Bolt, Uber drivers park vehicles as fuel scarcity bite harder

A commuter, who identified herself as Kenny Idowu, revealed to this writer how long she had to wait to get a ride after placing an order.

“I was at Surulere on Monday, and I ordered a Bolt ride to take me to Magodo. To my greatest surprise, I couldn’t get a nearby ride even though I was in town. The one that later accepted my order took over 15 minutes to arrive while I waited for him patiently under the sun,” Idowu stated.

Confirming that ride-hailing service riders have not been working in their full capacities as they used to, another commuter, who doesn’t want to be mentioned in this report, shared his experience.

His words: “These days, it has become difficult to get a ride after placing your order. I prefer to use Uber compared to other ride-hailing services for some reasons, but I’ve recently been met with disappointment a couple of times. I was even thinking maybe it’s because I was using Uber, I tried other apps, but the experience is the same. The truth is that not a lot of them are currently working, and this is causing us distress.”

Corroborating the claims about ride-hailing services in recent times, a Uber driver, who spoke anonymously on the matter, lamented the difficulty he faced in securing fuel.

“Imagine buying an incomplete 10 litres of fuel for N4,000 in this very harsh economy… How many people can do that and still work with it? A lot of my colleagues have parked their vehicles since the fuel scarcity began for different reasons. Some of them it is due to the fact that they can’t stress to get the commodity, others, it’s because they are scared of buying petrol that would damage their vehicle,” he stated.