What could go worse than being late for a meeting that could bring a multi-million deal to your company? Well, being a sensible salesman, I can only imagine that no one in my industry would ever want to drop the ball on such a big sale. Here’s my story on how I had to ShareCab.
Typical Monday morning - Nairobi being hectic as usual. Traffic all over the place with every motorist trying to make their way to work in the shortest time possible. If you’ve been in it, you know exactly what I mean. The madness can be unbearable and it gets even worse during the rain.
As I was about to board a matatu at the stage, I realized the huge mess that was on the busy highway. I live along Waiyaki Way right before you get to Mountain View area. Presently, there was traffic as far as my eyes could see. Instantly, I became nervous, knowing that I could miss my important meeting to close the sale.
Let me tell you a little about the client. He’s a self-made millionaire who began his journey 15 years ago selling recycled tyres. A no nonsense and stubborn type of guy whose industrious habit pushed him to making excersise books and stationery which he supplies
to schools all over Nairobi. Business has been dwindling yet he remained stubborn, never wanting to try advertising.
Especially of the digital variety. I had been chasing him for months. Today was the day I would finally get him to sign up and
have him on board.
Well then. Here I was with beads of sweat now beginning to roll down my temple, threatening to soil my immaculate white shirt. I now began to ponder on the best route or option to take to get to Westlands quickly.
A motorbike was the very first thought. Boda Boda, as we call them, are usually the easiest consideration. “Hmm, they’ll get me there quite fast actually.”, I thought to myself. No sooner had the thought ran through my mind than I remembered I was wearing my beige suit. At the succeeding thought of the the unnecessary risk, that is, going to arrive with a dirty outfit because of the wet roads, I dismissed the idea.
What happened next was luck. The kind of luck that you see in the movies.
Coming to a stop was a clean, white Toyota Axio. It caught my attention for a bit because of it’s shine then my mind wandered off elsewhere. Still busy figuring out how to get to Westlands.
“Psst! Harun, would you like to ShareCab?” shouted the occupant of the passenger seat. I had paid no attention to the occupants until now. It was Stanley. My next door neighbor.
“Oh, hey Stan. Good morning!” I shouted back, noticing the smiling female driver who was smartly dressed in a blue blouse and dark grey coat. At the back was also another lady who was engrossed in the day’s paper. “Looks like Stan’s having a great morning” I thought to myself.
“Hop in bro. Let’s ShareCab” Stanley continued.
Without thinking about the traffic and the possibility of sitting in it for an hour, I got into the back and sat next to the lady. Saying hello to everyone wasn’t really a priority. I just wanted to get to Westlands in a clean suit and on time.
“You look like you’re in a hurry. Is there a problem, sir?” asked the driver.
“Yes, I’m actually going for a meeting. I’m afraid I could be getting there late. There’s a client I’m signing up and I’d really like to impress him and earn that commission”, I answered.
“Sir, would you kindly allow me to use an alternative route to help your friend?” asked the lady to Stanley.
At this point, I realised that this was a cab. Leave alone the fact that Stan had been saying the word which I hadn’t been paying attention to. Perhaps because I thought it was a grammatically incorrect phrase.
“Sure, let’s help Harun in whatever way possible. Where are you going Harun?”
“Lions Place in Westlands.” I answered, almost not believing what was happening.
There was a turn off right ahead of us which was introduced by a brief lay by, just before Quaribu Inn. the driver embarked on that route and got in to what seemed an estate road with lots of corners.
It’s at this point that Stanley explained to me what he meant by the word ‘’.
“Harun, you must be very lucky today. First of all, meet my cousin Kagz. Don’t mind her and the newspaper. She loves to read”, he started.
“We got this new app called ShareCab that’s simply a cut above the rest and you can take my word for it” he continued.
“Hello Kagz? Nice to meet you. Stan, what do you mean it’s a cut above the rest? How is it different?”, I spoke as I put on my seatbelt, noticing that now we were in Loresho area and without traffic. I had never been on this route before
“This app was just launched in September and I think everyone needs to know about it. You save a lot, you pay less, you share a cab with at most two people, your security is guaranteed just in case and you know who you’re travelling with. Besides, you get to chose the gender of your driver.” he explained.
