Bike-Hailing-On-Demand: A Gokada Review
What is Gokada?
Gokada is an on-demand motorbike hailing/transportation service which has its headquarter in Lagos Nigeria. Gokada is the first motorbike hailing application to start in Nigeria. Customers can order a motorbike ride through the company's website, or by using the company's geo-location-based mobile application.
Gokada was started in 2017 by a Nigerian entrepreneur named Deji Oduntan and a Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur named Fahim Saleh. The bike hailing service originally launched and started its operations in the Yaba Axis of Lagos state and has extended its operations to other areas such as the Victoria Island and the Lekki Axis Lagos, Nigeria.
Since the beginning of time, man has always needed to move from one point to another in search of food, shelter, safety, clothing, or pleasure. This need has brought out to the development of several means and forms of transportation, from riding on the back of horses to cars and taxi systems and even on-demand private jet services. The growth in population has brought about an increase in the transportation industry. Vehicles especially cars and trucks increased in numbers to serve the ever-growing population and this has led to traffic congestion in the major cities around the world. One of the companies that have been trying to provide a solution to this problem is Gokada.
The company makes use of bikes with engine capacities of 200 cc and above meeting up with the government standards for load-bearing bikes on major Lagos roads.
How to use Gokada
The service requires a Gokada mobile application that all riders must download to their Android or iOS-based phone, sign up, enter a valid phone number, enter in pick up location, and request for a ride. Riders can then request a ride from a driver nearby. Once the ride is confirmed, the application would show the verified driver's name, bike details, and photo, after which the driver would call to confirm the request and destination. All Gokada drivers are fully licensed motorbike operators.
The payment method is cash only.
Using Gokada is very easy here is how it works:
- Simply open up the Gokada application and turn on your GPS(if it is turned off).
- Reload the list of riders that are close to your location and call the nearest rider to you.
- Wait for your rider to get to your location then start your trip.
- When your rider gets you to your destination, your trip ends.
- Pay the cash equivalent of your transport fare estimate to the rider.
- The end.
P.S: You can always check a price estimate for your ride in the application before you order for the ride.
The Idea
The idea of having on-demand transportation is not a new one. Its use has been over-emphasized by Uber and has since been implemented by several companies such as Taxify, BlackJet, Didi, Max.ng, and so on. What makes Gokada different is its use of motorbikes and their fixation for the Lagos market.
The Market
With a population of over 21 million people, the need for public transportation has always been on the high side in metropolitan Lagos. About 95% of daily trips are done by road, primarily by buses and taxis, private cars, and commercial motorcycles. Of this number of daily transportation, a high percentage ranging from 80% to 85% were made by public transport. The famous Lagos State traffic and the ban of 100cc motorbikes (okada) on the major roads by the Lagos state government came up with a sizeable market for Gokada to provide fast and affordable transportation to the general public in Lagos.
The Execution
Gokada was created with the aim of serving a wide range of users by providing a simple, lite-kind mobile application that can be used on most mobile devices which includes low-end smartphones. This is a great idea because it makes it possible for most smartphone users to use Gokada without worrying about memory issues and phone performance.
Finding a rider on the application is very easy and straightforward however getting one rider to pick you up is an entirely different thing. The issue here is that there is nothing that shows that a Gokada rider on currently on a trip so it is possible for all the riders that are near you to be on a trip and you wouldn't know up until you call all of them. This also makes it possible for riders to take another user to their destination at your own expense even after agreeing to come to pick you up. Isn't that terrible?.
Another issue with Gokada is with the way fare estimates and payments work. Since the user and rider’s application are not in sync during the trip, fare estimates mean nothing to them both. Apparently, some riders would just tell you how much they want (and these prices are usually a lot higher than the estimate that you saw before you called them) regardless of the fare estimate and leave if you do not accept it. This really takes out the ‘G' from Gokada and makes it become a regular Okada.
Competition
The major competition in the market that Gokada operates is Max.ng which was the first motorbike hailing service in Nigeria. It was launched sometime in the second half of 2017 and has not been as popular as Gokada in recent times. Although the CEO of Gokada says that they see Max.ng as counterparts, not competitors, Max.ng is currently seen as the only other known player in the Nigerian motorbike hailing market as at the time of writing this post.
In conclusion, Gokada is one of the few startups that genuinely solve a real problem in Nigeria. They have the capability and potential to become a leader in the African ride-hailing market if they can adopt the best growth strategy for the Nigerian market and also provide a better all-round user experience. Let’s see what the future holds for them.
