the not-so-pleasant experience of ride-hailing services in ghana

Have you ever tried using a ride hailing service in Ghana? What was your experience? I have been relying largely on ride-hailing services in the past three years since I moved to Tema. I must say my experience has been mixed albeit largely negative.

My first experience of using one of the three ride-hailing apps on my phone was sometime in May of 2017 when I had to catch a flight to Abuja for a meeting. I had spent the previous night putting together my PowerPoint presentation and was hoping to do the final editing once I was in the cab on the way to the Airport. Within a couple of minutes after requesting for a ride on my uber app, I received a notification that a driver was on the way and would arrive in seven minutes. Not bad! Within a matter of seconds, I got a call from a strange number on my phone and hesitated momentarily to pick up because I wasn’t sure who the caller could be. I wasn’t in the mood to disrupt my morning. Well, against my better judgement, I picked the call. Would you believe it? It was my uber driver who was calling. And he wasn’t lost. Indeed, he knew my area fairly well and was on his coming but he wanted to know my destination. Like seriously? “Don’t you have any better use of your airtime,” I thought about saying that but since I didn’t want to get into any needless fits of rage before my trip. I just sighed and told him he will know my destination once he picks me up. How wrong I was…? The driver declined the trip after the call. I wasn’t in panic mood yet because I had gotten up early enough in anticipation of such unforeseen events.

You could never be sure of what to expect in Ghana. I was quickly assigned a new driver who was to arrive in ten minutes. Yes, this driver also called asking of my destination. By this time, I had learnt my lessons and calmly told the driver my destination. He assured me he will arrive ‘very soon’. ‘Very soon’ turned out to be twelve minutes. He finally called that he was struggling to locate the pick-up point. I had to patiently take him through all the turns and bends on the phone till he arrived twenty minutes later. I wasn’t angry. I was grateful he had made it. However, my gratefulness was soon to turn to incredulity.  The driver asked if I was paying for the trip with a visa card. I answered in the affirmative and that was the beginning of my woes. He went into a long monologue fused with moments of vitriolic diatribe about how Uber cheats them when they accept card payments. I apologized to him and explained that I was traveling and didn’t have enough cash on me. The subsequent driving to the airport was one of the most reckless I had endured in my life; jumping red lights, overtaking at top speed in densely populated neighbourhoods etc. I was grateful I got to the airport in one piece. Of course, I gave the driver a one-star rating, but I was even at a loss as to what that could do in reforming the attitude of that particular driver.

I was introduced to Yango a couple of months ago after I complained to a colleague about the unprofessional attitude I was getting from uber drivers in recent times. My colleague gave a very good feedback about the services she had been receiving from Yango. I downloaded the app one Friday night after hanging out with a couple of friends at the Equator bar. I don’t drive on Friday nights when I intend to stay out late drinking with my buddies. My initial excitement with Yango was the quality of the car that picked me up on my first ride. A very good Honda sedan rather than the smaller saloon cars I was used to on the other apps. But as the saying goes, a leopard can never shed it skin. A few minutes into our ride, the driver started complaining about the visa card payments method. This driver was resourceful though it meant we had to spend some minutes looking for a filing station that accepted mobile money as a method of payment. He suggested I change the payment method from visa card to cash, so that he takes me to the nearest visa ATM for me to withdraw the money for him. I thought about his offer but for security reasons declined, however, we reached a compromise. I could change the payment method to cash and then pay with VodaCash. So I had to go through the hassle of transferring funds from my bank account to my mobile money account before transferring to the driver for him to buy fuel before we could continue my trip to the house.

The continuous disdain of drivers whenever I was paying with a visa card led me to my third ride-hailing app, Bolt. Frankly, I was tired of always complaining so I had just started using traditional taxis and trotro till one rainy morning when I was forced to rely on uber again. The experience of that ride had me riling all morning till a friend introduced me to Bolt. I had nothing to lose from trying a new service so I jumped onto the bandwagon with that little recommendation from a friend. My first few rides on Bolt were fairly pleasant. No reckless driving. I actually encountered my first female ride-hailing driver on Bolt. A former employee of the GN bank who had lost her job as a result of the financial sector clean-up. It was her first day on the job. She actually said I was her second rider since she started driving that particular morning.  Despite being new on the job, I would say she gave me my most pleasant experience with any of the taxi-hailing services in Accra. She asked which radio station I wanted to listen to or if I wanted the music off. She didn’t bother me with any unnecessary conversation. She only spoke when I asked a question or when she really had something to say. Yes, I know I’m biased towards women but it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say this lady was the quintessential driver one could hope for. She reminded me of that uber driver I met at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja. I ended up exchanging numbers with him and for my two weeks stay at the Sheraton Hotel in 2018, he became my tour guide through the city of Abuja.

The one similarity about most drivers I have encountered on all the three ride-hailing apps I use though is their abhorrence of card payment options. There is then the issue of the quality of the car. It seems the only cars available always are the mini-coopers.

I have often wondered why the drivers detest card payments and how that would impact on our drive to move to a cashless society. Is there a way for the ride-hailing companies to add mobile money payment options to the app? Then there is the issue of over-zealous drivers who are also eager to get into conversations. I know we are a hospitable people who are always keen to make strangers feel at home but just some of these drivers should learn how to hold back when they realize a client isn’t in the mood for conversations. I’m actually tired of always appearing as rude when I have to interrupt drivers to shut-up and concentrate on the driving. It is exasperating but I guess old habits die hard so permit me to order for a ride as I step out of the office for the usual Friday nights outing in the capital city of Ghana.