GoMyWay.com Unleashes Carpooling, Traffic Solution in Lagos

GoMyWay, a ride-sharing marketplace connecting passengers with ride owners going along the same route, said it has secured over $100,000 funding from investors to develop carpooling infrastructure aimed at abating the tide of increasing traffic gridlock in Lagos State and beyond.

Speaking to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek in Lagos, 24-year old Damilola Teidi, co-founder/managing director of GoMyWay.com, said that the platform offers passengers the cheapest and more convenient way to travel on long-distance trips across the country or simply to commute within the city.

She said that, with co-founders/investors like Sim Shagaya, a serial entrepreneur and Bill, formerly of the Amazon and Co-Creation Hub providing technical support, GoMyWay’s sustainability is assured.

According to Wikipedia (research), in 2009, carpooling represented 43.5% of all trips in the United States and 10% of commute trips.

Teidi told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, “As a ride owner, your co-travelers pay you an agreed contribution that will help cover some of your travel expenses such as fuel costs. Asides significantly reducing your travel costs, whether as a passenger or ride owner, you get to make new friends, meet potential business partners and conveniently arrive at your destination. In addition, you get to contribute to protecting the environment”.

Safety
On safety, she said the GoMyWay community is safe as they have in place different verification levels for all members and a dedicated support team to monitor activities on the platform.
“At GoMyWay, we believe travelling should be cheap, fun and safe (a hat-trick really) and we have built this platform to ensure it is. This is NOT another taxi service. It is simply regular people using their resources in a smarter way,” she explained.

Find A Ride
She urged potential passengers to enter their route information and click the “Find” button via the website. “A list of available rides will be displayed. Click on any of the rides to view more details, book the ride or ask the ride owner questions”.

Book A Seat
“Click the “contact car owner” button on the ride’s page, add a private message to the ride owner and hit send. You can also call the ride owner.  The ride owner will be notified of your request and you will be notified If/when your request is accepted”.
She further charged the users to be at the agreed departure point on time and pay the ride owner the amount stated as contribution for the ride.
According to her, the platform since launch in June 2015 has recorded patronage of over 1,500 subscribers and others who have engaged on inter-state travels.
Speaking on the expected challenges, Teidi said that Nigerians are usually sceptical about platform like GoMyWay, adding that carpooling has been found to struggle in some areas due to its inability to accommodate en route stops or changes to working times/patterns.
She said, “In some jurisdictions, to counter this some schemes offer 'sweeper services' with later running options, or a 'guaranteed ride home' arrangement with a local taxi company”.
She hinted that if a carpooling network lacks a certain mass of participants, it may be difficult to find a match for certain trips.
“And Nigerians are usually skeptical about riding with strangers, raising concerns over security of sharing a vehicle with strangers, though in reality the risk of crime is small. So, we are not relenting on advocacy, but this is a sure way to tackle Lagos traffic and beyond. That is why we are using internet carpooling schemes like reputation systems that flag problematic users and allow responsible users to build up trust capital, such systems greatly increase the value of the website for the user community. We allow potential riders to upload their driving licenses on the site as part of prove they are genuine and not on the wrong side of the law. We also have a system that enables people to verify about the riders before embarking on the travel. We believe this platform will thrive,” Teidi said.
On his part, Tunji Eleso, a director at Cc-Hub, said that GoMyWay is a prove that solutions to social challenges in Nigeria and Africa as a Continent lies with the private sector.
He noted that it was high time African Continent tackled the multifaceted transportation infrastructural dilemmas using IT, adding that CC-Hub’s interest in GoMyWay was to draw publics’ attention the ingenuity of locally developed software applications and the relevance in tackling global challenges.