In an article done by Elite Daily last year, some of the reasons why New York was considered the most loved cities of the world had reasons such as never needing a designated driver, not needing a car, and taxis are considered relatively inexpensive compared to other places in the world. Taxis are considered one of New York’s landmarks and out of the 46,000 available taxi’s, there, 170 of them are driven by women.
And now, Easy Taxi one of the fastest growing booking applications in Nairobi can also boast of their gender mix of drivers, having 7 female drivers to date since they launched in Kenya last year. This number may not significantly stand out as compared to the numbers of female drivers in NewYork, but it shouldn‘t be considred a small feat either, given that in many parts of the world and more so in Africa, driving a taxi has been considered a profession that is predominantly owned by men.
The preference for female drivers is one that female passengers seem to appreciate, epsecially when travelling at night. “I feel like there’s a lot less to worry about when I find that the taxi I’ve requested for is driven by a woman; there’s more assurance of my safety,“ said Susan, a frequent customer of Easy Taxi.
Helen, a 27 year old taxi driver also shares that her experience. “I have many customers who are regular users of my service and there are many who prefer to wait for me to transport them when I am busy, rather than use a taxi driver they don’t know; this means that I rarely have to station my vehicle at any base to attain new customers because the regulars keep me busy”, says Helen. She works almost 7 days a week until Sunday morning after the night shift, where she tries to get some rest during the day before resuming her busy schedule all over again.
The female drivers takes their jobs just as seriously as if it were an office job, dressing appropriately, keeping the vehicle clean and even extending the courtesy of opening the door for their customers when picking them up from their destination. They enjoy their work and are especially proud to make this difference in a primarily male dominated profession.
How Easy Taxi works
After downloading the Easy Taxi global app –available for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices– passengers confirm their pickup point and order a cab with a single click. In seconds a confirmation screen shows the name, photo and car model/plate of their pre-screened taxi driver plus the map with the real-time position of the vehicle. Options like in-app payment, corporate accounts, favorite addresses, selection of service features, special discounts, passenger-driver messaging and ride history are available according to location.
