The Ghana Online Drivers Association has begun a two-day sit-down strike in Takoradi in protest against some of the challenges they face in their line of work.

The Association, whose membership includes drivers from Bolt, Dryft, and Dropyn ride-sharing apps, has a list of demands including an increment in fare, better security for drivers, and access to authentic rider information.

The Convener of the Takoradi branch of the Ghana Online Drivers Association, Emmanuel Aboagye Cudjoe, spoke to Citi News about the issues that have led to the strike.

“We are demonstrating against Bolt because of some challenges we are facing in Takoradi. Low pricing, driver insecurity, cancellation of requests from passengers, and unnecessary blocks from Bolt are a few of the issues we have. Sometimes a driver may have an issue with a passenger he picked up and once the passenger makes a report on the app, regardless of the passenger being at fault, the driver gets blocked. But when the situation is reversed nothing is done about the passenger. The base price of Bolt is also too low. They rarely consider the fuel and maintenance expenses of drivers.”

Commenting on the issue of security, Mr. Cudjoe explained that customers who sign up for ride-sharing services are not subjected to the same standard of scrutiny as the drivers.

“Riders are allowed to create accounts with any username or email, and this poses a threat to the security of drivers because if anything bad happens to a driver, it will be very difficult for the police and even the app owners to trace the riders because a lot of the rider accounts are under aliases. There have been several instances where drivers have been attacked and when investigations are conducted, they are unable to get the culprits because they did not register with their valid identification documents which would have made it easier for them to be traced. If our issues are not addressed and Bolt does not fix their system, we are not going to work with them anymore because we are using our own cars and handling all the expenses that come with that,” he added.

Mr. Cudjoe, who stated that a new ride-sharing app will be launched soon, urged all riders to sign onto it when it is ready.

“By the grace of God, we are having a new app coming into the system which is being operated by our own patron, so we are urging all riders in Takoradi to start downloading The Black Ride app, because, from tomorrow, [Tuesday], all drivers are migrating from Bolt to the new platform.”