The model will see at least 101 drivers benefit initially, with over 5000 drivers targeted to benefit before the end of the 2021/22 financial year.
Moove Country Manager, Sinako Cetyiwe, said they would not be using traditional market instruments such as credit record checks as a qualification criteria for drivers. “What we are doing here is providing access directly to drivers so that they are able to run their own businesses, with their own cars. This is a problem we have seen over the years where drivers cannot get access to a vehicle and the cost of getting access is actually very high.
“What we are doing is to look at the success of the product in Johannesburg, then it will expand to other cities after that. are dependent on how well it does in the market, we will try to move as quickly as we can with the expansion of the UberGo product. At the end of the four years, the driver owns the car and will thus have to insure and maintain the car at his own cost, with the R1950 weekly cost no longer a factor.At the launch event of UberGo, held at Uber’s Sandton head office, Vusi Ngobeni, an Uber driver from Cosmo City, was awarded with a Toyota Agya.Speaking to IOL, Ngobeni, who has done tens of thousands of trips on the e-hailing platform, said he was excited and grateful for the opportunity to own his own car.
Meanwhile, Uber’s sub-Saharan Africa general manager Frans Hiemstra said they were constantly looking for ways to reduce costs for drivers and allow them to make better earnings on the platform.“We have a customer obsession. Our customers are our riders, our drivers, our cities and the regulators. We have to make sure we keep all our customers first all the time,” he said.