BOLT Driver’s Google Play Store rating had dropped to 1.1 star last week, according to Business Insider Africa. The unexpected turn of events and the low rating was due to ongoing Bolt driver protests.
The drivers are said to be protesting because of Bolt’s recent operational changes, which they believe are discriminatory.
A driver, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, accused the ride hailing service of favoring riders over drivers on a regular basis.
Bolt drivers have a slew of complaints on the Google Play Store. An example is Uche Oti who said:
“The current app seems to favour the riders instead of your partners, the drivers. Except if otherwise there’s a plot to kick most of your drivers whose source of living is driving, the following should be looked into: 1. Driver’s rating 2. Bonuses giving to riders: quite ridiculous when you end a trip only to find out that you are collecting only 50% of the fare. What if I was hoping to make up money to buy fuel or something? There’s nothing wrong if riders are giving between 5-10% bonus.”
Other drivers have complained that when a rider cancels a ride, Bolt now penalizes them.
According to Ejiako Joel, drivers may be penalized if they cancel a ride after waiting for the rider for about 20 minutes at the pickup location.
He went on to call the new features irrational, implying that they are part of Bolt’s strategy to get rid of some of its drivers.
“Once driver rate or scores goes below 4.5 they block you for ever. They’ve made drivers slaves to riders by begging for rating, this is so annoying,” Akinwale Adeiya complained.
Meanwhile, the enraged drivers believe that, since Bolt is bent on “frustrating” them, they should repay the favor by bombarding the Bolt Driver app with a barrage of low scores. Their prediction is that Google will eventually remove the app from its store, resulting in a loss for everyone.
According to Femi Akin-Laguda, Country Manager at Bolt in Nigeria, he said the complaints have been received and the company is working with the drivers to resolve the dispute.
“Bolt respects the right of all our users to raise issues and concerns that they would like to bring to the attention of our team. We can confirm that we have received multiple comments about a recent operational change via the Google Playstore and other channels.
“We are currently communicating with our drivers and educating them about these changes, which represent a significant improvement for our industry.
“We are confident that with further communication, our drivers will understand the objectives and practicalities of the introduced changes are to the benefit of transparency and improved service conditions for drivers and align with our goal of building an even more equitable future,” Bolt’s Country Manager said.
When asked if his company is concerned about Google removing the Bolt Driver app due to low ratings. He said no stating that:
“We can also confirm that we have a positive relationship with Google, and temporary app rating changes do not impact an app’s availability to new and existing users. Therefore, our customers can rest assured that the Bolt apps will remain accessible via the Google Playstore, Apple Appstore and the Huawei App gallery.
“We will continue to engage with any of our customers with ongoing concerns, especially our drivers, and we encourage them to share their comments and concerns via in-app or through the dedicated driver support email,” he assured.
Bolt is one of the most popular ride-hailing services in Nigeria, where it mainly competes with Uber. The company announced last year that it had teamed up with Metro Africa Express (MAX) to co-finance the purchase of 10,000 low-emission cars for its Nigerian drivers. The automobiles are said to be worth $20,000 each.
