ICT innovation seeks to enhance safety of taxi-moto clients

Many taxi-moto users have had an unpleasant experience with the popular means of public transport. Tales of accidents, over speeding, faulty helmets and rude riders are not uncommon. The World Health Organisation in 2013 estimated that about 2,118 people died every year in Rwanda due to road accidents. According to Rwanda Biomedical Centre, at least 80 per cent of these accidents are related to motorcycles. It is against this backdrop that two ICT entrepreneurs spotted their entry point into the local ICT ecosystem hoping to cash in on their investment and create a positive a social impact. The young entrepreneurs, Nash Barrett and Peter Kariuki, developed ‘SafeMotos’, a phone application which links clients to vetted public transport motorcycle operators at no extra costs. The application was launched mid-last month and is now available on Google Play. The new app enables clients to ‘order’ for a motorbike from any location in the City of Kigali. It currently has 25 vetted bikes, with selection of more commercial motorcyclists ongoing. Calling for a bike only requires clicking on an option on their phone and a rider comes to you in about 5 minutes, they say. The solution relies on a map of the city and global positioning system, enabling the cyclist nearest the client to locate their geographical location. According to the entrepreneurs, the application, unlike many ICT solutions, is built with the ordinary citizens in mind to ensure simplicity and broaden the user bracket. The vetting process involves monitoring the road ‘conduct’ of the taxi-motos through the bikers’ smart phones which register incidences of speeding and reckless braking. “Our approved taxi-motos have smart phones, we have a system that enables us to monitor their road behaviour including speeding,” Barret explains. The system also ensures that the riders’ phones remain charged all day for easy accessibility. With about 300 downloads of the application so far, the two innovators expect that usage will go up in coming days as it creates a win-win situation for both the operators and clients. “For the operators, we get them clients without them having to go around looking for clients, which improves their business,” Barret says. The innovators make their return on investment through commissions from the operators. “Since we increase the number of clients and can guarantee them a number of rides a day, we get some commission from them,” he says. Other than the convenience, the system also has a price estimation tool that ensures that unsuspecting clients are not overcharged with the final fare being reached through negotiation. As the subscription to the services by clients and enrollment by more taxi-motos goes up, the ‘SafeMotos’ hope to break-even soon and begin raking in profit. Nash Barret (L) and Peter Kariuki (2nd L) at a recent awards ceremony in Nairobi. (Collins Mwai) Future plans According to a study by the budding enterprise, there are about 20,000 taxi-motos in the city and about 500,000 active smartphone users. In coming days, they hope to vet and approve more operators, as well as increase subscribers. “Smartphones are increasingly becoming popular; we hope that with the increased usage, we will have a larger client base in terms of subscribers and motorists,” Barrets told this paper. The entrepreneurs also plan to train the taxi-motos on first aid to improve the response time in case of a road accident. “On average, it is estimated that first aid providers and ambulances arrive at an accident scene at least 30 minutes after an incident. We hope to improve the response time by training motorists in basic first aid so that clients can also call them in the event of an accident,” Barret says. “We also want to improve the platform by adding a cashless payment option to improve clients’ convenience.”Rwanda as a launch pad The entrepreneurs have their sights set on a market larger than Rwanda as motorcycles are a popular form of transport across the continent. To that effect, they have embarked on the pilot phase in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. “The Rwandan ICT ecosystem provides an ideal platform to launch innovation as it has a conducive business environment, the necessary ICT infrastructure and government support,” Barret said. So far, they say the innovation has received positive feedback, which will go a long way in improving the platform’s efficiency. A majority of riders who spoke to this paper said that they would readily enroll for the platform as it will guarantee them a regular flow of passengers. Richard Bizimungu, a moto rider, said they would readily get on to the platform when approached as it will increase chances of getting passengers. “It would be good to know that my passengers can call me as opposed to riding around hoping to get one; it means I would be saving on fuel and have a regular income,” Bizimungu said. Taxi-moto users also welcomed the development with most of them, saying it would enhance the convenience of the transport mode. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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ICT innovation seeks to enhance safety of taxi-moto clients