Cab operators fret as Uber, Taxify, Naija Taxi, others take over

From Abdullateef Aliyu, Lagos  Technology, widely described as a game changer, has crept into all aspects of human endeavour. From education, finance, agriculture, medicine, telecommunication, technology has come to define the way of doing things. In the transportation sector, the landscape is fast changing as technology becomes more advanced and sophisticated. This is the case […]

From Abdullateef Aliyu, Lagos 

Technology, widely described as a game changer, has crept into all aspects of human endeavour. From education, finance, agriculture, medicine, telecommunication, technology has come to define the way of doing things. In the transportation sector, the landscape is fast changing as technology becomes more advanced and sophisticated.

This is the case with the proliferation of mobile taxi apps, which now threaten the existence of traditional cab operators in major cities where the apps currently work. The mobile taxi apps have witnessed an incredible explosion in Lagos State, the commercial nerve centre of the nation, which is experiencing an unusual exodus of people thronging in in search of greener pastures.

Though the actual population figure of Lagos State is still under contention, it is estimated that over 20 million people live in Lagos, which is adjudged the most populated city in West Africa. Expectedly, transportation remains a key problem in an increasingly growing urban centre like Lagos. This is why the mobile taxi apps have thrived in recent years. 

The first experiment with technology in transportation business in Lagos was the introduction of Red Cab Service in 2009. The private cab service provider has over 400 red cabs in its fleet with a mission to transform the provision of taxi service in Lagos State. The red cabs are sighted at different locations in Lagos metropolis. 

In 2010, Metro Taxi was introduced. It is described as a metered taxi service that ensures the users pay for what they use. Its operating system offers dispatch technology service, 24hours call centre, metered vehicles, tracking device and an insurance cover for both passengers and drivers.

Both red cabs and metro taxi quietly provide premium transportation services to Lagosians, in addition to the services rendered by the traditional yellow cabs, which are the common taxi cabs noticed on Lagos roads.

In 2014, the landscape was further expanded with the entry of Uber into the country. Uber’s mission, according to the company, “is to help people get a ride at the push of a button – everywhere and for everyone.” 

It started in 2009 and is now available in over 600 cities in over 75 countries, spanning six continents. In 2014, it debuted in Nigeria, first in Lagos State before extending its services to Abuja, the nation’s Federal Capital Territory. Daily Trust on Sunday learnt that within three years of its debut in Nigeria, Uber-driver partners had grown to 7,000, with more Nigerians signing in.

Following the inroad of Uber into the transportation landscape, more technologically driven taxi apps have been developed and are presently operational. At the moment, there are close to 20 apps that have emerged, all providing transportation services to Nigerians at the click of a button.

Other apps that have come on board, according to checks by Daily Trust on Sunday, are Taxify; Oga Taxi; Naija Taxi; Easy Taxi; Holy Cab; 9jaTaxi; Envio cab; Afro Passenger Taxi; PickMeTaxi; Kabbing Rider; SmartCab; Soole, among others. Their service is not, however, different as long as the users have the application downloaded on their smartphone, and such app can be operated. 

Smart Cab Nigeria, launched in Lagos in February 2017 by Jubril Arogundade, allows users to order cab services online and track their requests. Jubril explained that Smart Cab believes that other apps were following in Smart Cab’s footsteps. “It is exciting to know that a company that started in less than two months has created policies in the cab business that others now follow its footsteps.”

What future for yellow cabs?

With the implosion of the online cab operators, especially in Lagos and Abuja, and the rate at which Nigerians patronise them, observers believe the future is bleak for the traditional yellow cab operators. 

Also, car hire operators at Lagos and Abuja airports are feeling the heat, considering that the online operators also provide premium services for their clients. 

Mr. Sunday Ogunsola, an executive of Car Hire Operators’ Association at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, lamented that the online transport service providers had infiltrated their businesses, resulting in low patronage. To him, they are illegal operators, even as none of the car hire operators at the airport can easily identify if a car conveying the passenger belongs to either Uber, taxify, OgaTaxi as the case may be. 

Hardly can anyone point at vehicles belonging to any of the online apps operators, but they have been able to assemble a pool of posh cars from their driver-partners. “I find joy in doing this business. I don’t have to go and look for job again. Since I signed on this app, I have seen fulfillment and I am the boss of myself. If I can get about two trips in a day, I am okay,” one of the Uber driver-partners who simply identified himself as David said.

One of the indigenous apps started with a base fare of 320 per Kilometre, 72 per minute, 7; minimum ride: 400. Depending on the distance of the passenger’s destination, they could charge as much as N4,000 in a full air-conditioned car.  

Like the saying that one man’s meat is another man’s poison, many Nigerian youths are embracing the system in droves. They see the opportunity in the online transportation business as the panacea to the unemployment rate in the country. But the traditional yellow cab drivers are not finding the technological incursion into the transportation business funny. In fact, they are apprehensive they might be out of business any moment from now.  

In Lagos State, there are 287 parks for yellow cabs spread across the 57 local councils. Unlike before when the parks would be empty at peak period, the yellow cab operators say there are no longer peak periods for them as they struggle to make do with the few passengers they are now contending with. 

