Nigeria Country Manager at Bolt, Yahaya Mohammed, has addressed the issue of fake ride requests and cancelling which rose sharply on the platform in Nigeria and South Africa in the past few days.
According to Mohammed, the company has taken steps to block accounts involved in this trend and is working to prevent future occurrences.
Mohammed in an interview with ARISE News on Friday explained that he became aware of the situation through messages, both internally and externally, and immediately sought a solution.
“This thing has happened as early as 6 am in the morning, and I tried figuring out a solution through my internet channels,” he said.
Regarding an incident where a driver in South Africa drove 50 kilometers to pick up a customer, only to find out it was a fake request, Mohammed said, “The driver getting a request 50km from his point of location is actually something that should not be accepted by the driver.”
Mohammed emphasised that drivers have the ability to set a kilometer rate for accepting rides, with a minimum of 2 kilometers and a recommended 4 kilometers.
“So if you get anything absurd like 50 kilometers, we don’t expect you to actually take that because you would drive for about 1 hour and will not really get compensated for that long distance pick-up,” he said.
Mohammed also addressed the issue of international ride bookings, which Bolt encourages.
“We are available in 50 countries, and many people, until recently when we had this abuse, the feature has worked for a lot of people,” he said.
To trace and block fake ride requests, Bolt uses a combination of tracking high volumes of orders and restricting IP addresses.
“We just able to track high volume of orders being made without having any finishes, just ordering and not actually completing the rides, and you are doing it cross-country,” Mohammed explained.
“All we do is try to block volumes of where these orders are coming from for both Nigeria and South Africa, and the second and more permanent solution was to trace IP addresses from both countries and restrict them from ordering outside the country.”
Regarding punishments for permanently blocked users, Mohammed said, “Investigation would be done internally, and obviously, everything would be analysed on a core hard basis on how you ordered, and past history of performance with riders.”
Mohammed also hinted at possible compensation for drivers who went on wasted trips.
“In-depth analysis of the rides that were booked and the kilometers wasted during the journey and seeing whether there is room for that, but at the moment, it is something that is currently being discussed, and the communication would go out to the drivers in 3 days.”
To prevent similar incidents in the future, Bolt will implement more restricted access, particularly for international feeds.
“Going forward, we would have more restricted access in terms of particularly these two countries, whenever you have international feeds, though it’s not ultimately an error on the app,” Mohammed said.
Boluwatife Enome
Follow us on:
A man attempting to bomb Brazil's Supreme Court was killed by his own explosives in…
Republicans have gained a majority in the US House with 218 seats, granting Donald Trump…
NNPC and Dangote Refinery have agreed on a decade-long gas supply deal aimed at increasing…
Governor Otti has assured local and international businesses of a great experience at the inaugural…
Egbetokun has stressed that Nigerians should focus on their responsibilities before criticising government, linking governance…
NDLEA and NAFDAC has signed an MoU to enhance intelligence sharing, tackle drug abuse, trafficking,…
View Comments
Custom Auctions Is Up Again and Granting Nigerians the
Privilege to Own Vehicles at Affordable Rates.AUCTION OF DIRECT TOKUNBO IMPORTED VEHICLES (2024 AUCTIONING) IS CURRENTLY GOING NOW!!! .
ROOFING SHEETS DIFFERENT TYPES AVAILABLE.
IMPORTEDED VEHICLES & DIFFERENT TYPES OF GENERATORS, AUCTION PHONE'S. FOR SALE AT CHEAP AND AFFORDABLE AUCTION PRICE INTERESTED BUYER SHOULD KINDLY CONTACT US ON O8O__6739__9O9O
BAGS OF RICE AND VEGETABLE OIL FOR SALE IN A CHEAP AND AFFORDABLE PRICE, BUYER SHOULD CONTACT US ON O8O__6739__9O9O
ARE ALSO AVAILABLE FOR SALES.
SOME OF THE AVAILABLE VEHICLES AND THEIR AUCTION PRICES ARE:
Toyota 4Runner #950,000
Toyota Avalon #900,000
Toyota Avensis #950,000
Toyota Camry tiny light #450,000
Toyota Camry muscle #1.3m /spider #1.8m
Toyota Camry Big daddy #650,000
Toyota Corolla le #800,000. Corolla S, #1.2m
Toyota FJ Cruiser #1.1M
Toyota Hiace #4m
Toyota Highlander #2.5m
Toyota Hilux #2.2m
Toyota Matrix #600,000
Toyota Prado #2m
Toyota Rav4 #650,000
Toyota Sequoia #950,000
Toyota picnic #670,000
Toyota Sienna #600,000/#950,000/#1.4m
Toyota Tacoma #2.7m.
Toyota Tundra #2.5M.
Toyota Venza #2.4M
Toyota Yaris #900,000
Volkswagen Golf 2,3,4 #250,000/350,000/#450,000/
Volkswagen Passat/wagon #500,000.
Volkswagen Touareg #600,000
Acura MDX #1.3
Acura TL #1M
Acura ZDX #2M
Audi A4 #500,000
Audi A6 #650,000
BMW 3-Series #650,000
BMW 5-Series #980,000
Ford Escape #600,000
Ford Explorer #900,000
Honda Baby Boy #500,000
Honda Accord 03 EOD #860,000
Honda Civic #500,000
Honda Crosstour #1.2M
Honda CR-V #750,000
Hyundai Accent #950,000.
Infiniti FX35 #1M
Infiniti FX45 #1.2M
Land Rover Discovery #3M
Lexus ex 300 #800,000
Lexus Rx330,#1.5m
Lexus Rx350,#3.5m
Lexus Rx400, #4m
RANG ROVER SPORT =#5M.
Land Rover LR3 #2m950,000.
MERCEDES BENZ DIFFERENT MODEL.
NOTICE: THE PRICE OF THOSE VEHICLES DEPEND ON THEIR YEAR MODEL.