News24 writes that a new e-hailing business, which only employs drivers who can speak Afrikaans, has been launched in Centurion and Pretoria. Called Wanatu, which is a play on the Afrikaans expression “Waarnatoe?” (English: Where to?), the company, which is funded by private investors, was launched in October last year. While speaking Afrikaans competently is a prerequisite for drivers employed by Wanatu, CEO Judith van der Walt says anyone can use the service as the platform’s app has an English translation button for users.
Afrikaans doesn’t have to be the home language of its employees, with Van der Walt saying its drivers are from various demographic groups. While the service wants to compete with the likes of Uber and Bolt, Van der Walt says it is also focusing on school e-hailing and airport shuttle services. She says the group cannot compete with the likes of Bolt on price. “We want to provide a service to a market that didn’t even see e-hailing as an option before because they felt it was unsafe.”
Each car has seven tracking devices and drivers have panic buttons, which alert armed response companies Fidelity ADT and Brinant. The company also has a control room that monitors the drivers and if it notices anything suspicious on camera, it alerts the armed response personnel. The group directly employs 90 drivers who transport passengers in a fleet of Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid vehicles. The company says it employs drivers rather than subcontracting their services as a safety precaution.
The drivers keep the vehicles, handing them over to other drivers after their shift ends. “They earn a salary whether they do one ride or 50 rides for the day, and the reason for that is we do not want to motivate volumes of rides,” says Van der Walt. “We want to make sure that when that driver gets into the vehicle, he performs his duties within our protocols and our rules, and that means you’re not allowed to speed. You’re not allowed to drive through a red robot, and we monitor that. We’ve got cameras in the vehicles, we’ve got driver behaviour software, where we monitor and motivate our drivers on their driving scores. And they also get incentivised in terms of that.”
More than a third of its clients are children, the elderly and people living with disabilities. While the service is currently based in Pretoria and Centurion, there are plans to expand it to other parts of the country, including Cape Town. The only prerequisite for using the app is that customers have to be within a 25km radius of Centurion or Pretoria. While the group does offer transport services to Johannesburg and to both the Lanseria, Wonderboom and OR Tambo airports, these drives have to be booked via its contact centres and not through the app.
The group has received more than 1 000 applications to date from prospective drivers, who have to go through a rigorous process to qualify as a driver for the group. Apart from screening for criminal records, drivers are interviewed and must pass a practical driving test. The group also offers a voluntary driver training programme which includes defensive driving techniques and other skills. While the group didn’t disclose who its investors are, R2 of every ride is donated to charitable organisation, Solidariteit Helpende Hand, which is linked to trade union Solidarity.
by Nick Wilson