Bolt is injecting huge payments to allow drivers get cars #AD

It’s a journey that launched in Kenya in 2017. Seven years down the line – Bolt has continued to endear itself into the hearts of Kenyans.

The rider first launched in Nairobi – but has since grown by leaps and bounds extending to more than a dozen other cities in Kenya.

General Manager Bolt Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania Dimmy Kankole spoke to Citizen Digital about their current operations, milestones and steps Bolt is taking to put a smile in the faces of their customers and driver-partners.

“Our mission is to build cities for people, not for cars. As Bolt we are focussed on improving service on the platform on a wide range of levels,” says Kanyankole.

“The journey has been refreshing up to this moment. We have been innovating consistently to ensure our customers and partner drivers can get a wide range of services, like Bolt Send for parcel deliveries and others,” says Kanyankole.

To operate in Kenya Bolt has to be compliant to the existing transport rules – at the moment we operate under the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA).

“A driver must have a vehicle which is fit to be on the road, a driver will need a PSV badge, a certificate of good conduct, and the vehicle must meet existing insurance regulations, then we will onboard you,” says Kanyankole.

Once onboarded – the new drivers are trained in-house on the operations of Bolt, and are taken through the Bolt App platform; the payment methods, how to accept a trip, the dos and don’ts, and how to report issues.

Bolt Safety Toolkit: Bolt currently has a robust In-App Safety Toolkit which allows a passenger or partner-driver to report a particular trip even after the actual trip.

“Once reported, our safety team is constantly on standby, 24-hours, to attend to these needs depending on the nature of the concern,” says Kanyankole.

SOS Button: As part of its robust innovations – Bolt passengers or drivers today have access to the SOS Button and out Safety team will respond within three minutes.

“The safety team will call you immediately to first understand your situation. It could be a situation that requires an ambulance, or a safety case of the passenger or driver-partner.”

Trip Sharing ability: This allows a passenger to share details of their trip with family or colleague who is not riding with them. 

“Should you be moving to a location which you are not very familiar with, then you can share your trip with someone. This is to help people track you trip, even should your phone go off,” says Kanyankole.

Trip anomaly: Bolt is intentionally tracking every order to ensure the client and even the partner-driver arrives safely and conveniently at their destination.

“Our safety team will track your trip to ensure all is well. Should your trip take longer than the regular indicated time, then our safety team will call to find out what is the matter.

“Bolt has onboarded the biggest number of drivers today than any other player. And so, a part from offering trainings and support during onboarding, we are trying to support drivers financially with partners,” says Kanyankole.

“Also, we take cognisance of the fact that as a driver, one of the things you care about is daily earnings. At the moment, Bolt provides the best rates per hour paid to drivers.”

The rider says it is partnering with financial organisations to help drivers to acquire vehicles to use on its platform without much hustle.