At different parks visited by our correspondent in Lagos metropolis, the operators expressed frustration over the proliferation of mobile taxi apps, which, they say, threaten to drive them into extinction. 

Some cab drivers at Ojodu Grammar School park who spoke with Daily Trust on Sunday said the operation of the mobile taxi apps was a subtle means of extortion.

Mr. Joshua Adedeji said, “The online transportation has affected the business significantly in a negative way. They are just spoiling our business. Uber, for instance, is located outside the country but operating in Nigeria. They hire drivers to work for them, and from the money, they will cut about 60 per cent and give the divers 40 per cent. The companies are making millions while we struggle for patronage. There is high unemployment in the country and this taxi business is our means of survival, but now with Uber and co coming in, it has reduced the patronage.” 

Also speaking, Abayomi Adeniji, another yellow cab driver, said it was high time government checked the incursion of “strange cab operators” because the traditional yellow cab drivers pay their taxes regularly.

“I think the government is being partial because we are not being treated equally. The government is benefitting from the yellow taxi because we are paying tax, permit, revenue and all other payments demanded from us, whereas the online taxis don’t pay anything. You don’t even know them. The situation is now worse because most times we are idle,” he said.

Yekini Solanke, 45, also voiced out similar concern over the implosion of mobile taxi apps, which he said had resulted in low patronage. “Many people are now using Uber for convenience, and it is very hard to discover their taxis because they do not have any registered colour. And the companies are making cool money every day, to the detriment of yellow taxi operators.”

But experts said the fear of yellow cab operators may not be entirely rational, going by the transportation deficit in Lagos. 

According to Charles Ojo, the chief executive of iWorld Transit Services, which recently launched another app, Soole, there are over 10million Lagosians who move from one point to another on a daily basis. With the absence of an effective inter-modal transportation with road transport, accounting for over 85 per cent of transportation in Nigeria, coupled with insufficient mass transit scheme, the mobile taxi apps remain the alternative for passengers angling for premium services offered by the online apps.

Mr. Gbenga Omolokun, the managing director of Germaine Auto Centre, said the quest for quality had been driving many people to embrace the online taxi services as majority of the yellow cabs do not measure up to the taste. 

He said, “I think the proliferation only helps a segment of the market. These systems depend on cards for one, and the population count with cards is pretty low in truth. Then add the people with cards and smart phones that are very knowledgeable in the use of technology. I really don’t think it’s a very large market. It’s a market that will grow from year to year as more people get into the market.

“The threat to the local cabs is more around the evolving tastes of passengers. So cars increasingly have to provide certain comforts for passengers. The yellow cabs aren’t doing this exactly and the quality of the cars isn’t great. These cars will increasingly not be able to operate within Lagos overtime as a result of passenger preferences and even possible state government standards on vehicles.”

A transportation expert and consultant, Dr. Oscar Odibo, said the commercial transportation sector could not run away from technology, which is taking over every spectrum of human endeavours. 

“Technology is catching up with that industry just like it is catching up with so many others. Technology is taking over the whole of human beings, taking over the whole of mechanical gadgets or functions. It has caught up with everyone of us, especially the transportation sector. The commercial segment cannot run away from it, and that is what is happening now,” he stated.

He said customers, especially the corporate elite, found it more convenient to use the apps instead of waiting endlessly on the roads for taxi or walking to their parks. 

Odibo is of the opinion that the proliferation of online transport services constitutes a real threat to the survival of traditional yellow cab operators, majority of whom are ageing and lacking in the requisite technological know-how to operate the gadgets. He said only few of them who had built clientele for a long while could survive the present regime where the online apps have virtually taken over. 

“It is a lucrative business. Basically, it is something everybody wants to buy into. They don’t have to go into the roads. You just click on your app, make the call and the taxi would be at your doorstep,” he said.

The other side of online apps

As desirable as the technology appears, it also has its other side. It has become an avenue for criminal elements to rob unsuspecting passengers. In Lagos State, for instance, many suspected armed robbers who were believed to be Uber drivers were arrested. Two of the suspects were arrested in October for specialising in robbing women of their valuables at gunpoint around Lekki, Ajah and Victoria Island areas of the state. 

Similarly, another Uber driver, who robbed a young lady visiting Nigeria for the first time from South Africa, was also arrested. 

But the online apps have details of the drivers displayed to the passengers in the course of the trip. It was learnt that it was the driver’s details that the said South African lady shared on her social media accounts that facilitated his arrest. 

Odibo agreed that drivers working for the online apps are strangers who could have criminal tendencies, unlike the yellow cab operators who have their tag numbers and parks and registered with the government. Some of them have, over the years, cultivated friendship with some of their passengers who use them regularly.

He also described the transportation platforms as an emerging business which government can tap into to shore up its revenue generation. 

“Sometime government is slow in looking at opportunities and development. The development would have rolled up before government begins to act. These are emerging opportunities, new businesses are emerging, but unfortunately, government is not in a position to be proactive. This is what is happening with the automated transport system,” he added.