Yegomoto Meter
The lengthy bargaining for a better deal with moto taxi operators will soon become a thing of the past as a new innovation takes over.
‘Yego Innovision Limited’, a local IT company has designed a meter that helps moto taxi operators to calculate transport fees electronocally.
When you stop a moto taxi for a ride in Kigali, you notice a red gadget similar to a smart phone branded Yego moto.
On a Yegomoto gadget, a meter which also includes GPS features calculates the distance traveled during a given period of time and corresponding price.
The unit price is Rwf300 for every 2 kilometers of the trip.
Previously passengers would spend more time bargaining.
Karanvir Singh, the Chief Executive Officer of Yego Innovision Limited told KT Press; “our system comes to save time spent while bargaining with moto taxi operators.”
“At the end of the day, we are also satisfied with the price we pay on transport because everything is calculated according to the distance of the trip. It’s value for money,” He said.
According to Robert Nishimwe 28, a moto taxi operator under Yego Moto, the new system “has zero margin of error.”
Yegomoto riders are given trainings before and after joining this network
Nishimwe also believes he is benefiting more. In the past, he would pick a client from the city center to Remera at Rwf 700 but today the meter charges Rwf1, 000 as a fixed price.
“Some passengers still misunderstand the meter thinking we are charging a lot,” he said adding that there are clients addicted to bargaining.
On the other hand, there are advantages and disadvantages as the clients who have used Yegomoto told KT Press.
“With Yego Moto I no longer waste much time negotiating with the moto taxi operators and that is time saving,” Angel Uwimana, a student at University of Rwanda, College of Technology told KT Press.
‘But in some cases, the journey that would cost Rwf1000 goes up to Rwf1, 200 which I find a disadvantage,” she added.
‘Yegomoto’ is only operating in Kigali but intends to extend to secondary cities.
For moto taxi operators to get registered under Yegomoto network, they are required to have a national ID, driving license and a valid insurance.
According to Karanvir, this helps in keeping and collecting data that can be used by different stakeholders like Rwanda National Police (RNP), and Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority.
In the near future, Yegomoto will be able to allow e-payment.
“By the end of November, we will start accepting payments by mobile money and a designated electronic card that one will tap on the Yegomoto gadget,” Karanvir said.
1 comment
I welcome any tech innovations. However i wonder what pain point this innovation is solving. The tap and go cards solved the pain point by bus owners to keep track of cash collections by passengers hence included an important motivation for adoption of the technology. For the moto owners, of course they want more money hence the reason they quote a higher price. Unless this gadget is going to increase their income and i dont believe you can convince them that they will get more customers through the gadget. Now if this was somehow to be used by the consumer of course it would be adopted quickly. Why? Because it solves the customers pain point: That of being charged highly for this service.
Another thing, seems you may have bi-passed the recognised and powerful moto associations. If you are trying to create another moto associations you risk facing a lot of opposition to this effort. I would advise that the talk should have been with the moto cooperatives and recognize where they are having issues and solve that need.
This is an interesting watch and wait development.
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