Ride hailing startup Bolt has launched a driver verification initiative in collaboration with Nigerian data management company YouVerify.
This partnership will allow drivers on the platform to request and check their verification as part of the onboarding process. Its features include an SOS button in the driver app, a 24 hour high priority team, and the ability to share the details of the route. According to its Marketing Manager, Opemipo Kehinde, Bolt has been engaging in continuous ways to improve safety.
Considering Nigeria’s high accident rate which saw 2482 road accidents in the first quarter of 2018 with 1,292 deaths, this will help improve safety. The Federal Road Safety Corps in 2017 reported 33.7 percent deaths per 100,000 people annually, making Nigeria one of the highest in Africa, on accident fatality. Every four hours, no less than two lives are lost on the Nigerian roads with about 20,000 of the 11.654 million vehicles in the country involved in accidents.
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Also with incidences of theft by drivers on passenger items and robbery, kidnap allegations especially on late night users, Bolt hopes to solve the trust paralysis by ensuring its customers get the best experience on each trip ahead of the competition.
Yet, TC Daily notes that Bolt has some issues on customer debit cards:
Bolt (previously Taxify) riders in Nigeria say they are getting random debit alerts for trips they didn’t take. It is currently unclear what is going on but some riders say there’s been a hack and many have resorted to unlinking their cards from the app. Bolt has released a statement in which it denied that there’s been a hack. It also communicated that it is working with its payment processors to investigate the causes of the debits and has asked affected riders to get in touch. What’s apparent is that there’s been a technical glitch but the effect on customers’ trust could be very expensive for Bolt.
