Vaya Lift No Longer The Cheapest Ride Hailing Service

Last night Cassava SmartTech shifted the pricing structure for their Vaya Lift application. When they came on to the scene many of us were pleasantly surprised by the fact that they were the most affordable option in the market. It’s not usually the case that Econet’s products are known for being cheaper than the competition.

Fast forward, 6 weeks from the launch of Vaya and the pricing has been adjusted upwards. The following message was sent to their partner commissions:

Good Day Partners,

Thank you for your patience and continued support as we endeavour to improve Vaya. Please find below the adjusted partner commissions per km for Vaya services.

• Vaya Basic – 0.86/km
• Vaya 7 Seater – 1.00/km
• Vaya Lux – 1.96/km
• Vaya Truck – 1.59/km

The commissions above are after taxes and platform fees.

These are already on the platform and are in effect as of 5 am today. Let us go out there and continue to give memorable Vaya experiences.

#VayaLetsGo

These raised fees have shifted the pricing upwards and here’s a before and after of the pricing of a ride from our offices to the RBZ in the CBD;

One problem with the pricing issue is we are not sure how much these drivers were getting before this but this must be a significant hike once you consider the fact that the end users were being promised tariffs of 0.85c/km prior. There are other factors such as traffic and time it takes to get to the destination that could affect pricing but it’s safe to say that Vaya’s pricing is now significantly higher than it was

Hwindi is now clearly the cheaper option and this is a win for the competition that has been trading blows with Vaya on and off the roads. Hwindi became much more popular shortly after Vaya’s launch when they kinda (but not explicitly) stated that Vaya Lift had copied their platform. Hwindi now has a competitive advantage and it will be interesting to see how things play out in the ride-hailing space.

What’s behind the price increase?

Well, over the past few weeks there has been a lower than usual number of cars when you open the Vaya application. Ordering was more difficult and sometimes drivers were cancelling drives which didn’t make economic sense. Initially, the assumption was that the fuel crisis was the biggest reason behind this. Apparently, another issue was that drivers were becoming disgruntled because they were not making enough and this is what led to the change.

We tried to reach out to Cassava SmartTech for comment but they are yet to respond and confirm if the pricing has indeed changed and what the reason for this shift is.

also read, Check Out Zimbabwe’s Uber For Parcels

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