Members of the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria, Edo State Chapter, staged a peaceful protest yesterday against what they described as exploitative practices by app-based transport companies in Benin.
They called on Bolt, Uber and In-Drive to treat drivers with dignity. The protesters carried placards with different inscriptions, such as “E-hailing Drivers in Benin are Humans”, “They Have Families and Responsibilities and Cannot Survive With Your Unreasonable Prices and Exploitative Commission”, “Bolt, Uber and In-Drive, Edo Drivers are not Your Slaves”, “Bolt, Uber and In-Drive Reduce Your Commission and Increase the Pricing,” among others.
The state chairman of the union, Russell Eghaghe, said the situation had become unbearable for drivers, who he insisted were being treated unfairly by the companies.
While pleading with the government to consider the drivers in decision-making, he deplored the pricing by the app companies, lamenting that they also face harassment from the local task force.
He noted that many of the drivers dare not go to the central park to pick or drop passengers, as they risk arrest by the local council task forces who would arrest them for not buying tickets.
Eghaghe said: “How can a driver carry a passenger from BIU (Benson Idahosa University) to Ugbor Road for N3,200, and from that amount, the app company will collect about 25 per cent? When they increase their percentage, they don’t notify the drivers. So also when they reduce their prices, they don’t inform the drivers.
“We are just there. But look at the tools we are using, data and fuel, everything has increased. Yet, all these expenses fall on the drivers. Yet they complain that we work with rickety cars. How can we repair our cars in that kind of situation?” He urged the companies to arrange a meeting with the drivers to address the issues.
Vice chairman of the union, Victor Shuah, raised security concerns. He stated that while drivers were rigorously profiled by the companies, the same was not done for passengers, adding that it had resulted in serious tragic incidents.
Shuah said some passengers use other people’s phone numbers to register with horrific names like ‘Killer’ or even ‘Devil’, but are not profiled, lamenting that a lot of drivers had lost their lives, and valuables, including cars.
He added: “Once you report anything that threatens your life to Bolt, they will delete your profile. The same Bolt has told us that if you have any problem with a rider that threatens your life, you should not report to the police. But they cannot protect you.”
Addressing the protesters who stormed the premises of the Edo secretariat of Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Benin City, the state chairman of NUJ, Festus Alenkhe, urged them to remain peaceful and avoid allowing miscreants to hijack the protest.
Alenkhe advised the unionists to engage the state government through the Ministry of Transportation to work out a proper payment structure and address the issue of harassment from local councils task forces.
