Vincent Lilane, Business Development Representative of inDrive in South Africa:
How does inDrive differ from other ride-hailing apps?
inDrive operates with a different business model than all other ride hailing services. In our application, the passenger is the first to set a price. The driver then either accepts this offer, rejects it, or can place a counter offer. The cost of services with inDrive is fair because our people-to-people model allows users to agree amongst themselves on a price that satisfies both parties. We do not interfere in this process.
Unlike our competitors, with inDrive there are no algorithms setting fares or price manipulation when faced with traffic or bad weather.
inDrive’s mission is to challenge injustice. We strive to offer both passengers and drivers fair conditions. We have the lowest service fee in the market – no more than 10% without VAT whereas our competitors charge around 20-25%. At the same time, in some cities we do not charge a service fee at all: East London, Pietermaritzburg, Rustenburg. Before accepting an offer, the driver can see the point of destination where other services hide it, and these are only some of our differences.
Our people centric approach works and proof of that is that we are successfully operating in more than 700 cities in 47 countries around the world and our app is the second most downloaded mobility app in the world with over 150 million downloads.
In South Africa, the relationship between drivers and IT platforms is not easy: drivers ask for a reduced commission, IT platforms do not want to do this. How do you solve this issue?
We are aware of drivers’ struggle with platforms. But thanks to our business model, these issues are not applicable to us. First of all, as I have already said, our commission is one of the lowest in the market – we charge 10%. Drivers of other platforms have asked for a reduction in the fee to at least 18%. Second of all, drivers continually request an increase in fares. In our case, drivers and passengers agree amongst themselves on a price that is fair to both parties. If the driver does not agree with the price, he can either counteroffer his price, or simply ignore the offer.
In any case, we are always on the side of our users. We are ready to support drivers in their quest to get the most fair conditions of the partnership.
How many drivers are already registered with your platform in South Africa?
We have recently launched our service in SA and are quickly expanding so this figure is changing rapidly. Now our growth is exponential both in the number of new drivers and in the number of trips made.
We can see that our service has been greatly accepted by both drivers and passengers which inspires us and lets us know we are on the right track.
How does inDrive provide security for platform users?
inDrive applies the highest security standards used by the largest IT companies, and sometimes our criteria is even stricter. All drivers are verified and this means that there is no anonymity on the platform. We have a support service that is available 24/7 via our app or by email. We have also implemented a system of mutual reviews and ratings.
What distinguishes our application from others is that both drivers and passengers can choose each other based on reviews from our users and other information such as number of rides, and they are not automatically assigned by the algorithm. Security issues are of the most importance to us, and we have zero tolerance for any kind of discrimination, harassment, or violence in our service.
Other safety features include a panic button within the app to directly alert law enforcement as well as the possibility to share the route with friends and family
What are your plans for South Africa in the near future?
We want to be the No.1 platform of urban services in South Africa. We want to integrate our platform into the life of local citizens as organically as possible and provide a wide range of services with the most fair conditions. In this first stage our goal is to increase our brand awareness, and from there we will move on to qualitative improvements. We are already taking the first steps, for example, recently we became the first ride-hailing app in South Africa that provides free mobile access. This means that our users no longer need to think about how much the use of mobile data will cost them when they use inDrive.
Our experience worldwide has shown us that if you are honest and fair with your users, word of mouth will be the best advertising campaign and no competitor will be able to measure up to your development.
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