Easy Taxi debuts in Abuja

By Stanley Onyekwere

Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) would soon be enjoying a more efficient and robust taxi service, as Nigeria’s Lagos based leading taxi hailing company, Easy Taxi debuts in the Territory.

Easy Taxi is an electronic based taxi-call-system, using a free Smartphone application that enables passengers in just two clicks from the comfort of your home or office, to access trusted and fast taxi services within the city, at any time of the day.

Announcing the arrival of the innovative taxi service, yesterday, Founder and Managing Director of Easy Taxi, Bankole Cardoso, said it’s a very convenient way to get taxis using innovation to help users get taxi very quickly and safe in and around the FCT.

He said 100 taxis are already in its fleet to service the city with prompt response to passenger’s call for taxi service within the city.

According to him, upon request from users, the system will alert all taxis within a radius while those available would reply giving estimated time of arrival while details of the driver are flagged for the passenger for easy recognition.

“To request, you download the application through the internet. It only takes you two clicks to have a driver coming to pick you, so you don’t have to make a call, ask your friend does him or her know one taxi driver or the other.

“When you request for Easy Taxi through the internet, you are going to see the driver’s name, his phone number, the type of car he is driving, so you know exactly which car you are looking for.

 “We are bringing our service to Abuja, in Lagos we have a lot of patronage, and people like us, and they like us because it’s very safe and easy way to commute around the city,”  Bankole explained.

He said the system has been in operation in Lagos since July 2013, with a lot of patronage, because it’s very safe and trusted taxi service, which is what the company is offering its prospective customers in Abuja.

He however noted that the company actually started in Abuja, precisely about six weeks ago, but is still in the recruitment phase, just getting drivers into the system.

“It’s a very new, and we are giving a driver that doesn’t know how to operate a smart, a smart phone. So we are teaching even from the first stage of unlocking the phase to the last detail, so it takes time.  We are not marking yet, but the drivers in our pool now are telling others that this thing works.

“It takes time to convince the drivers, but that’s what we are working on, and by mid-July to early August, we should be really up and running in Abuja.

He said the new system which would complement the Federal Capital Territory Administration’s efforts for safe intra-city transportation, also aims to create trusted taxi culture in the country.

Peoples Daily recalls Easy Taxi was founded in 2011 in Brazil and has since expanded globally, covering the network of 27 countries and more than 80 cities, growing at the rate of three cities per month. As of November 2013, the company reported it reached the number of 3mln users.] More than 80’000 taxi drivers are affiliated with an Easy Taxi network.