Well, between Bolt Taxi, Uber X series and Little cab, which is the most reliable service to use? or even where do low trip rates lie? If you’ve had any of these questions, then worry not we have Uber in the blue corner, Bolt in the green one as Little cab streams from the Yellow side.

The Price difference

All 3 taxi hailing services, Uber, Bolt, and Little cab have different price estimations depending on the distance covered encompassed to the current traffic situations. In Africa, all 3 services hike prices during on-peak hours and times when riders are beyond the maximum rate. So, the cost per trip is usually not static but instead calculated basing on these native figures per hailing service.

	Bolt (Ugx)	Uber (Ugx)	Little (Ugx)
Base Rate	950	1100	1100
Fare Per Km	600	750	750
Time (per minute)	150	150	150
Minimun Fare	4500	3000	4000
Ride Cancellation	N/A	3000	N/A

Reliability

In this digital age, every successful technology based platform is using an app to make things happen. It’s to this same craze that all taxi-hailing services ship apps for both riders and drivers. As a matter of fact, having an app is the first step towards maximum reliability for all riders relying on the service, even when Uber and Little allow you to ride without a smartphone.

It’s important to realize that even with a bullish name in the ride-hailing industry, you can’t trust a hailing service until you taste its fruits with a quick ride. So, we tried taking trips with Uber, Bolt, and Little for a sum of results about their reliability.

Luckily, all 3 services are more of the same as per the driver response rates to the time used by the app to notify a nearby driver. However, reliability of the services changes during on-peak hours where getting a driver becomes a hectic trap with less responses in time.

On the other hand, Bolt has 3 hailing options as Uber follows with 2 and Little with 1. Bolt Taxi, Bolt XL and Bolt Go are those packed to the former Taxify branded app as Uber drags Uber X and XL as its Taxi hailing options while Little features only 1 option branded as Basic to its app. So, Bolt gives you more choices as Little gives you all the choices in one package without phrasing car types.

The Best Service between Bolt, Uber, and Little

A great service is ranked by its trip costs, reliability and support response rate. In the Taxi hailing zone, we tried contacting customer lines of the 3 services and Uber was much responsive as compared to the remaining 2 services. In a like manner, Little cab as well shuffles up with the best rates during on-peak hours but loses to Uber due to its high Minimum fare of UGX 4500.

More so, only Uber and Little allow riders to request trips without necessarily having an app leaving Bolt out of the equation. In fact, this saves alot of space since you can choose to always rely on your phone browser to request trips instead of downloading a hailing app.

In summary, if you’re to compare the 3 popular services in Africa, you can barely skip the lines of Uber which beats Little by only having multiple hailing options of Uber X, XL, and Uber Boda coupled with a pile of rider benefits like Insurance on the Go. Other than that, Uber still rules as that low trip rates service beating its 2 competitors with only a minimum fare ditch to Little and reliability to Bolt.

As we thought that the service would be quitting the industry after several rider comments and a heavy competitive wave. It’s when Taxify decided to trash its old name for a new fast, efficient and reliable look embedded in a new service name dubbed as “BOLT” close to the world’s fastest man identity.

In Uganda, Bolt is now a new service that will take on the giant in Taxi hailing “Uber” that bowed to the Lite volution, and the Boda hailing Lion of the yard SafeBoda that has never silenced its cashless movement. Basically, Bolt is a revamped model with a clear touch to customer support and affordability aimed at retaining the old Taxify glory amidst the crest of competition in Uganda.

According to the Bolt regional marketing lead Ms. Sarah Wakasa Wanyaga, the service rebranded in order to serve its customers better and the twist didn’t only tie to the Eastern coastal region, but in all zones where Bolt is present. Unlike before, new measures have been taken to make Bolt the best ride-hailing option in the region amidst the furious competition.

What we think about the whole new Taxify-Bolt switch

The ride-hailing industry is one that rides on price volumes, implying that the cheapest service gets more customers on the go. By the time Bolt unveiled its Boda hailing service to take on SafeBoda in Uganda, it offered ballistic discounts on all trips taken until it bowed to the cashless discounts camp that reacquired its position from former Taxify by making trips cheaper than ever before.

In the Taxi wing, Uber has struggled to keep its position in a market where Bolt is a tight contender and it’s by no doubt that the newly revamped service may redominate its former strong zone. In a like manner, the rebranding move was not a mistake, but we think its rather a second chance to reignite it’s position and shake things up in the ride-hailing jungle.

So! Forget Taxify in Uganda and welcome the new Bolt experience that aims at making this much faster as the name sounds. Hence, By adding an efficiency look to the app, we think Bolt’s new structure will implement the Mobile Money powered cashless movement that has so far been ignited by MTN’s OPEN Challenge in the front seat.

Taxify’s rebranding move comes at a time when we are not surprised by an inch but instead a tentative approval of our previous suspicion in one of our articles about the brand. Basically, the company has rebranded in a season where the pile of bad reviews have exceeded the maximum standards for a competing hailing firm like it is.

In Uganda, Taxify’s Boda hailing service dubbed Taxify Boda was one of the worst services cruising in the same league as SafeBoda and Uber Boda as ranked by the riders opting to ride with it. Initially, the motorbike service was a perfect couch for riders until complaints started flowing in about driver behavior and low customer care support. So, Taxify was simply seated on a time bomb that has exploded into a new brand name BOLT.

Why Taxify may have rebranded to Bolt

If you’re surprised to see Taxify rebranding to Bolt, then chances are you’ve had a flat out approach with the service on all trip hangouts. In some countries, Taxify is the unbeatable service beyond self, but in a majority of those it operates, the service seems to have got lost in the Uber dust making a new it necessary to shine back to life.

Although, competition could have flagged Taxify to a rebranding corner, In Uganda, several employees were laid off over driver-staff rants adding to the negative reviews ranking Taxify as the worst service one can ever opt for. Well, the mold seems to be ready and Bolt is a new name that is here to stay for a while.

So, Taxify is either shying away from its negative reviews and fully cleaning its messes by wearing a new scent or the ride-hailing giant was simply bought off provoking a change in the name and probably the colour may soon change as well. Nonetheless, are you excited about this switch? Or do you think Taxify will level its ground in Africa and do better with a new name than it ever done before? It’s all to us and we shall keep trailing every drop of the hailing service dotted square.