Taxi-hailing apps now allow clients to schedule their travel for up to 30 days. PHOTO | FILE
Online taxi hailing firms have shifted the battle for customers from price war to the launch of value-added services, such as pre-scheduled trips which enable riders to book their services ahead of their travel.
Uber, Mondo Ride and Pewin Cabs’ Dandia – have all upgraded their applications to enable advance bookings.
Uber’s Scheduled Rides, launched in Kenya a fortnight ago, allows riders to request a taxi up to 30 days to a few minutes ahead of the planned ride.
The tech firm says its decision to launch the service in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kampala and Dar es Salaam was informed by customers requesting to arrange advance pickups.
“Scheduled rides is the top-requested feature from our riders, especially for early morning trips. While we pride ourselves on providing on-demand rides, we understand that when riders want to get somewhere at a specific time, it is nice for them to have an extra assurance that a ride will be available when they need it. That is why we launched the scheduled rides option in our platform,” said Janet Kemboi, Uber communications associate East Africa.
Pewin Cabs’ Dandia e-hailing application, launched a week ago, also unveiled the advance booking option in addition to another function that allows riders to choose their preferred taxi model or capacity.
“We did extensive research in the market and received queries from customers and Dandia app addresses the gaps in the market.
“We aim to make customers comfortable during the journey and to enable them to plan ahead,” said Justus Kirigua, chief executive at Pewin Cabs.
Taxify is also looking to rollout a similar program but will first test it in “more mature markets like Baltics and South Africa,” said Pavel Karagjaur, the firm’s Head of Marketing.
Riders can book a ride from the platforms by filling in the pick-up location, date, time and destination. On the pick-up day, riders will receive a reminder when the taxi is on the way to the location.
Taxi hailing apps previously only allowed users to hail a ride for immediate transportation. The new service is designed to give users a sense of security especially for late night or early in the morning trips.
Trips reserved through Uber will still be subject to price surges but riders will receive an alert should the cost go up. Riders will be allowed to cancel the ride five minutes after dispatch at no cost.
Pewin Cabs’ Dandia app has set specific charges between destinations, unlike rivals Uber, Mondo Ride and Taxify that only indicate a price estimate at the beginning of a trip.
This means Dandia customers can know the final cost of the journey by keying in the pick-up and destination points and will not be subject to additional cost regardless of the time taken during the trip.
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