in his car & drove to a random house then tried to drag me into it!!!!! Thank GOD I alwayssss have my pepper spray!! Emptied that shit in his eyes!!! Like wtf?! He fully locked me in his car & drove to a random house then tried to drag me into it!!!!! I’m home now guys, I’m fine. But I was fuvking shaking!
In a reaction, Taxify said the incident is currently under investigation by the State Intelligence Bureau and the Nigerian Police Force.
— Bolt Nigeria (@Boltapp_ng) January 25, 2018
Uber is not exempted from these because it is the same Nigerians who are driving for Taxify who are also driving for them. Unfortunately, Taxify seems to be getting the bad press due to the fact that they focused mainly on scooping a significant market share of riders and this initial strategy is beginning to catch up with them.
Amidst these crises, it interesting to note that Taxify recognises the importance of security to their business. Operations Manager of the company, Uche Okafor in 2017 said:
In all this, Taxify believes that ride-hailing has the potential to ease up a lot of transportation tension in Lagos. We have trust-building features that reveal the driver-partners photo, name, vehicle type and registration, as well as each driver’s star rating, is available on the Taxify app such that riders know who their driver is before getting in the car and can instantly compare the driver-partner information on the app against what is standing in front of them. Also, both driver-partner and riders have multiple support channels on Taxify.
The truth is that something drastic must be done to arrest this trend before it gets out of hand. We cannot deal with requesting a ride and the next thing you are being harassed or kidnapped by the drivers.
It is time for Uber, Taxify and other ride-hailing services to come together and work with security agencies to carry out wholistic checks on drivers. In addition, data sharing should be encouraged. When a driver commits a crime on one ride-hailing service, it should not just switch to another.
The contributions of these ride-sharing services to Nigeria cannot be overstated. They have offered employment to Nigerians and also they have made it super easy for Nigerians to move around as far as they can afford it. Therefore, we urge these ride-sharing services to do their bit in flushing out these bad eggs. We already have too much we are dealing with right now.
