Remember when your parents fought, and they would each spoil you with goodies to win your love & loyalty?
Well, there’s some good old lesson to learn from that experience in dealing with our favorite e-hailing businesses.
Moving on, you can take advantage of the race to rideshare dominance between our favorite rideshare companies to massively reduce your cost & get freebies. After all, in any good old parent quarrel, the kids either get the redirected anger or “win your support” freebies. You’re lucky because in this case it’s the latter.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the e-hailing business in Nigeria is now a cut throat, competitive, dog-eat-dog world where prices have been on a downward spiral to the dismay of “some” but benefit of riders. Everyone knows, in any competitive environment, the consumers enjoy because of those two glorious words: “Lower Prices”.
If you’re like me, and you only whisper along with that line in Davido’s IF: “Thattyy Billion for the Akantty ooo…” Then you need to learn how to use this unique situation to your advantage. Not to worry, we’ve done some digging and we have some pro-tips for you:
#1 - Compare prices for Uber & Taxify directly on Lara.ng to get the lowest price for your trip! You know the drill. You need to get a ride, you pop open Uber, and price looks decent, you want to book it, but then you think, I wonder if Taxify has cheaper prices. I could check, but what if it’s not as good, and this wonderful Uber price changes to 1.8X surge pricing. Don’t want to risk it.
I know the feels. And we know just the thing to fix that.
Lara the chat-bot that’s been helping folks get around Lagos now has a feature that allows users compare Uber & Taxify prices, real time. So each time you need to take a ride, you can be confident you’re selecting the cheapest price available to you at that point in time.
It’s super simple to use. Have a go on Lara. Sample photo below shows the price compare.
Thank me later!
#2 - If you need to get a ride, start checking for prices at least 15-30 minutes before your departure time: This is a simple hack that makes all the difference! Most times when we book a ride on Uber or Taxify, we want a ride like 5 minutes ago. And that urgency sometimes causes us to accept surge pricing way above our comfort zone.
Here’s a simple pro-tip, pop open your preferred App of choice - Uber/Taxify, OR Lara to compare both - at least 15-30 minutes before you need to leave. Start checking out those prices at every 3-minutes interval. As the price continues to fluctuate, just wait till the right price “falls on you”
Once you get that low-price, book it fast!
Get that low-price all day! With a little pro-activeness, you can save a lot of money.
#3 - Referrals Referrals Referrals!! Here are a few examples:
Invite friends to Uber and get N500 off your next ride:
This stuff is easy, next time your older relative needs a ride somewhere, set them up on Uber, use your referral code.
Rewards for Loyalty: Get your 6th ride free on Uber for up to N3,000.
I know what you’re thinking, how will I get to 6 rides. I’ll tell you, remember that your unsuspecting relative that still needs a ride, well use your account to get them a ride, get a refund, and build your transaction history to that glorious free ride, repeat! Voila!!
#4: Follow your favorite Rideshare community for freebies
Rideshare companies invest a lot in retaining users on their platform. I guess you could say this in any competitive space, but it’s quite pronounced with rideshare companies in Lagos. Rideshare companies need you to be loyal. They want you to use their service and stay with them forever.
So, they give tons of freebies to followers on their social media handles.
Yup! You read that right, free rides on October 1st. I’m sure most of you missed that. Be sure not to next time. Get wind of all the freebies early by following Taxify, Uber and other ridesharing companies on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Hope this helps.
Happy savings!