Why are Uber drivers in Nigeria circumventing the Uber app?

Uber is now not so new a word in the lexicon of Nigerian middle-class commuters. They relish it, they fancy it, they rely on it, and they recommend it. Uber has made commuting more reasonable, and a lot fair, more through its billing system, relative comfort, reliability and punctuality; and especially for the convenience and ease of calling cabs unlike what we are used to.

Just so I don’t feel too comfortable assuming everyone has experienced it, Uber is the “worldwide online transportation network company that operates the Uber app, allowing consumers with smartphones to submit a trip request which the software program then automatically sends to the Uber driver nearest to that consumer, alerting the driver to the location of the customer. The Uber app then automatically calculates the fare and transfers the payment to the driver.”

The service is now available in over 66 countries and 545 cities worldwide, including Lagos, Nigeria, where it might have started being abused or compromised.

I was in the U.S. twice in 2016, and for several weeks on both trips, I commuted extensively via Uber. On my way to O’Hare airport en route BWI, the Uber cab came in n two minutes, and within two minutes of also exiting the Arrival lounge at BWI in Baltimore, I was also on my way out of the airport. Our conversation was cool, so was the warmth, even in winter. Cool yet, was the billing, similar to metered taxi.

Scene 1

Back in Lagos, Nigeria, I needed to Uber it to MM2 en route Abuja. The app reported a driver was 8 minutes away, although he got to me some 10 minutes later. The drive was okay, and I paid cash, N1,200 precisely, a peculiar option fitting the peculiar Nigerian cash-based economic environment.

On getting to Abuja, I received a text message from the driver who took me to MM2. He introduced himself, describing my last Uber experience, and offering to pick me ‘directly’ the next time I may require a cab service. And in Nigeria, that won’t be lost on anyone. Two things quickly came to mind: convenience, and more importantly, security.

All I’ve ever needed to do to get a cab lately was to submit a trip request to the Uber app, and pronto, I have one ready to pick me. But what if this newfound driver was way away from wherever I was requesting his service? On security, I know the driver is registered with Uber, and his details could quickly be tracked in the event of an accident, theft, abduction or unfair services, including comfort and billing; but a cover won’t be guaranteed if I did not submit a trip request via the Uber app.

A third prick was the thought of a registered Uber driver being unfaithful to his contract with Uber, and attempting to ‘poach’ an Uber consumer. I had come to take it for granted that all hiring and payment was to be handled exclusively through the Uber app and not with the driver, and that Uber cannot accept street hails. And just to satisfy my curiosity, I decided to call in the morning I was returning, if only to get to the root of this. “I’m the one you took to the MM2, and I’m on my way to Lagos, I was wondering if you could pick me, blah blah blah”. His “Oh, yes, I remember”, sounded more to me like an auto response.

Now, for the same distance back home, and driving against traffic, he still asked that I pay N3,500, about three times what the app charged on the reverse trip. Alarmed, I challenged his charges, and then we went on haggling; he incurred surge pricing and all, so I ended the call. He moved on to sending multiple text messages until he rested at N2,500. By text, I reminded him I had paid less than half of that for the same trip the last time, and I’d be better off just using the app.

Scene 2

Back to the airport in Lagos, you can guarantee regular cab drivers competing to take you, but I wanted to Uber. And right there under the MM2 canopy, just before I could request a trip, someone in an ‘Uber-qualifying’ car made an eye contact, and a gesture, mumbling “Uber”, and nodded in confirmation to my quip of “Uber?”

So I went over, and as I entered, I asked again if he was an Uber cab, and he confirmed it. So I asked how he was going to commence or activate the journey since I didn’t request the trip. He just asked me where I was going and also instantly mentioned that N3,500. Never mind, I said, please let me come down so I may send a trip request. But he won’t let me go, resorting to haggling. I dropped at MM1 in the end, and from there, I called a ‘proper Uber’ which then took me for N1,300.

Why have these drivers tried to circumvent their partners, and why are we always this way? And why should systems that are already taken for granted all over the world have problems being implemented here in Nigeria? Why can’t we be faithful to commitments, and contracts, and models? Why do we the hold the culture, and the belief that we cannot make a decent living, unless we circumvent systems? This is a downside to the use of a beautiful app. And this is us!

Okay, maybe apps do get abused, maybe people always try to find their way round systems, maybe there always will be people of mischief, but when systems do get compromised, or abused, you’d expect it to be by the person at the end of the chain, the third party, not the man who is involved in building it, in working it; not the owner, not the partners.

Uber is about to be, or is already being bastardized.

This piece is inconclusive, and draws no conclusions; it’s just an observation, and should be treated accordingly.

By ‘Dele Dele-Olukoju, Marketing Communication strategist and publisher of the online Marketing Communication Digest. He writes from Lagos, Nigeria. @deleolukoju +234 807 481 2389.