Recently, Nigeria has been experiencing a scarcity of fuel throughout the nation, and this has affected many companies and startups in carrying out their operations properly.
Uber and Bolt drivers in Abuja have raised their prices by 50% compared to the rates charged by the applications. In response to the ongoing fuel shortage in the Federal Capital Territory.
The Reason For The Raise By Uber and Bolt Drivers
According to the interview conducted by Nairametrics with some of the drivers in FCT, “they had to increase the fares because the fuel is still scarce in the FCT and they may down tool if the situation persists beyond next week.”
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One of the drivers named Mr. John affirmed that obtaining gasoline in Abuja has been challenging. He explained, “We have to unofficially increase the rate by 50% or more in some cases. When we get a request, we explain to the customer that he has to pay 50% extra because of the scarcity of fuel. Some of them will hesitate but will come back to us because the rate other taxis charge, especially from the airport is like double.
“It is not intentional but it is because most times we either queue for three hours or more and at the end of the day we buy at N240/litre. If you can’t wait, then we are forced to rather buy from black markets.”
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Furthermore, another driver was interviewed to verify the grief of the first respondent.
Mrs. Mary Onazi, another driver that operates on both ride-hailing platforms said this is the most challenging time for her since she joined the league of drivers of Bolt and Uber about a year ago
As for herself, she told Nairametrics that depending on how she obtains the gasoline for a given journey, she sometimes charges as much as 100%.
She asserted, “We have been battling this for about 6 weeks and it does not look like it will end anytime soon. I bought 10 litres this morning at N6,000 and my riders will definitely pay for it.
“Some of the riders will initially complain and insist that they can only pay the official rate, which is on the app but they always come back because the taxis charge about 30% more than what we do.” With this significant increase in their service rate, do you think most people will be able to afford it?