Firm unveils online ticketing platform to ease road travel challenges

An online ticketing system, QuickBus, has promised to get Africans moving from City to City by road in a way that’s stress-free, efficient and enjoyable.

The company is expanding its reach across Africa with its operational launch in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The start-up has a presence in Kenya, Angola, South Africa, and Uganda, and is now the most popular site for booking buses in Africa.

The firm noted that its solution is vital to a continent where most of the population travel by road.

Nigeria’s busiest airport only recorded 4.25 million domestic travellers in 2018, less than five per cent of the country’s population, emphasizing the popularity of road travel. Despite this, travelling across Nigerian states by road is primarily a manual process. It’s a stressful process for customers and leaves transport companies without essential data points to offer better experiences.

QuickBus said with its launch, it has fixed many of these problems and that it offers a ticketing service that lets customers buy tickets, book seats online, and with options for different operators in the space, so passengers can choose which works best for them.

“When you book a trip on QuickBus, you will soon get the added benefit of sharing your trip with your loved ones. This way, they can track your bus in real-time while you travel, providing that extra layer of peace of mind that’s hard to put money on.”\

“While a few transport companies now have websites that allow customers to book seats, it remains a tricky experience. It’s common for customers to book seats online and arrive at the bus terminal on your travel date only to be told that their seats have been taken.”

It feels like these companies have tacked on online booking only as afterthoughts. They don’t consider digital integration as part of the customer experience, and this is one problem QuickBus is going to solve, by providing booking channels such as USSD, WhatsApp, and Agency Banking.

“While many of QuickBus’ solutions translate into big wins for customers, ignoring the startup’s potential to impact the transport business is hard. In Nigeria, the transportation business is tricky, with many transporters closing operations in under three years.

“Finding customers, ensuring a great user experience, preventing theft, and staying competitive are challenging responsibilities to juggle. Many operators know that the transport business, which is still primarily analogue, needs to change, and QuickBus provides these operators with a route to ensuring they get business intelligence from their operations, which adds value to their business”, the firm added.