According to data from Rakuten Intelligence, the cost of taxi transportation, Uber, increased by 92 percent between January 2018 and July 2021.
At the beginning of July 2021, Uber drivers were about 40 percent below capacity. Uber drivers in Abuja have complained and complained about the continued threat to their lives from carjackers, kidnappers, ritual killers and armed robbers.
According to their recent count, more than 10 drivers had been killed and their cars stolen, while many others were injured by the mobsters.
The Online Hackney Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OHPAN) called on the government to force the ride-hailing companies to profile users of their services in order to control the spate of driver murders and the use of false names by criminals.
“You want to pick a rider and you see funny names like Ghost, Snake, Juju, Scorpion, Grave Death, Death, and yet they will use Uber platforms to request a ride and the companies will do nothing to stop the kills.” fuses. You write them and they’ll tell you ‘we’ll notify the authorities,’ and that’s it,” the group said.
Information on Uber’s website shows that drivers earn anywhere from N9,000 per hour in cities like Abuja, up to N15,000 per hour in cities like Lagos.
“This year alone, more than 10 of our drivers were killed and their cars were taken away and many were injured; some ongoing permanent disabilities because of these carjackers,” said Emeka Emerole President of OHPAN in a recent interview.
“People like Ezekiel Akinyele, Matthew Okafor, Akin Awojabi and many other drivers were killed and their bodies were dumped on the streets of Abuja. Fortunately, one of us, Moses, lives today to tell the story himself after fighting for his life at the National Hospital Abuja, but lost his eyes for good. But the most annoying thing is that Uber is not doing anything serious about the situation,” he added.
He said: “It’s annoying for a driver to pick a SIM card, put it in a phone, request a ride and take the driver to an unknown destination, kill the driver and take his car. It’s also untraceable because Uber doesn’t get him.” but when it comes to the drivers, the companies have our BVNs, NINs, driver’s licenses, addresses, photos and many other things to ensure that users of their services are protected.
“But to do the same with the riders, no, because they don’t think it’s important to us. We call on the government to come to our aid.”
It was a bit like a gold rush for drivers unable to deliver passengers during the pandemic; While Uber’s ride-sharing revenues fell 43 percent between 2019 and 2020, delivery revenues increased 179 percent, according to the annual revenue report for 2020.
The company is struggling to make a profit as it has suffered staggering losses compared to most other publicly traded companies. Uber lost $6.77 billion last year and $8.51 billion in 2019, its last full year before the pandemic.
Profitability was an issue for the company even before the pandemic, when Uber was growing rapidly. At the time, the company subsidized the price of rides with promotions, discounts, and even just lowering the cost of rides to bring in new customers. So the capital raised by these companies went in part towards making rides more affordable and making sure drivers were happy with their compensation. Now that Uber is a publicly traded company, they should be more concerned about making a profit.
To turn the tide, Uber has launched a $250 million driver incentive and invested in more driver bonuses and incentives.
“We have added thousands of drivers to the platform and expect driver wait times and prices to improve in the future,” the group said.