I was summarily in shock. What was I doing in September that made me miss this? It didn’t matter. I was sold!
“ it now!” I shouted. Everyone laughed. I could not believe that this kind of service existed.
We approached school lane and eventually, Lions Place. The trip had taken about 20 minutes and by that time, I had downloaded the app, created an account and signed up. This whole trip cost me Sh200 because we split the cost three ways. Needless to say, I became a ShareCab convert besides the fact that I got in time for my meeting, signed up the client, completed the sale and earned a neat commission thereafter.
I’ve been using ShareCab with my workmates and family since. You will want to try it.
Download from Google Play Store today.
What is ShareCab and how does it work?
is a professional taxi pooling app that gives users an experience to share a ride with other customers headed the same direction. It gets them to save on the ride through rewarding discounts.
The application also gives the driver a chance to generate more revenue through ferrying more than one customer at a time.
The In-App features make ShareCab safe, transparent, fair and affordable to use daily. You now have a choice as a passenger or driver on which service suits you best. The app allows riders to vet other ride-share customers, so that if a rider sees a profile they find worrying, they can deny the share request and it’s queued to a different rider.
For drivers, things get even more exciting! You DO NOT get daily commission cuts from whatever you earn! You just need to pay a Ksh. 2,000 flat rate fee every month!
The app is currently functioning in Nairobi and plans to expand to Mombasa, Kisumu, Kampala, Entebbe, Dar es salaam, Arusha, Kigali, Lagos, Accra, Capetown, Johannesburg, Gaberone
This will surely be the biggest app in Kenya!
Features and benefits of ShareCab
To the customer;
- Ultimate experience to share a ride with other customers headed towards the same direction and get to save on the fare through rewarding discounts based on shared rides up to a maximum of 2 other customers.
- Ability to see the profile of the driver and fellow customers and their ratings if you opt to share a ride.
- Ability to choose the gender of a driver before actually requesting for a cab.
- The privilege to either accept or reject share ride requests as per your wish based on the displayed profile.
- An SOS button as a safety measure. The button when pressed sends a notification to the Kenya police emergency number and the emergency contact of your loved one that you filled during the sign-up process in case you notice anything peculiar during a share ride trip. They have partnered with security teams to ensure that your travel is trouble free.
- In-App One Time Password (OTP) that allows customers to begin the ride. When your selected driver arrives at your destination, you have to share the one time password with him/her to enable you begin the trip.
- Ability to choose the final mode of payment at the end of a trip.
- Schedule feature for future pick–ups
- Ratings and feedback for all customers after a trip. Customers can rate up to 3 people, that is, the driver and the two other customers with whom they shared a ride with.
- Fare estimate for planning purposes which is subject to change based on weather, traffic and other factors.
- Return policy to ensure assistance in recovery of lost items. Fill in the lost and found form on their website and their customer care team will assist in the recovery process.
- Opportunity to know how far the driver is away from arriving in your destination time-wise through a time countdown.
- Ride history details fully available on the notification segment.
- Real time check as the journey progresses on the map.
- You are able to know how far you are from your intended destination as the time counts downs as you progress with your journey.
- Accuracy - the app works accurately, seeking to ensure customer satisfaction at all times.
To the driver;
- Ability to generate more revenue through ferrying more than one customer at a time and also based on the 0% commission.
- Countdown feature that gives the driver 15 seconds to decide whether they wish to pick the ride or not.
- Ability to set request radius within which the driver wishes to be receiving ride requests.
- Notifications for driver’s offline as soon as another driver picks up a customer within the same location.
- Drivers are able to see other drivers’ location within the same area.
- Shows the total amount of revenue collected per day via the payment dashboard.
- Ability to see a customer’s profile, current location, destination and their expected route trip on the map.
- Ratings and feedback for all customers after a trip to improve on ShareCab services to both customers and drivers.
- Drivers’ wallet that gives the driver ability to instantly withdraw their money from PayBill anytime, anywhere. No late payments.